First of all and possibly the most obvious influence is the actual artwork and creative work that skateboarding is soaked in. From deck graphics to t-shirts, magazine pages to skate videos, art and design are critical and inseparable threads that weave themselves strongly throughout the culture. I remember as a little kid going into Projekts skate shop in manchester to choose my first 'real' set up, having the freedom of looking up at the wall full of unique and beautiful graphics and being able to pick the deck that I wanted. I remember that exact deck as well and turns out it was hand illustrated. It was made by a company called Distance, (which I must say was totally irrelevant to me at that time, I just wanted one that looked good) and it had a grey wallpaper background, a repeated pattern of diamond shapes, and then it had a hand-drawing of an old red telephone in the middle, the numbers replaced with letters spelling out the company name. Admittedly I perhaps wouldn't pick the same one now if I had the choice, but at the time that graphic was just so cool to me and I truly believe that the fact that it was hand illustrated really played a part in why. Even before this experience, I was drawing skateboard graphics, designing my own boards clad with guitars, flames and corporate branding...
And today, the creative works of skateboarders and companies continue to inspire and influence my creative practice. One of an example of this I always come back to is the illustration work of Soy Panday, a founder and the creative brains behind French skateboard/apparel company Magenta. A lot of his work commonly consists of black line drawings, often portraits, animals and objects, coupled with drawn shapes or patterns in a different colour, usually a muted blue or shade of yellow. I think looking at his work it is apparent that his style of work influences mine.
Soy's Work
My Work
However, skateboarding's impact on my life and creativity goes way beyond the visuals that come with it. The actual act of it is inherently creative, the way you push down an open street even is a creative and expressive act. And this process is similar to that of drawing or image making; taking a medium, responding to your environment for inspiration, using your surroundings as a resource, and making something visual that didn't previously exist. And just as every drawing is unique and different, every trick is different, each and every time. No two drawings are ever the same and that applies to skateboarding too.
The way skateboarding influences your every day is also similar to how drawing and image making does, and many lessons can be learnt from one activity and applied to the other. Both demand you to be constantly observant, to take in details and continually scan for inspiration and material to respond to and use. Both can be immensely frustrating and stressful when they don't work out how you want, both are absolutely a labour of love, where most of the time is spent failing and getting it wrong. There is something that unites throwing yourself down a set of stairs for hours on end and trying to draw something difficult, having to redraw, rub out, go over and tear your hair out before getting down an image you're actually happy with. And even when you do land something, or create a drawing that 'works', you can still see infinite ways that it could be improved and made better next time.
And no matter how frustrating both of them get to me, I would find it impossible to quit either for good, I could never stop drawing or skateboarding for the rest of my life. Once it has you, you're in it for good. You're always a skateboarder as much as you are always an image maker.
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