Steve Barba

Steve Barba



Steve was born in Toledo Ohio in 1961, and has always had a passion for art and aircraft.  Growing up around Lake Erie in the 60's and 70's, Island Airlines owned and operated 3 Ford Trimotor's to ferry people back and forth between Port Clinton and Put-In-Bay.  Steve's first flight  at age 9 was in one the Trimotor's.  Steve says the flight is as clear a memory as it was back then.  In school, Steve had two friends that were always drawing something, so it became a sort of  competition between the 3 boys to out do one another.  "Those two guys were better at drawing than I was, so I always had to push myself"

In 1981, Steve joined the US Air Force, and became a B-52H Crew Chief with the 28th Organizational Maintenance Squadron based at Ellsworth AFB, SD.  It was here that Steve started to understand the bond that mechanics have with their aircraft.  "Nose arts were not permitted in the early eighty's, so I would paint murals in the hangars for different squadrons"  The Air Force started permitting nose arts again with the arrival of the B-1B to Ellsworth.  "I was assigned to the 99th Maintenance Squadron at that time, which dealt with B-52's for the weapons school, so I didn't have any contact with the B-1's"  In 1995, the 99th was disbanded and Steve was assigned to the 37th Maintenance Squadron as a B-1B Crew Chief. 

"The squadron had a nose art painter, Jeff Wall, so I wasn't going to try and "horn in" on his gig, but, I already had plans of painting the nose art on my jet"  As it turned out, Jeff received orders to another base, so Steve went to his boss, with his portfolio, and asked if he could paint the next nose art.  They agreed that he could paint one, so as Steve puts it, "If I painted one B-1, I would still have bragging rights"

"The first nose art I painted was on Aircraft 6099, "Iron Eagle",  "I was pretty nervous, because not only the Crew Chief would see the art, but the entire flightline, and none of them are very shy about they're opinions"  It must have turned out OK, because over the next 6 years Steve painted 19 nose arts for the 37th, 34th and 77th Maintenance Squadrons.

After Steve retired from the Air Force in 2001, he continued to work with the squadrons and produce nose arts for them.  To date Steve has created 47 nose arts on the B-1B's, and is the only artist in the country to have painted on that many modern USAF aircraft.

Steve resides in Sturgis SD with his wife Kristy and his 3 children.

www.thunderbolt-gallery.com/

Steve Barba