Folks Of Interest Kulture Artist Sonny DePalma RIP

What I've shared with you in photos here hardly scratches the surface of Sonny's work over the years. The incredible choppers and motorcycles he has painted, dozens of personal projects, and a zillion VW hoods he has painted of late. The list goes on and on.... Hope you enjoy his work as much as I have all these years...

 

I hate hearing this,...his artwork is awesome.....he definitely will be missed...truly inspirational......R.I.P. Sonny....

 

Im still in a state of shock, i have cried, recounted the good times and the advise he always gave me.
Sonny will be missed by me,
his car club,
the HAMB and the world over.
He made an impact on my life personally, as an artist incredible, as a human being non nicer!
I will really miss stopping by his house and chatting it up for hours, him showing me the latest artwork, and trust me it was very difficult not to take a pic and post it, but i was sworn to secrecy, and i kept it.
On saturdays we would meet at the local cruise and make fun of gold chainers and bench race, have a burger and chat it up some more...
If you would like to see him in action look for Chopper Build Off, the Eddie Trotta Thunder Cycles vs. DON'T REMEMBER..But you can see him putting 400 skulls on a chopper.
I WILL MISS YOU SO MUCH, See you up there sometime.
Sonny R.I.P Brother!

 

Here's one of his skull bikes...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCS7V2SjWFM

 

And heres Sonny, although this isn't in English for some wierd reason!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEOk_RjKskE

 

I got this 1/8 Tall T form a friend, Sonny did the art work. I guess it will be a tribute build now. RIP Sonny.

 

Very sad news. Truly a great loss of pure talent. He will be missed.

Vaya con Dios Amigo..........E

 

Thanks for posting so many examples of Sonny's work Finktim. Sonny's work is the stuff we all really dug as kids but executed with the high level of talent none of us had back then. He took what we all thought we were doing to whole new level - plus did it with so many skills - airbrush, pinstripe, characters, girls, lettering. I wish I knew him. What were all those models made out of - modeling clay? I saw something posted a year ago and assumed they were existing kits painted by him. These pictures look more original than that.

 

Sonny was a dear friend for over 40 years.....
He will be greatly missed!

 

R.I.P. Sonny

 

What an incredible loss, of a very talented artistic legend. R.I.P.

 

here's my story of meeting Sonny . it was the 1st Billetproof at Big Daddy's and i am talking about buying some of Sonny's good at his booth. Here goes Big Daddy Don Garlit's riding his bicycle through the show . I ask Sonny if i can grab a poster real quick run over to big daddy and get him to sign it then come back and pay for it and get Sonny to sign it. Sure go for it ,i"ll be here he says. Well i walk over to Big Daddy and ask for his autogragh while saying how great it is having a show like this here.Well while signing the poster he proceeds to rip me a new asshole for asking for his autograph, honest my friend recorded it on video and we got pics also.Well after he's finished i go back to Sonny and we had a good laugh about it. Still got that framed poster of FINKY"S garage hanging in my office GODSPEED SONNY

 

Sonny made all of those little monsters out of "Sculpee" baking clay, all one of a kind. A lot of the other things like Franky/Bride, Creature/girl, and the Roth t-shirt inspired cars and monsters were rare resin cast kits, many "garage" kits not licensed and hard to find! And then there was his mastery at "kitbashing" model kits, combining parts from various kits with resin bodies to create one-of-a-kind model art. Honestly, this stuff belongs in a museum it is so damned cool. He was on the level of his own.

This was one of the first pieces of his I saw way back, and I just loved it. I had the kit in my attic, and immediately fired into building it I was so stoked! I later found out he tore it apart for parts!! LOL!!



This is one of those rare resin casts in progress:



His inspiration got me to build this! I fell for the large scale stuff after that!

 

My site has had 11,500 hits this month, and 5500 were in the last 3 days since I opened Sonny's photo gallery!! He had 4400 friends on Facebook, and there were literally hundreds of posts from all over the world in his remembrance. We could only hope to leave our own mark on the population.

http://ratdaddystudios.smugmug.com/My-Photography/Tribute-to-Sonny-DePalma

 

I first learned of Sonny only a few years ago, and was blown away by his work. Sad to find this thread. Rest in peace Sonny.

 

A memorial service for Sonny will be held this Saturday November 30 at 1pm. The service will be held at Palms West Funeral Home in Royal Palm Beach, Fl. Lots of Hot Rods, Kustoms, and bikes will be there. If you come out, bring yours.

Palms West Funeral Home
110 Business Park Way
Royal Palm Beach, Fl 33411
561-753-6004


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Thanx for the page! I hope you don't mind I put the link on my Facebook page for his fans there.

 

Very sad news....

 

Very sad to hear this. Never met the dude but was always in awe of his talent. May have to wear the T shirt I got from him today in tribute.
My condolences all who were close to him.

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Absolutely not Mike! That's great! I just added over 100 pictures again tonight!

 

I am shocked. His artwork was unbelievable. "PMed" with him recently here at the HAMB, must have been a nice guy.
RIP

 

Finktim
Thank you for the pics on the link very very great tribute to a larger
than life friend
I still can't wrap my head around his passing..

 

Very sorry to hear. Prayers for family and friends. Always enjoyed seeing his work.


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Bump

 

Thanks to all who posted here. Sonny had been helping me with photos of his art for my latest book. I hadn't heard from him in a while, then just stumbled across this post today. He never mentioned all of the different things he did, so I didn't know the true breadth of his talent until seeing this post. Wow...

Thanks again, and my best to the DePalma family.

Scotty

 

A man of incredible talent, such a loss. My heart goes out to the DePalma family. Godspeed, Sonny, Godspeed...................

 

May you rest in peace "Sonny" My prayers go out to the DePalma Family.....

 

Wow kool stuff is any for sale ?? i like the black car with flames and the monster coming out the roof ..

R.I.P. Sonny DePalma

 

Check out what I’m up to right now as a tribute to Sonny !