10-4 Magazine June 2024

32 10-4 Magazine / June 2024 Turning your passion into a career is not for the faint of heart! It takes drive, hard work, determination, some grace, and a lot of grit. Upon meeting Brittnea “Lady Lines” Barnes (32), owner of Lady Lines Pinstriping, for the first time after seeing her work, grit is one thing I knew she possessed. With that grit, she encompasses grace – in her work, her presentation, and in her personality. For those unsure of its meaning, grit is having an indomitable spirit, and a drive for achievement regardless of the upbringing or situation. It is earning the success in the trenches through hard work. Those who have grit, have the drive and passion for something so great it sees them through the struggles, trials, and tribulations. Brittnea’s parents met by chance, considering they lived in two different states. Her dad, who was born and raised in Louisiana, went up to Washington for work at one point, and met her mother. They ended up getting married and then stayed in Washington. Growing up with her parents and her three siblings in Washington, life mostly revolved around hot rods for Brittnea. She had attended plenty of car shows, hot rod related events, and her father even started a hot rod shop of his own. Over the years, she grew a love and fascination with the pinstriping she would see. Sometimes it isn’t about us finding a chosen path – sometimes it is someone seeing something in us we weren’t aware of. Such is the case when a family friend who had a bunch of cars, went along with her father, and gave Brittnea her first brush and can of paint in 2007. He told her to start practicing, because that “bunch of cars” he had needed pinstriping. The first car show Brittnea was able to pinstripe at was the 2008 Good Guys Car Show and Panel Jam at the show’s location in Puyallup, WA. A panel jam is where artists come together to paint custom pinstriped pieces. For Brittnea, it was the opportunity to practice alongside some amazing artists. Back around the summer of 2003 she made a trip to Louisiana with her Mimi and Papa (her grandparents on her dad’s side), which happened to be the same trip where she met her future husband, Cameron. She decided that she was going to move to Louisiana when she got older, and she did just that in 2011. Her three siblings also moved down there, and about eight years ago, her parents decided since the kids moved, they would, too. The Diesel Addict: By Stephanie Haas Something she attends every year in October is the Cruisin The Coast event in Biloxi, MS which is the home of the world’s largest cruise. Brittnea said just in registration alone, not counting the total of vehicles actually present, there were over 10,000. While in attendance, Brittnea is busy for ten days straight, pinstriping vehicles at this event. Where did pinstriping semi-trucks start? After the October 2020 Cruisin The Coast, Lindsey Stout had been scrolling through the posts on the event’s Facebook page and came upon a post where Brittnea was tagged pinstriping. Lindsey contacted her on Messenger stating her husband Dustin had always wanted his truck pinstriped. His Peterbilt was the first big truck she pinstriped on November 14, 2020. Six days later, she quit her two jobs and went full force into scheduling and pinstriping full time. GRI T AND GRACE