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JAN WESNER CHILDSJeff Monsein took up painting for others after concluding "you can only paint your walls so many times."
NEW SUBURB BEAUTIFUL - For 15 years, Jeff Monsein sat behind a desk at the Diesel Institute of America in Ybor City.
Monsein never drove trucks. Instead, he ran the trucking school out of a tastefully decorated office.
He won't tell you that owning the business was boring. (He doesn't want to offend.) But he seems to cringe when talking about it.
You get the idea that his creative side was not having fun.
Today, Monsein, 44, paints walls - extravagant faux finishes and elaborate murals - in high-end homes across Tampa.
"I get to do something that makes people happy all the time," he said at his spacious home on Prospect Road in South Tampa.
His road to becoming an artist was a long haul.
First, he wanted to be a doctor. But after he graduated from the University of Florida in 1980 and didn't get into medical school, he went to work for his dad at the Diesel Institute of America in Maryland.
"He offered me a job at $5 an hour and a company car, and I thought I had it made," Monsein said.
Together, the father-son team opened two more schools, which teach people how to become truck drivers and diesel mechanics.
Monsein, who grew up in Miami Beach, struck out on his own a few years later and opened the Diesel Institute of America campus in Ybor City. At one point, when federal financial aid cuts threatened to put the school out of business, he considered going to law school.
The institute bounced back, and Monsein sold it in 1999, although he still owns the building on Seventh Avenue. He also owned a company called Reliability Staffing, which he recently sold.
Monsein retired and decided to pursue painting, a longtime passion. He didn't worry about making money.
"I just said to my wife one day, "I'm going to go out and I'm going to start painting other people's homes,' " he said.
"You can only paint your walls so many times. I think I've done the dining room 10 times."
He started his business, Splat Paint, four years ago. He never went to art school but always had a knack for drawing and painting.
His job is an intimate one, and he becomes friends with many of his clients.
One of them, Kim McGanty, laughs when she hears that Monsein once owned a trucking school. She knows Monsein as an "experimental, fun-loving" artist.
McGanty met him last year when a friend recommended him to fix a broken 50-pound bronze sculpture of two horses.
Three weeks later, she got the sculpture back, in perfect condition. Monsein had matched the bronze patina with paint to cover up the cracks where he had pieced it back together.
"It was brilliant," McGanty said.
More recently, Monsein spent six days creating a dramatic six-layered faux finish in the dining room of the home McGanty and her fiance, Outback executive Tim Gannon, share in Beach Park.
"The best thing about my job is obviously meeting the people," Monsein said. "The second best part, or equally best part, is that I constantly complete projects. I constantly get that feeling of satisfaction."
He takes pride in learning a little about each person he meets.
"Most people like to talk about themselves," he said. "And so do I."
Monsein met his wife, Michelle, 20 years ago in a bar in Washington, D.C.
"After about three weeks, we immediately knew we were madly in love with each other and then we broke up," Monsein remembers, laughing. "We were just so young, it was freaky."
They dated off and on for five years before marrying. They now have two children, ages 14 and 11, who are budding artists.
Monsein's wife said her husband is unusual in that he's creative yet business savvy. He's tireless in his work, she said, and one day would like to combine his talents to open an art school in Tampa.
"He never sits," she said.
Monsein works out of a studio and garage behind his house. The work desk and shelves of paint share the space with a shiny 1930 Model A, a Vespa Italian motor scooter and a chair he started painting years ago but never finished. (His ordinary Toyota Highlander sits outside in the circular driveway.)
Monsein spent Father's Day painting a tropical-themed mural on the garage wall - a practice run for one he's doing for a client.
Tropical themes run through much of his work, as do Old World Tuscan styles - dark patinas and metallic glazes. He painted his son's bedroom to look like a log cabin. The walls of his master bath look like marble tiles. His children's play room is flamingo pink and hot turquoise - more reminiscent of Miami Vice than Michelangelo.
His dream is to paint an embassy building in Washington, D.C. Maybe the Indian embassy, or one from a Middle Eastern country. He would like to do restorative work, or paint the walls to look aged and elegant, like they came from the embassy's native country.
Why an embassy?
"It just seems like it would be possible, vs. working in a palace," he said. "It's a little bit political, it's a little bit international.
"I just think it would be cool."
Jeff MonseinOCCUPATION: Owner, Splat Paint.
FAMILY: Wife, Michelle; daughter, Jillian, 14; son Tyler, 11.
HOBBIES: Gardening, yoga, home improvement.
FAVORITE PAINTERS: Michelangelo, Van Gogh.
TOYS: 1930 Model A, Vespa Italian motor scooter.
COLLEGE MAJOR: Chemistry.
HOMETOWN: Miami Beach.
FOR INFO: www.splatpaint.com