Signs of the Times

Just got back from a two-week trip to Troncones, Mexico. Reviewing the pictures, this one really stood out. The one on the left is the sign I duct-taped to the fence outside our house early in the morning after my little boy struggled through a sleepless night, letting the other surfers in our "band of bachelor partiers" know that I'd have to take a morning off. I honestly think the reason he couldn't sleep was because the swell spiked that night and the explosions of the crashing waves kept him awake. I know those bombs going off made me a little restless.

The one on the right is the painting we worked on together that day. Sort of says a lot about how my life has changed from the old surfari days. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Pictures of People I Don't Know

Todd

KEVIN LYONS

See more here.

I WON THE PISSING CONTEST

Drawing I made a while ago. As relevant to surfing, I guess, as any other activity that a bunch of guys are involved in.

P.S. I've never run into the pissing contest mentality with girls. At least not in surfing.

SWIFT MOVEMENT...

...of a different kind. Mural for Swift Collective completed yesterday based on the amazing Vaux Swifts of Chapman Elementarty School here in Portland, Oregon.

My iPhone didn't do the greatest job picking up these little guys as they swooped into the chimney, but I liked the way Horse Feathers' music sounded with it. You can see a better video of the phenomenon here.

Gringo Mask, El Salvador 2009

A drawing I did in Las Flores between sessions. Stranger in a strange and wonderful land.

Sketchy

This one's called Pulse. I'm not sure if it's really done yet.

High School Surf Art

I've been hanging out in my hometown of Ashland, Oregon for the past week, celebrating the 4th and chilling with my family. It's been a great time. Tonight I uncovered some artwork from my freshman year in high school. As you can probably tell by who my heroes were — and the color of their wetsuits — this stuff's about 20 years old. Most everything I created that year were detailed reproductions of what I saw in surf mags. I studied each magazine meticulously and dreamed of the day when I could surf more often. I guess I haven't changed all that much.

MATTSON FAMILY ART BENEFIT FRIDAY

A few months ago I posted about this art show coming up to help the Mattson family with some heavy-duty medical bills. Well, the big night's finally here. I didn't really know who was going to be involved when Jair Bortoleto asked me to hook up with Jamie "Pinapple Luv" Watson to donate something, but because my family's been through similar circumstances, I really wanted to help out. Now I look at the list below and am totally blown away by all the cool people that gave a piece of their artwork to the cause.

Featured Artists:
Alberto Cuadros, Andrew Paynter, Andy Davis, Candace Anderson, Chivo, Ciro Bicudo, David Hanson, Droog79, Dustin Ortiz, Ed Fladung, Frank Cubillos, Heather Brown, Jair Bortoleto, Jamie Watson, Jay Watson, Jenny McGee Dougherty, Jessica Nichols, John Zane Zappas, Joseph Conway, Julie Goldstein, Justin Furniss, Kassia Meador, Katrine Hildebrandt, Kieron ‘Seamouse’ Lewis, Kim Nguyen, Kyle Lightner, Lindsay Preston, Liz Cockrum, Luke Taaffe, Maggie Marsek, Meegan Feori, Michael Singman-Aste, Peter Jackson Hussey, Peter McBride, Renata Morrone, Rick Albano, Ryan Tatar, Serena Mitnik-Miller, Scott Massey, Scott Szegeski, Ted ‘Clayfin’ Gallup, Theo Hetherington, Thomas Campbell, Tiffany Campbell, Todd Stewart, Troy Dockins, Ty Williams and Yusuke Hanai.

Mattson Family Art Benefit

Friday, June 26 - one night only!

Surfindian
4658 Mission Blvd., Pacific Beach, California
858.412.5334

Music by the Mattson 2

 with special guest Ray Barbee!

Silent Auction 7pm - 9pm

Art to be "in hand" to winning bidder by 9:30pm


100% of the proceeds will go to the Mattson family.

$5 suggested donation at the door





Surfindian is a constantly evolving art project and retail store focused on the art of surfing. Surfindian features surf-themed art, apparel, film, books, and jewelry, as well as fine hand-shaped surfboards, fins and other surfing accessories. Surfindian is located at 4658 Mission Boulevard, in the heart of Pacific Beach, California. The store phone number is 858.412.5334. For directions and other information, please visit www.surfindian.com, and follow the link to the blog.

Wanna see what I donated (and some more of my scribbles)?

R.A.D!

The Red Rider

I can dream.

Painting for the Mattson Family Benefit Art Show

Here's my finished painting for the Mattson Family Benefit Art Show. It's a sign you can hang on your door, your cubicle, or the wall of your treehouse when you go surfing. I've always liked those corny signs and bumper stickers that say "Gone Surfin," "Gone Fishin," "Gone Rollerblading," or whatever and I've done a few here and here for fun, which friends have turned into screensavers.

This piece is painted in acrylic on wood, with some paint pen details. I drilled a couple holes in the top and threaded rope through to hang it. It comes with a big nail. If you're interested in purchasing this, it'll be available at the upcoming silent auction, details to follow. The money is going to a great cause. Read more about that here.

For those who don't know who the Mattson 2 are, here's a video of them doing their thang:

SECRET STUDIO

It's hidden in my basement. A few new projects have inspired me to spend some time down here again. I've been working on a computer so long I almost forgot how good it feels to make a mistake and not be able to delete it.

Went Surfin'

Finally went surfing again yesterday after a couple weeks in drydock. Thankfully, the conditions were cooperative. It was offshore and overhead on the sets with pretty long lulls, but if you were patient, the cold wait paid off. I parked myself on a left (of course) and got a couple that walled up and gave me some really memorable rides. I had enough time to draw out the bottom turn longer on each wave, dragging my hand along the surface, then coming off the top where the lip was feathering and cut back to the bottom, closer and closer to the foamball. Repeat. Repeat.

It was a blast.

The water was colder than I've felt it in a while and the wind was icy. But as I metioned before, this has been the best winter for surf I've ever experienced.

*The "sign" above is a sketch for something I'm working on for the Mattson Family benefit show. See the link in the previous sentence for details. If you're an artist, I encourage you to donate some work to the show. My freelancing wife and I have dealt with incredible medical bills as a result of cancer treatment and I cannot imagine how hard it must be to have two people battling the disease and the costs of care at the same time. C'mon Obama, let's fix the health care system in this country so self-employed people unfortunate enough to get sick aren't faced with the double-whammy of financial destitution as the result of their bad luck.

Bon Voyage

I sent these watercolors/drawings to Brazil for the Santos Surf Art show last week and they just arrived. Now my wife's telling me that she wants to send me down there for my birthday... How do you say "stoked" in Portuguese?

Sissyfish in Brasil

I'm incredibly stoked to be a part of the upcoming Santos Surf Art II art festival on the beautiful coast of Sao Paulo, Brasil. This is a country I've always dreamed of visiting, and now at least my drawings will be making the pilgrimage to paradise... Lucky art!

My art is also lucky because it will be hanging near some of my heroes, who you can see by enlarging the Nat Russell-drawn poster above. Albe "Morning of the Earth" Falzon? Andrew "Litmus" Kidman? Jamie "We Approach Our Martinis With Such High Expectations" Brisick? Sea "The Guy Who Did My Blog Banner" Mouse? And that's just to name a few!

The event is taking place from January 20-26, and if you want to read more about it, head to the Santos Surf Art Blog, where I'm currently experiencing my 15 minutes of fame.

Special thanks to Jair, the super-cool, super-talented guy who's organizing the whole thing. Who knows, maybe I'll figure out a way to make the trip after all...

(If you want to see some examples of my artwork that's been featured on this blog, click HERE.)

Support Surfrider and Sissyfish!

A few months ago, Ian from Wend Magazine asked me if I had any artwork that I'd like to include in the Surfrider Foundation benefit art show at the Lizard Lounge in Portland's Pearl District. I was going to do some digital prints of Sissyfish surf art, but instead opted to frame up this original painting/drawing I did in Nicaragua. It's a picture I drew right after a session at the very hollow Playa Colorado beach break, done in Caran d' Ache watercolor crayons (with some sand from the beach there probably mixed in). I'm asking $300 for it, half of which goes to Surfrider. Also for sale there are the infamous "G*s Ch*mb*rs" tees that were the subject of much debate HERE. Those are hand-signed on the bottom hem. They are $20 with half going to Surfrider. The show opened tonight, and unfortunately I was out of town, but stop by and check out some cool surf art. If you're interested in the painting, I'll ship it. Just let me know. Happy 4th of July!

Overhead and Classy

Look up. Notice something different? I got a nice surprise in the comments section of my last post - a custom Pinniped version of the Sissyfish banner, courtesy of Seamouse! I love it, man. The Swallow Tail Society blog has featured some great original banner art since its inception, and now I'm thinking that all us "surf artistes" in blogland should start trading banners...
Check out the Pinniped Studios blog for more amazing surf-inspired art (like the knight above), straight outta da UK. Then go buy a tee-shirt at Uber.

GOLDEN

GOLDEN
My mind was clear
My body tired
My skin salty and dry
The waves were there
They cleaned my hair
The sun shined in the sky

From low tide pull
To high tide push
Four hours I did play
If you can’t surf every day of the week
Surf a week’s worth in one day.

***

Amazing how a good surf can get everything back in tune again. At least for a week or so...

Sissyfish: The Book

I can't believe I forgot to post this. On my birthday in November my wife presented me with an actual book of my surf drawings that she somehow stealthed from my hard drive. She's a graphic designer so she did an amazing job with layout and picking images to juxtapose on each spread. The book is 30 pages long, paper back, and roughly the dimensions of an LP cover. When I squeezed the info on how much it cost to print, I was kind of shocked: somewhere between $100-$200. Shattered like a potato chip thruster on a Seaside boulder were my dreams of doing a longer version with excerpts from blog posts, incendiary comments, and photos...

But today I just received an email with a link to www.blurb.com, an online company that gives you the tools to make bookstore quality hardcover books for around $30-$50 bucks. No, I'm not getting paid to pimp this website. It's just something I thought my blog buddies should know about, especially those with artistic compulsions or self publishing dreams. In other words, watch this space. I may need to get ten people together to order the second edition of the Sissyfish Book for a 10% discount!

Dropping Lines

I just got this great new pen from my neighbor and Squiggly Studios partner Jud. Of course the first thing I drew after dipping its massive nib into the ink well was a surfer decked out in oily 5mm, grabbing rail and locking into a nice Pacific Northwest slab. You can read more about the pen my other post HERE.

Bowie and Bing - Little Drummer Boy