Posts Tagged ‘ skateboard ’
In June I was part of the 10th year of The Outpost’s I Used To Skate Once exhibition. This was my contribution to that show. I was asked a few times if the words on the deck were laser-cut. No, they were all hand carved by me. Still I took the question as a compliment.
If you look for any kind of meaning in my (carved) thoughts, it’s that you can’t always take life to seriously… remember to go outside and play, enjoy and have some fun.
Skateboard decks – a popular canvas for people to decorate, paint, design or simply draw upon. It was my good friend Matt Brady who I can thank for helping get me into decorating skateboard decks as much as making woodcuts. Long before I got a handle on relief printing as an artistic medium I was experimenting on carving decks. The above photo has at the top the second ever woodcut I tried back in May 2008 and at the bottom the latest one I carved last week – both went a new home at True North in Melbourne last week.
Not carved as a printing matrix but as I sculpted illustration. I have to admit I do not really enjoy illustrating decks. The wood is so hard it hurts my hands (treated Canadian Maple), the wood surface is convex which makes correctly angling the carving blade tricky. Still they look really cool and while I repeatedly tell myself upon finishing a deck that it will be my last, I keep coming back to do more. I love the True North deck above. Like old-school tattoo flash with the tinted woodgrain showing up through the white inked surface.
I have only just by writing this post realised that I have actually done ten decks to date. I can’t help but think that deck No.11 probably isn’t far off…
So my band No Anchor are playing one more show here in Brisbane before we go on something of an extended break – an indefinite hiatus if you will. Our show which is this weekend is with a Melbourne named Clowns who are definitly in the skate-punk vein of music. Now while No Anchor might not work under that genre title I figured I would make something cool as a parting gift to the folks (well one lucky punter) who come to the show as well as something fun for the night.
So I actually have some old boards that I reclaimed a while back. I set about sanding off the old decal on the deck and even had to pause cause I thought it looked cool just as it was.
Then I used some of my favourite artwork associated with the band, the logo designed by Murdoch Stafford alongside the cover image from our third album Real Pain Supernova. Now I hate carving modern skateboards – mainly because it is not a flat surface which adds a greater chance to screw it up as well as the 7-ply maple wood being as tough as nails to carve into.
…but a day or two of carving and there you have it!
Because I mainly just use what is around me to make something, I used my mat black printing ink to cover the board and then coated it with a sealant.
I think it turned out great. The purple dye of the woodgrain came up really well under the black coating.
And for one little extra I decided to put the headstocks of my bandmates instruments into the griptape. It is common to make a marking to help identify the top and the bottom of the board and because No Anchor has two bass players I thought it appropriate to use Ian’s Rickenbacker and Donnie’s Peavy.
This is the 8th skateboard I have customised and my only wish is that the person who wins it at the show on Saturday actually skates it and scratched the hell out of it. As much as it’s art – to me it’s a skateboard and I hope it is treated like one!
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Against the grain 