Retired Soldier transforms ammo cans into artwork

Passing the single-car garage you’d never guess who was hanging out in there.

Lamar Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Michael Jackson, Martin Luther King, Tupac Shakur and John Lewis are all gathered in a garage built on a former cottonfield in Harvest.

The artwork collection of these pop-culture personalities sprung out of the mind of Toni Graves, a “logistical guy,” who retired as a chief warrant officer two and came to Huntsville after 20 years in the Army.

“I’d been in the Army for 20 years. When I retired, I came down here to Harvest to come here and find a job,” he said.

So why does a self-proclaimed logistical guy have a man-cave filled with artwork ranging from pastel paintings of superstars to athletes painted on used ammo cans?

It all started in Burlington, North Carolina, about 50 years ago.

“I was one of those kids that, when it was time to draw, my drawings were always better than everyone else’s,” Graves said in his garage-turned-art studio. “So, I said, ‘then I guess that’s what my calling is.’ I knew I was an artist from the early stages.

“I took some art lessons from this one art teacher, Carolyn Short. She wanted me to take art lessons, but mom couldn’t afford them. Ms. Short said ‘Don’t worry, I’ve seen his work, he has talent. I’d like to teach him and work with him.’”

Graves sold his first painting when he was in middle school in North Carolina.

“I did a Michael Jackson album cover, just for myself to get it framed,” Graves said. “My first Michael Jackson album cover was done in pastel chalk. While it was at the frame shop somebody saw it. The frame shop called and said, ‘someone wants to buy your painting.’

“I might have sold it for $150. That, right there, got the art bug started in me. I always liked to draw, but from that time on it just happened.

“As years went by, I was watching other artists. If I knew somebody, I would go watch them work,” Graves said. “One of my school mates, his dad airbrushed. I used to go to his shop when we went to the local strip mall. I could sit and watch him make his art.”

Graves went to school at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke but graduated and started working in logistics. He never got an art degree, but he did join the Army.

“I was never introduced to ammo cans until the military,” Graves said. “Everybody that’s in the military knows what an ammo can is, not just the Army but all the branches.

“So, with the ammo cans, I use these markers, or airbrush or sometimes these acrylic markers. Some of it’s drawn and some of it is airbrushed. I try to paint the whole ammo can so someone can see something from every angle.

“Almost every time I do one, they’re gone,” Graves said. “Because I’m doing it for people calling now. It’s not just for the military. But you can use it for so many things. You can take one of those and you can put a Styrofoam insert so it will fit a certain weapon and you can put a lock on it, and it’s a lock box. You can make cigar humidors, radio cases and other things.”

“A lady called me once and said my pet passed away and wanted to use it as an urn,” he recalled. “I put the dog’s image on one side and put the dates on the other side.

“We’ve got a repurposed ammo can, we’re reducing its carbon footprint because there are so many ammo cans out there that can be reused

“From start to finish, I can probably get through an ammo box in 10 hours,” he said. “The work is getting the ammo box ready to paint, prepping it, roughing up the ammo box, and cleaning it up. But I found out if you do the prepping part right, the artwork turns out right.

“The art part is the fun part.”