When Texas Became Original
The first time I took my wife, Kate, (she was my girlfriend at the time), to visit my family in East Texas, I took her for a drive on the backroads of the Piney East Texas Woods to see the home and property where I grew up. Being from California, Kate was familiar with the tall Redwoods of the West Coast and the National Forests of the SoCal mountains but had yet to experience anything like what the deep woods of East Texas had to offer.
Her ideas of Texas stemmed from the classic John Wayne western movies where the state was portrayed as dusty, dry, hot, and flat. From my perspective as a native Texan, she could have not been farther from the truth! Every region of Texas hosts its own unique personalities, people, and traditions. Whether it be the rivers in the Hill Country, to the Piney Woods of East Texas, to the plains of West Texas, and the mountainous region of Big Bend, each area combines collectively to define everything that is "Texas culture".
As we drove down the winding blacktops the sun peeked through the canopy of trees and seemed to engulf us as we traveled along. One could only imagine the tribes of Caddo Native Americans that used to roam the creeks and woods of East Texas and the early American settlers who navigated their wagon trains in hopes of new life on the untamed frontier.
As we rounded a corner reminiscing about these historic events, Kate excitedly exclaimed, "Slow down"! She had spotted an old logging truck that had been parked in the woods for as long as I could remember. Rusty, mossy, and rotting away in the elements, this truck was more than likely from the Texas logging boom in the early 1920s.
While dating Kate, I learned that she carried a sketchbook with her on every road trip for moments such as this. I pulled over next to the truck and she quickly sketched the old truck and we moved on about our way.
Fast forward a couple of years and numerous trips back to East Texas, I never really thought much more of the old truck we saw sitting in the woods. I had since changed my Instagram handle to @texasoriginal64 (and has remained this since), which unbeknownst to me, had inspired Kate to create a very special custom painting of the rusty truck as a Valentine's Day gift for me.
The painting she had created was perfect. The vibrant colors combined with the trees growing through the rusty old relic captured everything Texas is known for. They mimicked the greens of East Texas, the oranges found in the sunsets of the panhandle, the turquoise water of the coast, the rolling hills of the Hill Country, and the big blue skies of our great state. Best of all, in red, white, and blue pinstriping (the colors of our great State Flag), where the hand-painted words, "Texas Original".
After receiving this badass gift, I continually joked about starting a car club called the "Texas Originals", but at the time, I never really knew enough guys/gals in the car scene. (Looking back now, I totally did! Hindsight right??).
Today, Kate is now my wife of almost 5 years! She has since opened her own full-time custom art business, Asphalt Canvas Custom Art. Her business has granted us the opportunity to
travel and meet new people, as well as experience all kinds of different adventures. Recently, I've even taught myself how to digitize her hand-painted artwork to assist her in creating merchandise for her art studio. After I learned enough to create some of her more simplistic designs, I decided to venture into creating shirts and merchandise under a different brand of my own.
"Texas Original Designs" was then born with the intent to create original, vintage, hotrod-inspired t-shirts designed to sell through my online Society6 store. Kate and I started talking about curating a new blog that would highlight the merchandise I was creating. As our idea lists grew for blog posts centered around Texas culture, before I knew it, Texas Original Kulture was formed!
Texas Original Kulture will invite you into the Kulture of Texas. Whether it be a local hot rod builder, barber, Bar-B-Que legend, or even a local farmer, their mostly true stories will define what Texas Orginal Kulture is to them. Not only will we be featuring people, but we will also document the awesome and legendary places of Texas you always hear about but have never been to.
Everything about Texas Original Kulture fell together perfectly and quickly. So quickly, in fact, the beginning of a new website and blog began almost overnight. It's my pleasure to invite you to sign up for the Texas Orgina Kulture Blog to become a "Texas Original" yourself!
Click the button above to join and become a Texas Original for exclusive Texas Kulture content!! Simply click "Login" to create a new account if you are on your computer, or tap the menu button in the top left corner if you are on your mobile device to log in or create your account!
Also, remember to sign up for my newsletter to stay in the know when new blog posts and merchandise are released!
I can't explain to you how excited I am to share the journey that is the Texas Original Kulture.
Morgan
Owner/Curator
Texas Original Kulture
