Browsing “Illustration”

I’m super excited to announce Booze, Dudes and Bears, a new zine of drawings, to be published with the help of the awesome folks at The Secret Headquarters. We’re going to debut it for the LA Zine Fest Feb. 19th alongside Nick Thorburn’s new zine What A Gas.

I’m really stoked on the Allister Lee x ATLAS decks.  Each of the two decks in this artist series is signed and numbered in an edition of 50 and comes with an original piece of art, shrink-wrapped with each deck.  Get them at Atlas Skateboarding in San Mateo and check-out the fine installation that Allister and the Atlas crew setup in their shop. Up until March 12, 2012.  Mahalo to Allister and to Ryen, Mike and Nick at ATLAS! 

ATLAS SKATEBOARDING
209 2nd Ave.
San Mateo, CA 94401
Tel: 650.401.7110

Decks are also available at Equal Dist., where you’ll find Allister Lee’s infamous 500 Marker Poster as well as original artwork inspired by his love and expertise in the dark-arts.

Talk about a well-curated skateboard shop…!  Allister Lee also designed the ATLAS shop-decks shown below. 

Fresh paint for 2012!
www.nonstndrd.com 

Fellow Mumbler, Don Pendleton did a series for Stereo that will be in shops soon. If you’re any sort of fan of Don or Stereo, you know how awesome these are. Nice one Don. Stereo’s full Spring ’12 catalog.

Dreamland, an Exhibition of Artworks by Claudio Kirac.

‘Dreamland’ revolves around two key themes; the thrill of travel and the longing for home. While ‘on the road’ for periods at a time, and mostly without the leisure one would assume with travel or ‘holidays’, Claudio grasps the moments around him; wholly embracing local cultures and traditions, venturing ‘off the beaten path’ and stepping outside the comforts of everyday life. While befriending strangers and capturing those special moments one only encounters on ‘the journey’, work and play blur into one. Soon comes the challenge of missing the familiarity of home, the everyday norm, the common voices of close friends and the touch of a loved one. But it is this that makes us appreciate the everyday and helps restore our balance and soon we are home again where we can reflect on the journey and the places that became home for those moments in time. The works of ‘Dreamland’ express and investigate many of these notions.

Feb 23rd – March 6th 2012
Comb Space Gallery
Kirra Point, 23 McLean St, Coolangatta, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.

I had loosely suspected it before. It became really obvious when I started working on curating the board exhibit for that one show in Paris last summer: in 2011, there aren’t that many skateboard graphics that have something to say. I mean, by “newer” artists -which immediately sets asides the Templetons, Eli Gesners, Mike Hills, Todd Francises, Clivers, McKees and Aly Moores of Droorstalgic times past.
Not to tout the expired stale fart trumpet again, but my theme being called Agents Provocateurs -a journey through offensive/political board graphics- I sadly only had a couple names in mind when time came not to make this an all-90s board exhibit.
Thanks lil’ Baby Jesus though, there’s still a handful of artists who still carry the maculate torch today. Among the Siebens, the Winston Tsengs (enjoi) and the Whoever-thinks-of-these-sick-Skatementals-concepts, Ben Horton has remained one of my personal faves since he launched $LAVE Skateboards.  The brilliance of it all, the video, Ben Raybourn : the guy behind it had to be a Midas of sorts, I thought.  Well, he is. But he’ll never admit it. Enjoy his interview over at Memory Screened.

On the rare and condemned practice of trying to suckle on one’s own tail

Here’s some new drawings I’ve done, some of which are inspired by ouroboros, some by saxophone playing, and some by well . . . I think you can figure that part out. 

Again on the forbidden and shunned practice of suckling on one’s own tail

A scene in which a merman practice the forbidden and shunned practice of reverse suckling

John Freeborn has just released Random Zine #10, with a bit of a twist, this is the first time he’s releasing this zine as an iBook only.

Along with 19 other artists, he kindly asked me to participate in this issue. I submitted one piece, which I would call pretty random for me, it was fun! 100 pages with artwork by (in order of appearance) Hershel Baltrotsky, Sonia Yoon, Clint Woodside, Ryan Wallace, Rich Jacobs, Jim Houser, Kendrick Shackleford, Tom Maher, Ben Horton, Eric McDade, Chris Sembrot, Joseph Hart, Matt Sohl, Dave Delaney, Sam Croswell, Carlos Miaco, Matt Curtius, Amy S. Kauffman and Jordin Isip.

It’s only $.99 in the apple iBook store, click here to get it!

Here is a “Behind The Seams” video that I shot with my wife, Amber B. In it she walks you through the process of creating the stop-motion animation in the Eden video, piece by piece.

Amber and I co-directed the video, which tells the story of Element Eden. The project was a fun break from skate videos, and an opportunity to work together on something creative. I’m really looking forward to see where Amber takes her new found passion for animation and filmmaking.

To view the Eden video, click here. And for an in-depth article, click here.

John Fellows x 303 Board Graphic

I noticed that 303 Boards (http://303boards.com/) here in Denver released the graphic I made just in time for the Holidays. Printed in a limited edition right here in the good ol’ USA! I wanted to try and create something totally different from what I was seeing out in the shops and also use the whole board as a canvas and not just between the trucks. I know I’m guilty of slacking off here and there (especially this time of year) so “Work Hard” and “Stay True” are some good words to live by. If you swing over to 303, make sure to check out the other artist collaboration boards they have. There are definitely some good ones.