The project is the first from a partnership between Airstream Trailers and Rockerbuilt, a metal fabrication shop in the Portland neighborhood.
Local business Please & Thank You’s trailer was bare and empty a few days ago.
“Doing these is not that easy because it’s basically trying to decorate the inside of an egg. Everything is in the round and crooked,” said Rockerbuilt co-owner Brad White.
Transforming things is a challenge White is always up for.
White won a drawing contest in the first grade and has been designing and transforming things since.
“It just kind of snowballed. It was something I was always doing,” White said.
In 2000, art shows brought together White and Andy Cook, another artist.
In 2017, they teamed up and started a metal fabrication business.
“We all had these unique skill sets from just making a living over the years and everybody had different things they were good at,” White said.
Making art is just one shared hobby. Making beats is another.
“My grandma would always talk to me about how different things sounded differently and when you hit it in a different spot how it would still sound different on that same thing and so no wonder why I kind of grew up to become a drummer,” said Cook, Rockerbuilt’s other co-owner.
That’s how the drummers got the name Rockerbuilt for their business.
The Rockerbuilt team includes other music and visual artists.
“Part of what we allow is their freedom to pick up and go on tour for three months during the summer if that’s when the festival season is or whatever, and have a job to come back to,” White said.
For White and Cook, it’s not just about building custom products and creating a space for artists. It’s also about building the Portland community.
The owners say Rockerbuilt has attracted new traffic and nightlife in the Portland community.
“I feel like we’re giving the people that are scared of Portland a reason to come into Portland and it might give them a different idea of what Portland really is because it is a beautiful place and it’s—it’s not just some of the homeless people that you see walking around. There’s lots of good families here,” Cook said.
They also work to inspire other artists to chase their dreams.
Keep an eye out for their trailer on Saturday at Waterfront Park. Please & Thank You will sell cookies and coffee from it during Thunder Over Louisville.