Maddie Joyce has a particular charm to her artwork that exsudes her omnipresent love and passion for the ocean. This young British artist is from a small village in East Sussex, which undoubtedly has influenced her artistic style. Following her mother’s footsteps and an artist, Maddie has found herself now living in Santa Barbara, continuing to focus on her art as creative side as well as expanding her collective, The Magic Bus, a community of surfing creatives whom Maddie selects images which they share with her of their travels and adventures…

How did your love for the ocean develop? Did your hometown help influence this passion?

Ever since I can remember I’ve loved the ocean, from playing in the rock pools and sailing in my pa’s sailboat as a kid to our annual trips to the rugged west country. My hometown is a small village behind the south downs, I’m close to the ocean (the English channel) and there are some really beautiful coastal areas where I live, but the clear and cold Atlantic ocean that adorns the North Cornish coastline has been one my biggest influences. I’m now living a stones throw away from Rincon and loving it!

When did your interest for art and photography begin? At what point did you start to pursue them as something more than just a hobby?

I’ve always been interested in art, my mum is an artist and she has taught and encouraged me a lot. I studied graphic design at college and really enjoyed it. It was really practical, and we did a lot of the design by hand and then enhanced and manipulated it on the computer, which really suits me. I’ve always branched more towards illustration, using raw materials rather than straight digital design. I suppose that’s where my interest in photography came from. My dad gave me a bunch of old 35mm cameras he used to shoot with when he was my age. I’ve always preferred film over digital, I love the unpredictability of it and the anticipation for the results.

What would you consider your style of art to be? Which mediums do you enjoy using most?

My style of art I would say is whimsical, feel-good-food for the soul. Art for me is such a release of tension, kind of like meditation I suppose. I can get lost in a creation for hours, I like to draw what makes me feel good inside, so that when I look it afterward it makes me feel content, maybe even peaceful. I hope that’s what it makes other people feel too! I love using really fine bleed resistant pens, fabric and translucent paper the most I think, I’d love to get more into textile based work though.

Your illustrations are pretty neat. They have a sort of simplistic look, but upon further inspection, one can see that extreme detail was adhered to…Can you describe the process in creating one?

My favorite illustrations to create are these little address cards which I’ve called the ‘maps, lines and floral waves’ series. They’re a combination of pen, fine lines, fabric and different papers. I Like how all of the textures work together and how each material represents an element of the scene being created. The transparent paper to me looks like a fine morning mist and the lines in the waves look like wood grain. I usually do a really quick sketch and label the elements and the material I’ll use and then just begin cutting, placing and rearranging the pieces. I like working small too, a lot of people are surprised at how tiny some of the illustrations are.

Do you usually have a good idea of what you want to do before starting a new project, or does your creativity tend to flow from the unconscious?

My projects usually start with a one off creation or idea, then afterwards I’m like ‘that was fun, let’s do another one but this time I’ll use these colors’. Projects or sets of illustrations are fun to do because they all go together well and have a consistency about them which is quite addictive to create. I get a lot of my ideas just before I fall asleep, it’s a time where I’m usually making my brain mentally make things, but I ‘ll be like ‘aha!’ then get out my phone and write it down.

Tell us a little about your blog, “The Magic Bus”.

The magic bus is an online and very real life community of surfers, photographers, artists and happy snapping adventurers around the globe. People submit their photographic tales to the magic bus Flickr group where every few days I select 6 that really stand out and post then onto the magic bus website, www.themagicbuscollective.com. It’s a really fun project, I’ve met so many incredible, adventurous and talented people through it.

Are there certain criteria that photos must meet before making it onto your blog? How do you go about choosing which ones are included?

There’s a few unspoken criteria that I think makes a ‘magic bus’ photo. They’re usually all film photos with a few exceptions, I like that with film every photo is truly unique from the type of film used, the camera, the grain and the light flares. The photos also have to be modest, real photos from people’s travels, but other than that it’s pretty relaxed. I like photos that make you want to get your backpack on, pack your tent and get off the beaten track.

On your site it says that you are going to have a book circulating between different artists all over the world…Pretty cool idea, can you talk about it? What was the inspiration behind it?

I’ve wanted to do a magic bus book for a longtime but I hadn’t found a lot of time to do it, but a graphics project came up in a class where I had the opportunity to create a book. It was really fun to make but i only made one as it was hand bound in a hand stitched cover. I thought it would be a cool idea to circulate the book with a little journal in it and an address list. I think it’ll be fun and really personal to everyone involved.

Where do you see yourself a couple years down the road?

I want to be living comfortably and happily, and having the time and opportunity to travel. I’d also like to be making a living off my art of course expanding the bus of magic.

For more of Maddie’s work, check out her blogs www.maddiejoyceart.blogspot.com and www.themagicbuscollective.com

Kneeboarding?? Isn’t that a thing of the past? Well, we say no. Kneeboarding may be underground in mainstream surf culture but it’s still alive and well in various parts of the surfing world. Leading the path is Steen Barnes and his crew at Legless.tv. They are taking an unorthodox way of riding a wave, pulling off Dane Reynolds style maneuvers and getting more pitted then you can imagine. The latest issue of The Surfer’s Journal features an aritcle by Ted Endo with photos by Cyrus taken from their trip down to the forgotten land of legless where surfers punt on their knees and stoke grows on trees..

In honor of that trip, we are dedicating this week as Kneeboard Week on Korduroy. The following 5 days will feature an exclusive clip by Greenough, an Inner-view clip with the Legless crew and other cool knee-centric stuff that’s worth checking out. Be sure to stay tuned…

What is the history behind kneeboarding in Wollongong?

Wollongong kneeboard history goes back the same as most areas in OZ and the rest of world, where there is a slabby reef wave, kneeriders tended to have located/developed, it was a definitely a late 50s to early 60′s start. From guys like Lance Fairley (surfing balsa kneeboards, single and twins in Woonona in 1958 and on) Paul Satchell, Phil Hall, Richard “Nat” Palmer, Adam Williams, Ed Sinnott, Steve Wilson, it’s a big list in any area.

Why do you think it has survived in the area?

Kneeriding has always been a part of the Australian surfing culture, from dedicated kneeriding clubs to its own competitive circuit. Kneeriders developed their own world here in Oz without the backing of a corporate surfing business. You could say it was developed by families and friends, the love of kneeriding and great mateship, and that’s why it never stopped and it has taken its own path.

What are the differences between stand up surfing and kneeboarding?

We are all riding waves so that part is universal. I guess the sensation of being so close to the water at high speed, as well as the worldwide aloha that prevails with all kneeriders is quite unique. Foot boarding comes from your thighs, kneeriding comes from your lower back. The stoke is the same.

There are always those that prefer to take the road less travelled, to stick out from the rest. Those that do often find they are not alone, that there is a commonality with others expressed in these off-the-beaten-path pursuits. Kneeboarders are no different. Every kneeboarder has a reason or two why they don’t ride a stand-up, body board, or any other wave riding craft. More often than not it’s a need to be different and to find those with the same rare trait are the right kind of people in their eyes. It is probably related to the reason why tribes form, it’s human nature to have those that do not belong in certain tribes and seek others with which they share those common waters. Sometimes those tribes are a little off from centre and that’s appealing.

What is it that would convince you to catch waves on your knees rather than standing?

Waves that barrel with power is what convinced me. To be able to drop super late, and pull in tight on anything over 2ft, really means I am maximizing my tube time and my fun, and that’s what it is all about for me.

Besides the occasional large deck pad on most kneeboards, what are the main differences between a kneeboard and your standard surfboard?

Kneeboards are manufactured the same way as footboards with the use foam blanks, glass resin, epoxy, balsa whatever! Today’s kneeboard outlines have a much greater rail curve, its continual from nose to tail compared to a footboard. Fin placement is more forward and the way you ride them is dramatically different. Footboards are turned off the back foot (tail of the board) whilst the continual curve and the forward fin placement means when you ride a kneeboard, you lean forward and surf 90% on your rails, fins make up the 10% Awesome for late drops, you throw yourself over the ledge and total lean forward, engage the rail in front of your knees, keep leaning forward and drive. You don’t turn a kneeboard, you become one and you drive it.

You said you are trying to show kneeboarding in a more contemporary fashion via Legless.tv. It seems as though most kneeboarders don’t care about the hype and getting noticed. How do you make it relevant in the midst of the mainstream surf culture?

I guess kneeriding has never had any real marketing of any sorts, even back in the days of George Greenough, Neil Luke, Peter Crawford, Rex Huffman, Ross Bullard and Steve Lis and the list goes on. So the footboard community was responsible for most media regarding kneeriding, so nearly all media about kneeriding for 40 years has been quite negative. In that 40 years there has been some incredible kneeboarders, and no one would know about these guys, except the kneeboard world. Kneeboarding has never been large enough to have a magazine and corporate companies to promote its great surfers, but with today’s technology other kneeriders around the world can access the best videos, imagery, history, stories etc on Legless.tv. and see what’s happening NOW in kneeriding internationally just by getting on the internet. I don’t believe there is any intention to make us relative amongst the mainstream surf culture, its more about giving back to kneeboarders who have loved and supported kneeriding for over 5 decades, and to present today’s younger crop of kneeriders in a way that their surfing deserves. Pretty simple really.

Your right, most kneeriders don’t care about the hype and getting noticed, but kneeriders will always love to see imagery, videos, stories etc of fellow kneeriders doing their thing, and Legless.tv is our opportunity to do that.

Was kneeboarding just a temporary deviation during surfing’s transition from longer to shorter boards?

Well that depends on whose history of surfing that you follow, I firmly believe that kneeboarding was developed from Paipo early board riders needs to go faster in the tube, they started making bigger boards and kneeling up and getting tubed, which in turn they then started standing up on kneeboards and getting tubed, hence kneeboards being the first real shortboard. The deviation was long boarders watching paipo and kneeriders getting barrelled and then taking their equipment and analysing it and adapting it to foot boarding. Bob McTavish’s storeys of Greenough’s contributions to the advancement of his designs is very well documented in his own autobiography.

At legless we call kneeriding “the legitimate unorthodox way to ride a wave” we don’t really take things that seriously, be we do have a lot of fun.

With legends like Greenough and Steve Lis paving the way as far as equipment and technology, what kind of changes do you see happening in the sport now, some 20-odd years later?

Not sure if we are looking for changes. We like kneeriding the way it is. It’s unique, it’s eccentric, it’s niche.

It’s us…..

Pauline Automatique, a Bordeaux native (near the Atlantic Ocean), is an independent graphic designer working across a variety of disciplines including print, identity, illustration and photography. After studying visual communication and global design, she’s transitioned herself into the graphic design world and recently partnered with Emeline Vivier, another young French graphic designer. Surfing and music continue to influence Pauline and will carry her into 2012 with stoke and excitement for her partnership as well as a variety of new projects.

Describe your artist style.

A mix of collage, drawings, photographs and sticky colored labels. I’ve got the reverse of the blank page syndrome; I can’t leave a blank on the page.

I try to reproduce on paper the pictures i have in my head, conjured up by the music I listen to, the books Iread and the artists I like. And the best opportunity to do so is the posters I make for the concerts organized by the association we’ve created in 2008 with a few friends (facebook.com/letspaniclater). They allow me to really let myself go, and lay on paper all my inspirations and desires. My style can sometimes be really naive: colored sticky labels, light blue and pink; as it can become quite dark all of a sudden.

What types of art do you enjoy most? Is there one genre you spend more time on or is it whatever you’re feeling that day?

I like drawing, collages and type design best. Creating something complex from just one shape, like the circle, is something I really enjoy. I naturally went back to the sticky colored label of my childhood. Their round shape and their bright colors attract me and reassure me. But I’m still very opened to influence, in a good way. Most of my illustration start with a dot, but what follows depends on my mood, and my latest aesthetic obsession.

Do you have a formal art education? Or did you learn by trial and error?

I’ve always wanted to do that, but one day I realized I needed to do things seriously. So I majored in visual communication and global design in Bordeaux in 2007. And on top of my studies, my personal research, my errors and my curiosity got me where I am today.

As a graphic designer, what do you think life would be like without the use of a computer?

Not radically different, but slower and less fun. It’s amazing what we can do with a computer and with the Internet. We have access to all kind of images and information with just few clicks. With a computer, I can break free from economic and technical constraints: chat with people all around the world, and advertise my work. Thanks to Photoshop and Illustrator, I can improve the typeface I have scribbled on a piece of paper, and send a neat job to the printer. I’m not sure I could do without it today…

Why Polaroids as opposed to other cameras/film? What’s the draw there for you?

Polaroid because it is the first camera I had when I was 7, well before the digital age. At that time, when I saw that the picture came out instantly, I was mesmerized! You have the picture in your hands in no time, with great colors and that typical format, and you can take it with you and start working on it immediately. It entirely satisfies my impatient side!

What do you feel is the most important aspect of being a good designer?

Find your own style and develop it. A good designer is someone who has found his/her touch. A work that is identifiable is a work of a good designer. Not to rely on what you already know, go forward, with what you can do and what you like doing, but always aim higher. Curiosity is the key word.

When did you get involved in surfing? And what kinds of boards are you riding?

I started surfing in summer 2009, after meeting my friend Hugo. He was crazy about surfing and I caught the virus. I started with a 7″9, then, once i felt at ease, I bought my first longboard, a Swop 9″ (swopsurfboards.blogspot.com). And, for about one year now, I have surfed with a 9″4. But I’d like to try something different, like a retro fish, but I still need to get better…

Describe the surf scene in your area of France. How does it compare to some of the other places in the world you may have traveled to?

I’ve learned to surf and still surf today in Lacanau, near Bordeaux. This is a town where surfing really started in Gironde in the 60′s, and I often surf with the guys who surfed there first, and that’s impressive. The town is full of people who are really keen, for who surfing is a way of life, the organizing element in their life. In Winter there are 5000 inhabitants, and 40 000 in summer; everything changes in just a few days! I’m really fond of this town, where I am lucky enough to own a nice little house. I’ve never surfed anywhere outside France, but I’d love to try other spots.

What’s next for Pauline Automatique?

I’ve just partnered with another graphic designer; we’ve only just started but it’s going well. We’ll soon have an Internet website, I’ll keep you posted! I’d love to carry on working for music and surf, and all kind of exciting projects. In a nutshell, in 2012, I will focus on my artistic activity, go on surfing, and…have a baby in August!

www.pauline-automatique.com

Gary Murphy found an old makeshift wooden handplane in the parking lot after surfing one day and got inspired…to say the least. From that initial crude inspiration, Gary has gone all out, creating some of the most well known and beautifully handcrafted handplanes on the market. In the following interview, Gary shares his introduction into handplaning as well as his process and thoughts on the future of the craftsman.

How did you get introduced into handplaning?

About three years ago, on a summer day, I found a makeshift handplane on the beach, probably made out of leftover fencepost. It was pretty shrewd. Basically a flat piece of wood, rounded nose, and a touch of bevel. No strap, or hole, to hold onto. It was sitting next to the kids boogies. It sat all day with nobody to claim. At the end of the day, I threw it in the back of the van and their it sat for some time.

Fast forward a month or so. Another beautiful day on the beach. After surfing all morning, I took the kids out to the low tide sand bar to boogie. Perfect reforms taking them quite a ways to the beach. I noticed a nice waist to chest high wave breaking pretty fast over the sandbar. Once the kids were tired, I grabbed my fins and did some bodysurfing.

Next day, same thing. This time, I decided to try the little hand plane that I had found. I had so much fun. Never realized how much a hand plane made a difference. I was actually trimming and getting some really nice views. It was a completely different feeling than surfing. I was hooked.

My experience with bodysurfing up to then was womping at Marine Street, or catching a wave in to get my lost board. I would always try and stay on the face, but, usually the wave would pass me by within ten feet. With that makeshift handplane, that first day, I was catching waves and staying on the face for a good 50 – 75 feet. The feeling of my body actually sliding on the face of a wave was simply incredible. Not that it was any better or worse than surfing, just different. After surfing for 28 years, I think most of us are trying to find something new, something different. Something to keep the stoke alive.

Kolohe Andino. Photo: Jason Kenworthy

What made you decide to start making your own?

At that time, I was a surfboard addict. My 3 kids were going to pre-school across the lot from Moonlight Glassing. I was constantly going in to Moonlight and drooling over all the boards and talking shop with the crew. I don’t want to leave them out, so I will say up front, Peter and JP St. Pierre were a huge influence. Along with the rest of the crew at Moonlight. And, you can never leave Sally out. She deserves a line of her own. Without her, there wouldn’t be a Moonlight Glassing.

I was tinkering with making my own surfboards. I had made about 20 surfboards for myself, and also friends that had enough faith to spend the 60 bucks for a blank, and let me experiment on it. So with that experience, and that first day of handplaning, I went home and made my first handplane. It was a cut-off from a fence/gate that we had just put up in our driveway. Basically, a bit of belly into a single concave. After I made the first one, those same people that had supported me with my surfboard shaping hobby, all wanted one. It kind of blew up from there. Word of mouth was a big part, but, the internet has been the biggest way to spread the goodness.

Tell us about the handplanes that you make? What materials? What is your process?

Everyone has their own idea about what works best, and that is good. This handplane thing is in such the infant stage, that the more ideas, the better.

I start with a Paulownia wood blank. I use Paulownia because it is super light, super strong, and has a great neutral buoyancy. I think neutral buoyancy is a key component. People have to remember that a handplane isn’t a floating device. It’s not designed to float you like a surfboard. It is a planing device. It has to plane, but, you also have to be able to easily submerge it when needed. I design mine so that you can swim with them and use them kind of like a paddle when swimming. You can’t submerge a super buoyant handplane when swimming. At least not very easily.

So, getting back to Paulownia, I start with a 1” thick blank. I draw my outline, cut it out with a bandsaw, then off to the shaping room. Every handplane that I make is handshaped. I use a 4.5” angle grinder to get most of my contours. I also use a ¾” round microplane for doing spines and such. I try to make them thin. That is also a big difference you will see with mine versus most others. Thin planes still plane well, but, they also submerge easily, especially on the bigger models. The smaller models it isn’t quite as important, because they are small, and easily submersible.

After the rough shape is done, I sand it all out with a random orbital sander. It’s then off to the finishing area, where my wife, Rebecca takes over. She does all the burning, artwork, coloring, and finishing. We use an outdoor, UV resistant, water-based Polyurethane finish. 4-5 coats. We also make all our own stains and colors. This is a good place to bring this up, there is a difference, at least in my mind, between finishing and sealing. You finish a board with a resin or varnish. You seal a board with an oil. If a handplane is properly finished, then you should have to go back and refinish it for five to ten years, and that is if you leave it out in the sun 24/7, which is something that we never do. We use it for a few hours, then throw it in our trunk. If you seal a board with an oil, you are supposed to go back and re-seal it every year or so. So, if I were someone looking to buy a handplane, I’d look for a brand that finishes their handplanes.

After Rebecca finishes the handplane, then we strap and pad them. I won’t get into that, as everyone has their own technique, and my strapping technique is something that I like to hold close. Overall, I try and use the best materials for the job. I don’t cut corners when it comes to that. Paulownia is about 3x as expensive as most other woods, and is also very hard to get. I order mine from Brad at Appelcore Stringers, he gets it from the East Coast. Acquiring enough Paulownia to make 10-15 handplanes a week is not an easy process.

How do your handplanes differ from the others on the market?

I think it is mainly in the shapes and strapping system. I am to the point where I am really thinking about what is going to work best for the varying types of waves that we use them in. Everyone knows that a food tray works. Honestly, food trays work probably better than some of the recent entries I’ve seen in the handplane market. It is not just taking a piece of wood or foam and rounding the edges. It is actually carving into that wood and making something that will actually get you down the line or out of that barrel. Everyone can get barreled with a handplane. But, just like surfing, I am looking to come out. I am trying to design handplanes that will hold high and tight, and let you draw that line that will let you come out. I’m not interested in bodywhomping. I want to get barreled, and I want to come out! Hence the reason for making the Short and Fat, and more recently the Hobbit Models. They are small, but have some very aggressive bottom contours that let you hold that high line.

That is another big difference, I am not seeing any other production handplane maker, making small handplanes/handboards. They seem to be generally sticking to the bigger ones. That will soon change, as they start developing their craft. Look at all the bodysurfers in Hawaii. They are the best in the world. If they use a handboard, which most don’t, it is very small, and most of em crafted it in their own garage. I used to think of handplanes as mini-surfboards when shaping them. Now, not so much. I’ve come to realize that it is a whole different animal. It fits the face of the wave differently, and I think I’ll just leave it at that.

As for anything else that differs, I would say my strapping system. When I first started making handplanes, I looked up to Danny Hess. He is an incredible woodworker, way better than I. He was the only guy making production handplanes. Cyrus was making em, but, for personal use. Both were huge influences on me when I started. I loved the look of Danny’s planes. So natural. Just a piece of wood. A hole for a handle. I wanted to somehow implement that basic look in my designs. But, I didn’t want to copy Danny, and I didn’t like the idea of a hole for a handle. It just didn’t make sense to me. Many who like the idea of a hole for a handle and will argue my last statement, but, it just always turns into agreeing to disagree. I also didn’t want any visible hardware, mainly because I thought it looked real tacky. Screw heads sticking out and whatnot. So, I spent some time researching, and come up with my strapping system. A strap that flows with the board. No visible hardware.

Is there a story behind the name, Brownfish?

People have a lot of ideas where that came from. In the short, it is pretty basic. As I said above, I am a surfboard addict. I surfed the standard 6’2 x 18.25” x 2 ¼” thruster for 20 years. Pretty much just like everyone else. When the whole keel fish movement came along, it changed my thoughts on surfboards. It is the reason I got into making ‘em. I wanted to try different things. My first keel fish, the one that forever changed my surfboard design outlook, was brown. Rebecca got it for me for my birthday. When I started making surfboards, I called em Brownfish. That just got carried into the handplane thing. Sad to say, my original Brownfish, got stolen out of the back of my camper. Such a sad story.

What role do you feel a craftsman plays in the future of surfboard and handplane design?

Well, that is a hard question. I struggle with it. Lets just say that I think there is a need to keep the craftsmen working. But, I also see the great uses of a keyboard. I think they can work synergistically together. I don’t like the idea of things coming out of a mold, or being made by people that have never stepped foot in the ocean. We are one of the last sports that are scratching to hold onto craftsmanship. Making things for ourselves and our family of waveriders. I believe we need to keep on scratching.

Photo: Shawn Parkin

What would your suggestions be to someone who wants to try a handplane for the first time?

Make one. Bottom line. Make one for yourself. Go on-line, do your research, buy some wood, and wittle away. Go to www.handplanegoodness.com for some ideas. For those that don’t have the time or facilities to do that, then buying one isn’t looked down upon. My recommendations for good brands (not in any order) to look at would be: Hess, Enjoy, Lincoln Logs, SurfCraft Co-Op, and of course, I think mine are OK too.

Where can someone pick up a Brownfish Handplane these days?

Surfy Surfy Surfshop in Leucadia, CA, Patagonia Surf Shop in Cardiff, CA , Infinity Surf Shop in Dana Point, CA, WetSand Surf Shop in Ventura, CA, Atlantic Bodyboard Shop in New York, Mollusk NYC (name soon to change) , Lightly Salted Surf Mercado in New Jersey, Mountain Equipment CO-OP(MEC) in Canada. You can also look at www.brownfishhandplanes.com. I have an on-line shop that I am trying to keep stocked. You can also e-mail me and order a custom.

World traveler, surfer, artist. Phil Goodrich wants to perpetually travel the earth in search of the perfect wave while looking for the next beautiful image to immortalize via his brush against an open canvas. He has found that perfect medium of doing what he loves, painting, and still having time to participate in the activity he loves most, surfing. His passion is obvious…as you’ll see below.

When did you know you wanted to be an artist? And when did you start surfing?

I grew up in Indialantic, Florida. My father bought me a surfboard when I was ten (1981). He had a friend at work that surfed and I think that he found the guy to be interesting and cool.

What is your art training? Formal or self-taught?

My father is a scientist/engineer. We used to make projects in the garage. I drew cartoons in grade school and enrolled in college in San Diego. I thought I wanted to be a graphic designer until I sat for too long in front of a computer. I switched majors to Studio Art and graduated in 1993.

What mediums do you focus on?

Oil paint on wood is my favorite.

What’s your creative process? Do you paint based on images in your head or from real life experiences?

I base my paintings on photos or groups of photos. I stare at the photos and then stare at a blank piece of wood and I try and find common contours within the grain of the wood.

Do you see a connection between surfing and your art? Does one inspire the other?

I used to dream of being a professional surfer… When I realized that I wasn’t good enough to get paid to surf I just wanted to figure out a way to do something I love and get paid and still be able to surf. I based everything on surfing. I went to Point Loma University because it was on a cliff above decent waves… I started to travel to third world countries with great waves because it was affordable, but then I started to appreciate the beauty found within their cultures… My art is an expression of what I find to be beautiful, but it has also become a form of currency to fund my traveling to surf spots. I have traded huge bodies of work to various resorts in many countries…

What do you gain creatively by travelling to places like Indonesia and beyond?

Indonesia is an ultimate place to work. The color of the jungle, Indian Ocean, birds, insects, reef burn a lasting impression on my mind.

How do you create lasting images that transcend trends?

When I look for images to paint its like choosing a shirt at a thrift store…. I’m not looking for whats hip at the moment; but something timeless. I use wood because I can find the rhythms of the subject within the grain.

Being an artist, you still have to make money, but the average person may not spend a lot of money on art. This seems like it could make it hard for an artist to spread his work. How do you find a happy medium between staying comfortable financially and getting your work out there?

People tell me all the time that I sell my work for too cheap… I would rather hear that than have critics that think I’m ripping people off. I still find it rewarding to sell a painting at any price as long as the purchaser is excited and satisfied. I moved from California to South Carolina to be with my wife. The cost of living is much less here. The waves aren’t as good, but it leaves me more time to paint and network. It also allows me to sell art at an affordable price.

As far as surfing goes, you made the cover of The Surfers Path. Tell us about that image and that session.

That was taken in Nias 2005 by Paul Kennedy. I stayed 6 months on Nias that season. It was September and fairly crowded that day but the waves were flawless. It had stormed during the night so the morning had that extra clean light. the photographer was in one of those small dugout canoes in the channel. He was in such a good position for that photo, when I came out of the barrel into the channel I could have stepped into the little boat. It was quite a buzz to hear that the image made it onto the cover. I had daydreamed of something like that but never really believed it would happen.

What can we expect to see from Phil Goodrich in the near future?

Hopefully more of the same. Paint, surf, travel. I’m enjoying life and I don’t set unrealistic goals so I don’t get let down.

For more of Phil’s work, stay in the loop at:

Geoff McFetridge is primarily best known for his simple graphic design, creating images that often provide the viewer with a bit of a puzzle, combining detailed and abstract aspects at the same time. From poetry, animation, graphics, 3D work, furniture, film, fabrics and silkscreened wallpaper, Geoff excels in a wide array of mediums. He has worked for some big time companies such as Patagonia, ESPN, Burton Snowboards, Nike, Girl Skateboards, Stussy and is a part of the Beautiful Losers Exhibition. His work is unique and simple, and we dig it!

How did you get started in your art? What was the first medium you found yourself excelling at?

Since I was a little kid I would have friends over and when they would say “what do you want to play?” I would say “lets draw!” they would look at me like I was an alien. For me drawing was play, play where you could go into space, or into a battle scene.

Where do you draw from for inspiration for your next piece?

I am never thinking about the work I am doing, but I am also always thinking about it. I think things are cooking in the subconcious. It is like looking at a farmers field, and under the field is a underground river, or aquafir. The farmer has to go to the well to get the water to water his crops. But the river below ground is always running.

So in that way it is easy to confuse day to day life with the inspiration for my work, but really the inspiration is more of a continuous stream of ideas that is ongoing.

You have a very simple approach to your art, something not everyone can get away with. How do you make it work so well?

That is the trick to doing simple work. You need an idea. I work hard at using simplicity to distill an idea, to make it clear. Then the simple (and the decorative) work I do has a purpose.

You have quite a résumé, working with likes of Spike Jonez and Sofia Coppola, companies like Nike and Patagonia (the list goes on…). Is there a favorite project you’ve had along the way? Something you’re most proud of?

I am very proud of the work I have done for Patagonia. I built a Tshirt line for their business and worked hard at distilling their spirit and ethos into graphics.

It is a tough question really. I am most excited about the newest things. I am very proud of the Virgin Suicides titles, or the Winter X Games graphics I did. I am proud of it, not because I ever want to see it again, but because it was early work that ended up being influential and before it’s time.

When you’ve achieved a certain level of success, how do you stay motivated to keep improving and keep creating?

I guess that is part of my answer to the above question. I never look back at my own work, and I rarely look at any other work going on around me. I mainly motivate myself by doing work that I feel will propel me forward. I never want to feel burned out, so my decisions about what to work on is based more on preserving my creativity and stoke, rather than money or other distractions. You have to protect yourself from the stoke moochers, and the things that do not nurture your creative life. Sometimes I feel like a pice of bread surrounded by pidgeons… it is better to be a bird than a piece of bread.

You grew up with a skateboard and didn’t start surfing until you were a bit older from what I understand. How did you get introduced to surfing?

I have a friend Tak who used to come skate a ramp we built at a friends house in Topanga. He would show up in trunks and slash the ramp. He was a surfer, the first surfer I ever knew. As a skater I thought it was funny that he surfed.

Over a period of time he sort of tricked me, my girlfriend (now wife) and our friends into surfing. We would go to his place in Malibu and drink green tea then pop in the water for sunset sessions at Old Joes or 3rd point. We rode longboards, Diffenderfers, Takayamas and Herbie Fletchers. . The first surf movie I ever watched was Morning of the Earth… it was a world away from what I had understood surfing as (shredding, neon, dudes) It was an amazing way to be brought into the world of surf. I was hooked.

What gets you stoked?

I was pushing my 8 year old daughter into waves this morning on the Cote de Basque and she popped up for the first time. I was pretty stoked.

What can we expect to see from Geoff McFetridge in the near future?

I have a show at Heath Pottery in November 12 through the end of December of this year. We are collaborating on pots and objects and I will be showing paintings, fabrics, wallpaper and drawings too.

I am doing a larger show at the Art Gallery at the California Polytechnic in San Louis Obispo early in 2012.

For more of Geoff’s work, check out www.championdontstop.com

Kate Sikorski draws portraits of local female surfers in north Orange County on salvaged wood. Her unique style of drawings is made on top of 3 dimensional surfaces that are often metallic or reflective. If you look closely you can see how her drawings fracture and change as you move side to side in front of them giving her art depth that could not be achieved on a flat surface. She is currently working on a new series theme of Muslim women in surfing, where she will be collecting sketches, photos, video, and audio of local Muslim women participating in her Burkini Surf Visual Research Project.

How did you get into creating art and doing shows? Have you always had the mindset that you wanted to be an artist, or was it something you realized later on in life?

I remember watching the girls in preschool imitate a little blond girl’s paintings of tulips. I wasn’t interested in doing that so I painted a large self portrait on my easel using the three colors we were given: navy, light blue, and yellow. I distinctly remember coming up with reasons for why these colors could exist on the skin of the person I drew with paint: gloves, polka dotted tights, face make up. It’s funny to look at it now (my mom framed it)–I’m wearing a sweater, dress, high heels, and a big bow in my hair.

For some reason, as a child I was a sort of a realist about art as a future career. I thought that maybe I would be a graphic designer or draw up models for flying cars (I thought by now we would have those).

When I got to college (UCSB), I was determined to skip all the boring introductory courses I thought of as just “drawing boxes on a table.” I had things to say and I didn’t think I needed to do that stuff. Unfortunately the special, private art college, separate from the regular art department at UCSB did not agree and rejected my application not once but twice! So for a time, I set about proving to myself that I could do other things–that I all those high school honors courses wouldn’t go to waste.

I worked for Greenpeace for less than a year, in a couple different parts of the country, and sometimes was allowed to design a giant banner or do things like screw discarded computer parts into a giant skull on wheels. Eventually decided I wanted to be paid for that sort of thing and somehow got into grad school using largely my old high school art portfolio.

From where did you draw inspiration for your new series about Muslim women in surfing? What’s the idea behind it?

I had one serious boyfriend at UCSB. I stupidly delayed studying abroad so that we would both study abroad the same semester and then he promptly broke it off. I felt that I needed to do something to distract myself and embrace the semester I had to wait until I could leave for school in South Africa, so I decided to jump into Arabic–level 2. Around that same time I was taking a Surf History and Culture class where I discovered there were empty waves still to be found in Morocco and Mauritania. I started dreaming of designing modest surfing outfits for Muslim women to sell to Nike (maybe that would turn around Nike’s bad reputation; sweatshop labor was a big issue then).

Your design process is pretty fascinating. Can you tell us a little about how you approach a new art piece? What kinds of mediums do you use? And how do you get your hands on the different types of materials?

Sometimes I take the bus home without my skateboard and walk from the bus stop to my apartment. I like to walk through the alleys because I think the architecture of the beach apartments and houses are more interesting from the back. The ground also is not flat, but sloped, like rolling water. If you walk by rows of trashcans that often, you are bound to find some really weird stuff piled up to go out with the trash. I’ve pillaged the site of a condemned building in Long Beach before and sometimes I dumpster dive. This discovery part is really fun and putting all the pieces together with no plan or rules is also very relaxing and enjoyable. The difficulty and trouble shooting comes when I work with what I’ve made to create a drawing design or composition to fit on and within the wooden structure. It’s not really a step by step process, I kind of go back and forth. I like to start to use my knowledge of color and painting at this point to work with and bring together all the random pieces of already painted wood I found.

What would you say is the most difficult aspect in creating such unique portraits?

Being inspired to draw by the gutsy women I meet in the water happens every time I go surfing without me even thinking about it. Getting the women to pose can be a challenge because some women can be self conscious–or perhaps they think I’m crazy! The drawing part is always the hardest. It is my greatest strength, but perhaps because I am such a perfectionist about it. I have always felt that drawing is perceived as the masculine aspect of art, as opposed to painting. I am still the same embarrassingly competitive person who in elementary school played soccer with the boys while the girls sat together on the monkey bars and talked. I create a lot of work for myself because in my own work, want perspective, proportion, foreshortening all to be correct UNLESS the abstraction serves a compositional role or supports and feeling or idea I have about the pictorial elements in the piece.

We hear that you got to work as a permaculture farmer for a while in Kauai…In what ways did this experience influence your artwork? Your life in general?

It gave me a place to associate with the idea of utopia. In many ways it was paradise–the plants, the surf, the food, the people in the commune I farmed and lived with all agreed with the liberal views I had. But Kauai also showed me the gritty underbelly that exists in something that actually is too good to be true. Nothing is perfect in reality. After farming, I officially moved from the mainland to Kauai. My first night there, a friend of mine was raped on the couch next to mine by my new landlord, a self professed Christian.

We see the ugly aspects of the world if we hang around long enough. Instead of harping on the problems of the world, I feel I may have more potential to change things and at the same time be a happier person if I instead imagine a better world. Draw this better world and the next general will see it and live as if it is already true.

How do you think your artistic style has changed over the years? Have you always been into depicting surf culture through your artwork?

In some ways, nothing has changed–I’ve always loved how muscle and bone determine the specific structure of each individual. But I’ve gradually gained enough courage to go to the dump and haul out pieces of sh–t to beautify in my studio. I’ve both gained in drawing skill due to my professors and gained the confidence to ignore my professors when their personal artistic taste conflicted with my desired experiments.

How can people help with your new project?

They can go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burkinisurfproject/burkini-surf-series to read about my project and pledge as low as $1. Kickstarter is a sort of all or nothing deal. If I don’t raise the total funding goal amount, I don’t get any of the money pledged towards my project. I get goose bumps when I try to put into words how important I feel it is to provide all individuals the opportunity to play in the outdoors. These swimming outfits for Muslim women are used in Australia, Europe, and the Middle East, but have not quite caught on here in the US. Can you imagine wanting to run and swim and play outside with your friends or your kids but not be able to because you are afraid that you will have a seriously shameful wardrobe malfunction? America is a country built on the ideas liberty and equality. Regardless of whether you agree with the modest values of the women in this religion, I think these women deserve our respect and support to be able to navigate their religious values in a way the allows them to participate in sports, just like any other American girl or women.

What’s next for Kate Sikorsky?

Well I currently have some large car parts on my kitchen floor. I’m pretty excited about using them in my next piece. You’ll have to check out http://katesikorski.com or my Artist Facebook page to see how it turns out.

With the growing awareness and discussions about our environment, infographics, carbon calculators, and other tools to figure out exactly the impact that a product makes are popping up everywhere. From Patagonia’s Footprint Chronicals to Decarbonated Sports innovative new tool called the Surfboard Carbon Calculator, you can see how the products you are purchasing are affecting our planet.

Decarbonated’s new tool allows users (both individuals and companies) to calculate the carbon footprint of their surfboards, with both a simple and full version. The full Surfboard Carbon Calculator is more accurate but also more complex. It takes into account over 90 variables, from size, resin and foam type, fiber layers (type and number), fin set up and number of repairs. They are also offering each user the ability to purchase carbon credits to carbon offset their surfboards, annually ¾ million surfboards are made a year which equates to roughly 220,000 tons of CO₂.

Why is all this important, you may ask? Well, Rick gives an in depth explanation  behind their tools as well as what purchasing carbon credits actually does.

Tell us about your website Decarbonated Sports. What is the goal/mission behind it?

Our mission is to make surfing and other extreme sports proactive in tackling climate change, sounds easy when you say it like that. Our sports create greenhouse gases; carbon dioxide and others through our equipment, travel and everyday lives which are fuelling climate change, which, without trying to sound all Armageddon, is going to change our lives for the worse. By reducing surfing’s carbon footprint we can help protect our waves, our sport and our planet, as surfing is one of few sports that will actually be affected by climate change, so we have a greater needed to do something.

Can you explain carbon footprinting in layman’s terms for those who don’t quite understand what it is?

Yes, carbon footprinting is the process of mapping where greenhouse gas emissions are created either by a product, event or company. E.g. a product; from extracting the raw materials, transport, processing into usable constituents, using utilities such as electricity, gas and water, the different shaping processes themselves and maintaining a surfboard through repairs. Take the stringer as an example;

A tree has to be harvested reducing the amount of CO2 absorbed, cut down by some form of chainsaw requiring fuel, which creates emissions, and then it is transported out of the forest to the mill, creating more emissions by using a diesel engine. The mill itself requires electricity to cut the wood. Then the stringer is transported again from mill to foam manufacturer, then to the shaper, then there is some wastage from the shaping process. Finally a surfboard is made, and then you drive and fly it around (although the calculator doesn’t account for how much you drive/fly with the board). Each stage needs, inputs such as gas, electricity, water, chemicals all of which create CO2 and other greenhouse gases that damage our environment. All the greenhouse gases emissions are turned in to what’s called Carbon Dioxide equivalent (CO2e) as a single measurement of emissions created, to allow easy comparison.

Why create a surfboard carbon calculator? How did you come up with the algorithms for your carbon calculator?

The reasoning behind first calculating surfboard carbon footprints was to create a benchmark, so surfboards can be compared by actually how ‘ungreen’ they are to find the greenest surfboard. By knowing the carbon footprint of a surfboard, you can find where the majority of the emissions are created and start reducing it. The surf industry and others really annoy me when they throw around statements that their product is ‘green’, yet don’t actually quantify how green it actually is? It would be great if surf products were all carbon labelled, so you could make an informed purchasing decision.

The Surfboard Carbon Calculator all started at university where I made a standard PU surfboard and a Plant based one, and I wanted to know how green the plant board was compared to a standard surfboard. It turned out the green surfboard only created 175lbs of CO2 compared to the Polyurethanes 408lbs, which applied to the whole surf industry would mean nearly 276 million lbs of CO2 saved a year. Unfortunately after testing this specific plant surfboard didn’t surf as well (it was marginal though), there’s no point releasing an eco-product that has a poorer performance because all it will do is fuel some people negative perceptions of eco surfboards. So instead we created the Surfboard Carbon Calculators to educate surfers of their environmental damage, and offset their surfboards; performance without environmental compromise.

How do you hope this will affect the consumer?

The most important thing is educating surfers, making them aware that surfing does impact on the planet, once people are aware of what, where and how much damage we create people can look for better, more sustainable ways of reducing surfing’s impact. Simple things like driving efficiently to the beach and back, car sharing, buying eco-surfboards where they know the impact has been reduced. The biggest bits of advice is to buy the right board for you, one that’s glassed heavily enough that it will last and a board that’s not just gonna sit in the shed unloved, if it does sell it 2nd hand. By increasing 2nd hand board sales, less board will be made = less CO2 created. And hopeful surfers will carbon offset their surfboard reducing the environmental impact of surfing.

When a user calculates the carbon footprint of their surfboard and then purchases carbon credits from your company, what do you then do with that money? What does purchasing carbon credits actually mean? And how are we assured our money is actually used to offset that footprint?

When you purchase carbon credits for whatever amount your boards create, that exact amount needs to somehow be reabsorbed. We work with a company that is registered under the UN Kyoto protocol that ensures the carbon credits created are legal, environmentally positive and absorb that specific amount. There are hundreds of ways of absorbing CO2, from simply planting trees to building multimillion Dollar renewable energy projects. One great example is the energy efficient stove donated to some of the world’s poorest, the stove uses the same fuel (wood or coal) that the people receive it use, but instead of simply having a fire on the floor the stove maximizes the heat created from the fuel.

Energy efficient stoves:

• * One tonne of domestic coal when burnt creates 2.5 tonnes of CO2
• * Say the average family’s old inefficient stove/fire used 2 tonnes of Coal a year therefore released 7.5 tonnes of CO2.
• * And the new stoves are 50% more efficient
• * By using the new efficient stove only 50% coal is used to create the same amount of heat.
• * So 50% less CO2 is released into the atmosphere, that’s a saving of 2.5 tonnes of Carbon dioxide equivalent of Greenhouse gases a year.
• * If 1000 stoves are provided to a community then 2500 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (equivalent) have been saved and can be sold as Carbon Credits.

* So not only does it help the environment but means the people that you have bought the stove for save time and money by buying or collecting less fuel

How is surfing different from any other sport out there..say MLB baseball, which uses 50+ balls per game, or skateboarders who go through decks, trucks, and wheels, or triathlon which athletes utilize a ton of gear ranging from a wetsuit, bike, helmet, shoes, shorts, socks, etc.?

They aren’t, we are not saying surfing is the only sport that is bad for the environment, and we are definitely not saying don’t do any sport, we just want to help make our activities more sustainable. But surfing is different because we have this image that we are super eco-hippies, which we don’t necessarily deserve. And the second point is sports like surfing, snowboarding and Skiing are controlled by atmospheric occurrences, which will be affected by climate change. You can play baseball in the rain, you can skate indoors and you can run in heavy winds, but the specific conditions to create decent clean swell are so specific that any change of the climate will probably reduce this window further. So we as surfers has more to lose, especially with rising sea levels some of our low tide waves will eventually be lost. So we really have more emphasis to do our bit.

What other options do you suggest for a surfer to do about the carbon footprint that a surfboard brings to our environment?

4 simple rules; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Reabsorb.

Reduce the amount of CO2 that is created by buying greener surfboards and by buying and selling 2nd hand boards.

Reuse, surf all your boards till they snap or sell/exchange them, or have extra fins plugs to make your boards more diverse and can even make a board feel brand new, try a 4+1 longboard…soooo much fun.

Recycle; very very few surfboards are even partially recyclable. But if it is definitely at the end of its life, don’t put it in Landfill, use the foam for repairs or make a table, mirror or chair? Art? There will be someone out there who wants it! Rather than putting a brand new board on the wall of a bar, what a waste!

Reabsorb; Carbon offset your surfboards, so there’s no net gain of CO2

Is your outlook a positive one? In your experience, are you seeing change in how people choose their next surfboard?

Yes, it is, the is no definitive guidelines to eco-surf products/surfboards that actually quantifies the environmental impact, which makes it harder for surfers to actually know how much CO2 they have saved, using the calculators give them an indication of how they have helped tackle climate change.

We are hoping over the next few months to start working with shapers and surf companies so we can reduce the carbon emissions of surfboards and other surf products, so it’ll be easier for surfers to find green solutions.

What are the plans for Decarbonated in the future?

We have a couple of really exciting projects in the pipeline; the scientific testing of eco-surfboards performance, couple of big conferences and trade shows. We are constantly looking for new ambassadors, so if you’re a competitive surfer, artist or really want to be involved drop us a line.

For more, visit http://www.decarbonated-sports.com

Chasing down the semi-professional life in any sport isn’t as easy as it sounds. For Nikolai Samson, he went down that path to become a professional snowboarder but was burned out after years of throwing himself off of massive jumps, just to capture it on film. So he found surfing. From there, he was exposed to a new source of stoke which he wanted to translate onto the snow. With the rise in popularity of noboarding (snowboards without bindings) and splitboards, Nikolai rekindled his passion for hunting down fresh powder lines. Now, Nikolai has started his own company, Almond Manufacturing, making traction pads for surf-inspired snowboarding. In the interview below, he talks about become a DIY board builder, making his own splitboards in the garage, perfecting his lines and templates for over a year now, and how he came into reinventing his passion on the snow.

When did you first start surfing? What spots had you been surfing before you relocated and where about did you move?

Like a lot of Canadians, I didn’t learn to surf til my early twenty’s which would have been around 2002. Been snowboarding in Revelstoke, BC since I was a kid. My good friend Tyler and I had dreams of chasing the semi-pro snowboard life so we were trying to do the ‘backcountry huck carcass off jump and film it’ thing but were starting to get burnt out and not having as much fun on the snowboards. Mid way through the winter he said he wasn’t into it so he hatched a plan to drive to Baja. We were there a week and a half later via his ’84 Astro van. So glad I went, even though I “quit” surfing multiple times that trip. I thought that being a decent snowboarder and a barely average skateboarder would make the surf thing no big deal. It was so tough to learn but the progress was super exciting and rewarding. I barely snowboarded for the next few years but got myself in the water in the US, South America, and Baja a couple more times and then eventually settling on Vancouver Island for a year or two. Eventually, I moved back to Revelstoke, BC for work opportunity as Tyler was starting up his own construction company. Being land locked again and not as interested in ski hills, I decided to buy a splitboard and go hunt down powder.

For those of us who don’t know, can you talk a little about what a splitboard is?

Basically it is a snowboard that can come apart in the middle and be used as two ski’s. You attach adhesive backed skins for traction and ski that sucker up hill. Once you get to the top of where you want to be you peel off the skins and put the board halves back together then blast turns and airs back down the mountain. Best piece of snowboard equipment I’ve ever owned and has helped me make the best turns I’ve ever had. You can cover a lot of ground on the splitboard setup. Go where you want. You’re only limited by motivation and fitness level. The current hardware setup has more or less been around since the mid 90′s but is now just starting to get some mainstream popularity.

How’d you get started in crafting these boards? Any special features on yours?

I had made a set of traction pads for my splitboard after seeing my friend Joel’s board set up with a traction mat on it called a noboard pad. Riding the snow without bindings seemed like a another step closer to surfing, bit of a placebo as making the trek to the ocean was getting harder to make happen the older I got. The more time I spent riding without bindings got me thinking that there had to be better board shapes suited to how I wanted to ride. Most North American snowboard companies seemed to have meat and potato shapes at the time. I got my hands on a big swallowtail board and started to look into some old school snowboard designs. Also, I saw some current boards from Japanese companies such as Gentemstick and Moss that looked more like what I wanted to have under my feet. Snowboards are expensive so I figured I’d make a smallish investment and start to build for myself. With the internet, ski and board building forums were an amazing resource and many years of experience as a cabinetmaker/carpenter, I’d figured I’d give it a try. Been building boards for just over a year now and it’s kind of consuming. Takes a lot of hours to learn and refine technique, but it’s exciting when it works out. I’m just trying to work with outlines to allow for faster turns in tight spots. Trying to make them shorter while still retaining the buoyancy. Radical changes in direction while keeping as much speed as possible is the goal I reckon. Also messing with some secret special sauce base profiles to assist with loosening things up when needed but also help edging engagement. Ideas are always changing, some things work great others need refining.

In what ways is the feeling of riding one different than that of a conventional snowboard?

The boards feel like they roll from edge to edge easier and smoother in deep snow. The swallowtails allow the rear end to sink more so you can have a bit more power when turning as you can use both feet instead of doing the rudder thing and riding with most of your weight on your back foot trying to keep the nose up. Sharp turns and spinning out of turns is a bit easier as well.

How does it compare to surfing?

I think there is a fair amount of likeness to surfing, especially in deep snow. The feeling of buoyancy and railing a good strong turn. I find myself constantly looking for features like banks and walls to turn on. Trying to maintain a good flow and keep speed to clear flat and low angle sections. For me it’s the closet I’ve been to it out of the water.

Once you have the inspiration for a new board, how do you go about materializing that idea into something tangible? What’s the process like?

I start on the computer and with some ballpark measurements of where I think things should be. Once that is kind of sorted, I figure out where I want the stance located, then finally I push and pull the tip curves till my eyeball likes what it sees. From there I print out a rough paper template and throw it on some mdf and cut out and hand sand a half board template to a desired shape. I use this as the master to make all the other core and base templates. Then comes the tricky part of gluing and shaping all the necessary elements and hoping they all line up. After too many hours of hiding out, working in the little garden shed and if all goes well, I’ll have a new tool to surf the mountain with.

Have you tried experimenting with any eco-friendly designs? What are the tradeoffs involved if you go this route?

Eco-friendly was one of my first goals when getting started building. The first board I built was glassed with hemp cloth instead of standard fiberglass. I came up short on epoxy and therefore had to use less cloth when the board went in the press. It had a super soft flex and was fun for about a thousand feet till I hit a rock and snapped it. Hours of work for five minutes of fun. Even with enough epoxy and more cloth I don’t think the board would have had that long of a life span. It ain’t easy being green, especially with the stresses that a snowboard typically endures. The last few boards have been reinforced with fiberglass instead. The hemp cloth is used for a top sheet. The wood for the cores is harvested and processed here in BC. I’m also using Entropy Super Sap Bio Resin which seems to work just dandy. I try to eliminate as much plastic as I can but the glide characteristics’ of a PTEX base is hard to beat so I still use it. There is a fine line in keeping with the eco-friendly thing and still maintaining an acceptable amount of durability. If it’s more eco-friendly but only lasts half as long then it’s kind of redundant. Hopefully the future brings smarter and friendlier ingredients to work with.

Can you talk a little about your company, Almond Manufacturing?

The carpentry thing is still my day job and Almond Mfg is a snowboard product company I work on in the evening. I make and sell traction pads for surf inspired snowboarding. I made my own set of traction pads a few years ago as I couldn’t find a product that would work on my splitboard as well as standard snowboards too. The prototype worked well and friends were keen to try it out. So I went about getting an injection mold made to produce the pads and see where things would go. The pads are molded here in BC and all final machining, drilling, assembly, sewing, packaging, etc. is done here at corporate headquarters in Glacier Heights Trailer Park in Revelstoke, BC. It’s tough working out of home in such small spaces but you learn to make it work. I’m glad the ol’ lady is patient and understanding as I spend quite a bit of my free time working on it and therefore have crap spilling out all over the place. Obviously it’s pretty much a one man band operation. Being small time has also forced me to learn how to do all my own website, video and most of my graphic work (thanks Brent!). It’s all quite different from my day to day at work so it’s exciting to learn some new skills and have a creative outlet.

How can people purchase your creations?

At this point traction kits and accessories can be purchased through the website at www.snowsurf.ca. Maybe I’ll have some boards for sale one of these days. But I’d have to be sure I have things really dialed in before I’d feel comfortable selling them. I’d like to keep them all as there are no duplicates so far but only so many will fit in the trailer.

What’s been driving you to create lately? Anything in particular getting you stoked these days?

Having ideas and seeing them come into fruition under my feet is pretty exciting. The perpetual battle to refine and perfect a craft that you love is a strong driving force. It’s cool to see so many sub genres and riding styles within each and every board sport and the tools used to make them happen. I guess I take bits and pieces from them all, past and present. Pretty stoked for the good fortune of having these recreational pursuits and the good company that I enjoy them with.

For more, be sure to check out Nikolai’s website: www.snowsurf.ca

Born in New York, raised in Miami and now based in Brooklyn, Emilio Perez’s has a very unique style of art. His paintings are created via a signature process that entails painting sheets of enamel, latex and acrylic in different hues onto wood panels and then, using an x-acto blade, slicing away at and removing layers, revealing tracts of muted colors underneath.

He is currently working on a large-scale (6 x 18 ft) triptych at Lux Art Institute in Encinitas (using the above-mentioned process) that will be inspired by Lux’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean, as well as by the surfing he has made part of his daily routine while living in San Diego. His residency will go from NOVEMBER 10 through DECEMBER 10. But his show will be up through DECEMBER 31 so stop by and check it out.

How did you first get involved in art? Are you formally trained or is it something that has come naturally?

Since I can remember, I have always been making art. When I was a kid, my mother used to paint so I always had the materials around to make a mess with. I did end up going to art school but I already had it in me from a very young age.

What are your influences?

I have many different influences. Since my work is abstract and has a tendency to come from the subconscious in a very intuitive way, I feel like my brain is a filter for all of my experiences. The energy in my work is influenced the rhythm of music and the movement of the ocean. The composition is often influenced by classical paintings and the palette from my travels.

How would you describe the style of art you do? Is there a name for it?

I don’t know that there is a name for my style but I would describe it as an abstract expressionist painting, with a graphic component.

What is your process?

My process is a combination of painting and cutting. I make a very loose and expressive painting over a colored background then go back into it with a knife, removing areas of painting to reveal the colors underneath. I look at it as making order out of the chaos.

From talking to you, you seem to approach each piece without much planning. How does working without much preparation to what you are creating affect the end result? Do you feel it has more of a fresh and free?

Because I want to make a painting that has a lot of spontaneity and movement, I find it is better to not have a plan and let the painting evolve on its own. It also makes the process more interesting to me. I feel that I am having a dialogue with the painting as opposed to knowing what it is supposed to look like before starting and just going through the motions.

How do you go about naming your pieces?

I listen to a lot of music while I work so I often write down song lyrics or something I may hear on the radio that grabs my attention. After the paintings are done, I go through my list of titles and try to find something that fits. I try to make the titles fun and they also give the paintings another level of meaning or even ambiguity.

What other types of art do you work in? Any other mediums?

Besides the paintings, I also make works on paper. The approach is the same in the sense that I make a very loose composition and then try to make sense out of it. I make these with ink and watercolors but no cutting with a knife.

Tell us a little bit about your residency at Lux Art Insitute. How did you get connected with them? What is the benefit to doing a residency in a place like Encinitas (which is more known for surfing then art)?

I actually had the good fortune of being contacted by LUX. I was not familiar with their program, but it turns out that my work really lends itself to their mission of making the artist and process accessible to the public. They have given me a beautiful place to live and make work. The best part is that the beach is 5 minutes away! It was a pretty easy decision to accept the invitation. Besides the location, the surf and an excuse to be out of New York for a month, I normally don’t have many visitors when I am working in my studio in Brooklyn, so having access to the public and speaking with students helps me understand and think about my work in different ways.

How does surfing play a part in your artistic process and/or lifestyle?

Although my work is not about surfing, I think that my time on the water really helps me focus and gives me energy to make work. If there is one common thread between surfing and my paintings is that they are both intuitive and happen in the moment. I think that is why I enjoy them so much.

How does the contemporary art world look at you as a surfer?

I am not sure how the contemporary art world looks at me as a surfer. What I can say is that to be a surfer in New York, you need to have a flexible schedule and being an artist allows me to do that.

What’s next for Emilio Perez?

I have had a pretty busy year with a solo show at Galerie Lelong in Paris last month and now this project here at LUX. I think a little break is in order then I will be getting started on a new body of work for my next solo show in New York probably sometime late next year.

Photos: Grace Madamba/Lux Art Institute & Stacy Keck

Although photographer Maggie Marsek grew up in Wisconsin, far from any salt water, her connection to the sea began early on with visits to both Florida and California. After attending Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, she moved to San Diego and was quickly surrounded by the beach culture and more importantly, surfing. Maggie found herself capturing the true lifestyle around the sport while continuing to develop her expertise in the craft of photography. By utilizing film, she takes no short cuts, instead creating saturated and grainy images, bringing a dream-like appearance to her photographs.

How did you get started in photography? Any formal training? Or just learn as you go?

I remember running around with a 110mm camera when I was little. I can’t say I was one for composing, but rather snapping endless shots of my cats, dog and people passing though my field of view.

I began photography classes in high school, and this is where I fell for it. I was just enamored by the process and craft of photography. I then went to study photography at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. I graduated from there in 2002, with a BFA in Photography, after learning the history of photography and gaining a deeper understanding of all aspects of the field. I had hands-on learning how to shoot everything from products and commercial work with artificial lighting in the studio, to shooting people and architecture in available light. I learned to process my own film and prints in the darkroom and about various film types. I shot with 35mm, medium format and 4×5 large format films and cameras.

What drew you to wanting to shoot surfing and the lifestyle behind it? And what else do you focus on shooting besides surfing?

In high school I worked on some projects shooting water -freezing movement was fascinating to me. In Savannah I began shooting skateboarding, freezing action, and later began shooting surfing, which incorporated the water movement and action. I loved the idea of stopping the action of such a fast paced sport.

After college I came out to San Diego I found myself surrounded by surfing. Casual, mellow long boarding and fast paced short boarding were everywhere. I began to experience how surfing was more than just a sport, it was a way of life. I loved how not only people’s days but also their lives revolved around surfing. It was like their daily vitamin, or ritual. This surfing culture has specific tools-surf boards, for the variety of waves and conditions. They have have their surf rigs – cars and trucks they take them to where the surf is. They drive from a hour inland, up and down the coast, and they camp in cold, wet forests or dusty & dry desert-like dunes when on a perfect wave mission. I love documenting this vast, cool culture that I never had exposure to growing up in Wisconsin.

When I am not shooting surf lifestyle, I shoot weddings, portraits, and editorials. I’m also pretty passionate about food photography so I incorporate that into recipe posts on my blog.

You now also work in a photo lab. How has that helped enhance your understanding of the craft?

I’ve been working in photo labs for the last 8 years and have been really lucky to see literally all subject matters captured on all types of film. It has really enhanced my passion for the craft and deepened my love for the process. Something, an experience, will be shot on film and then taken out of the camera. Then that experience travels in a capsule, a film canister or spool, to chemicals that process it-making it come to life. Now it is tangible, it can be scanned or printed making it visible. There it is. A positive or negative, color or black & white, it is a record of that experience shot weeks, days or even moments earlier.

I’m pretty lucky, and it has been a wild ride. I have been really fortunate to scan the film of so many photographers I admire, that’s probably been the most rewarding part. I’ve gotten to see film of new places, new faces, new tricks landed in skate sequences and portraits of world class surfers who just won another world title… even before the photographers who shot it get to see it.

Working in a photo lab has really taught me you can always learn more about photography. I don’t mean by shooting the newest, and most expensive gear and editing with the latest software. I mean by shooting with the camera you have and learning how to capture your subject in your way. Shoot in a way that shows people how you see the world around you.

I have seen some of your work around where you literally stitch photographs together. Tell us about your process of adding even more of your personal artistic touch to your work.

I started by stitching photos to card stock for impromptu Birthday cards. I thought it transformed my images from photos to art.

Stitching my photos together is way to look at them in a new way. Some of my images can be bold and have an impact on their own. Some images might not say much on their own, but when pieced with others a story may be introduced. Images I may have previously overlooked are resurfacing and being used in collages because they fit in some way. Whether is the the subject in photos, the colors or the over all moods of the images, stitching them together let’s me look at them differently, as a whole. The stitching itself is the tactile connection. You can see how I am physically putting these images together; it adds some texture and variation to my work.

You also enjoy body surfing and mat surfing. What’s the draw for you? And how do they help you understand the ocean more than traditional surfing?

I find myself more comfortable closer to the water’s surface. Mark Cunningham said something about body surfing along the lines of: “It’s a way to be in the wave rather than on it.”

Riding a surf mat, well…it’s just unbelievably fun. That’s the point of it all isn’t? – to have fun. I’m finding both methods are helping me to learn better placement and get me more comfortable shooting in the water.

What can we expect to see from you next?

For my second piece with them Urban Outfitters commissioned me to do a collage, that will be available on-line and in stores in February! I will still be making art and stitching up new collages, and I’d love to have a show in 2012 if the right space were available. As always, I’d love to collaborate on pieces and projects with other surfers and artists.

To stay up to date with Maggie, check out her social networks:
website: www.maggiemarsek.com
blog: maggiemarsek.com/blog/
twitter: @sealayer
Instagram: @maggiemarsekphoto
pinterest: pinterest.com/maggierhyne/

Sean Bernhardt is a 20 years old student/artist out of Monmouth County, New Jersey. He started making art from a young age and figured early on that art was really his passion around 8th grade. Initially he worked in mostly pastels/colored pencils, drawing landscapes. He later transitioned into mixed media by using salvaged objects and gluing them to the canvas. Mixed media gave Sean a chance to really throw in his mix of things and showed him that not everything needs to be perfect, which is why art can be an outlet for inspiration.

When did you start surfing? Do you remember your first wave?

I started surfing when I was about 10 years old, but always would stand on my boogie-board at a young age. I will always remember my first time out in the water.

When did you decide you wanted to be an artist? Is it a full time gig for you, or something you work on during your off time?

It wasn’t until about 8th grade of elementary school when I realized art was something that I really wanted to keep doing. I always drew on everything as a child, which may also be a reason. I mostly work during my off time when I’m not in class or out surfing. I do as much work as I can when I’m free.

Why art? Why not something else?

I chose art because of expression and that it gives people a chance to see how I see things. I don’t see myself doing anything else. I’ll be happy just painting and living my life simple. I don’t want to be a businessman or anything like that.

Where do you look for inspiration for you art? What about in surfing?

Inspiration comes from everything for me. It can be something really simple and I will add on by piecing things together, not really starting off with a plan. I get inspired surfing when I see others raising the bar or just cruising on a wave having a good time. Surfing is a really good way to be creative as well.

How does surfing influence your art?

Surfing influences my art by making me look at things differently no matter what piece I am working on. When I surf I like to think about how waves are not always the same, just like how my work can go from being really basic to very intricate, but still has the same feel and look.

Describe your style. And what’s your process?

My style is mixed media/collage. The way I work varies. Sometimes I will sketch out what I want to lay out, other times I will just go with different pieces that I find interesting, depending on shape and color. I like to look through an old magazine after I’ve cut out certain things and look at the shapes that can be formed and turn it into something. I mostly work in acrylic and combine watercolor, ink, paint pen, and old magazine clippings.

What types of art do you enjoy the most? Is there one in particular that you find yourself sticking you or is variety your spice of life?

I’m a big fan of street art, collage, and illustration. I feel like I will always bounce around with my work, but always be focused on getting the message out with these types of art forms. Each are very similar and work well together.

Where can someone find your work or may recognize it from?

I have work in a few local shops and stores around my town. People may recognize my work from Flickr or from shows I’ve been in recently. You can check out my work on Facebook.

Being from Jersey, do you feel that you have more access to artist culture outside of surfing? And how does that influence your work?

I feel that being from New Jersey, as an artist is different because where I live there really is no scene for the type of work I like to make. It influences my work by making me create pieces that nobody has seen around my area. I like to see people really taking the time to look at every little detail in my work.

What’s next for Sean Bernhardt?

I have a few projects I will be working on. I’m going to launch a series of gray-scaled collage tees and hopefully get some snap-back hats made up. I will also have a ton of new work to showcase for 2012.

To stay up to date with Sean’s work, follow him on Flickr or Facebook.

Tom Petriken is a 23 year old professional surfer from Point Pleasant Boro, New Jersey. He’s the newest member of the Insight team and contributor for The Inertia. Instead of focusing on contests, Tom’s tracking the next swell in his 1971 Volkswagen Bus. In this interview, we decided to take a peek inside Tom’s world.

Describe a day in the life of Tom Petriken.

I’m partial to getting up early so I can exercise and start the day. When there’s waves, I like to spend the majority of my time in the water. I always try to take advantage of what the Atlantic Ocean produces, you never know when the next flat spell is coming. On days where the ocean is taking a rest, I’m writing and searching for new adventures. Yesterday, I took a drive down Whipporwill Valley Road. It’s one of the haunted roads in New Jersey.

How did you first get into surfing? What was your first board?

Both of my parents surf; it was in my blood to become a surfer. My dad pushed me into my first wave when I was 7. Since that moment, I was hooked. My first board was a custom 5’6″ Gary Linden swallow tail. It’s blue with a huge dragon on the bottom and it’s still in my basement. I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of that board.

As a professional surfer, do you feel you have a certain duty or image to maintain every time you paddle out? In other words, is it all business when you hit the water?

Mixing business with pleasure is a risky endeavor. Its always good to remember why you started in the first place, to have fun. I consider myself very privileged that another day in the office means another day doing what I love.

What’s with building igloos? How did you learn to do that? And what’s in it for you?

When 4 feet of snow keeps me trapped inside for a week, there’s only so much TV I can handle before going insane. I’ve been making igloos since I was in 3rd grade. Every winter I try to outdo myself with a better creation. Last year I constructed my greatest masterpiece which contained 3 rooms. A 15 foot long tunnel led to a game room and my bedroom. Some say building igloos is crazy but at least I’m entertained.

Any other sort of art that you are into?

I’m lucky to live an hour away from NYC where there’s museums like the MoMA, MET, and AMNH. A day inside of any of those places will have your mind overflowing with inspiration.

Tell us a little about your blog and what you are doing on there? What do you feel about your personality or life experiences that people will find interesting enough to check in on your blog?

I started The Tommy Log while I was spending a week inside my ice palace. After surviving the first night, I realized that I needed to share my story. I hoped my words could bring positivity into the lives of those who were undergoing harsh times during the blizzard. I keep my blog updated daily with ramblings and photos from my life. I just want my readers to be inspired to go on their own adventures and smile while they think back to a similar experience in their past.

For those of us who haven’t had a chance to explore the New Jersey surfing experience, describe the scene over there?

New Jersey has a love/hate relationship with most surfers. Some days mother nature provides the waves of your dreams while other days have the side shore winds from your worst nightmare. It’s a fickle surf destination. We spend our summers staring at a flat ocean and a beach blanketed with tourists. The colder it gets, the better it gets. Its possible to encounter waves that resemble French beach breaks but you might need to climb into 5 millimeter of rubber to surf them.

What has been getting you the most stoked lately?

Trading off waves with my friends during an evening glass off. When its windy all day, the best sessions are when you least expect it.

Photos by Mike Incitti and Melissa Dilger

For more from Tom, check out The Tommy Log or like him on Facebook.

A passionate writer, surfer & shaper, Bryan Knowles fell in love with the ocean at an early age. Shaping his first surfboard at 14, he later wrote his college application essay about board building, which brought him from his hometown on Cape Cod, MA to Stanford University.

Bryan now resides in San Clemente, CA as “Rider-in-Chief” of Ride Anything Surfboards and shares his surf-inspired poetry on his website SurfPoetry.com. He is currently involved in writing his own children’s book, Where the Albatross Soar, and is working hard on finding the funding to turn this project into reality (read the interview below to find out how you can help). Although board building and writing are not often thought of in the same sentence, we salute Bryan as he has found a way to turn his passions into his professions.

What types of writing do you do? Is there a certain type/genre that you prefer?

Well, lately I’ve been writing a lot of emails (laughs). It feels like I’m always writing one thing or another, whether it’s poetry, marketing copy, business plans or just jotting down random ideas. I don’t know that there’s necessarily a specific type I prefer, but I definitely enjoy writing poetry. It’s fun incorporating verse & rhythm when I’m trying to convey my thoughts so I guess in that sense, poetry can feel a little more artistic & creative to me than other forms of writing. There’s just something therapeutic to me about stitching words together, so when I’m confused or stressed about something it’s nice to just sit down with a blank page and see what it turns into.

Where do you draw your inspiration from for your writing?

Everywhere. I grew up on the Cape (Cape Cod, MA), so I’ve always been surrounded by the ocean and nature. Just being outside and observing all the life & little things that make up our surroundings is really inspirational. I write a lot of surf-inspired poetry and definitely have my best ideas and feel most in touch when I’m in the water. It’s amazing how small the ocean can make you feel because there’s so much to explore & we don’t get all that much time to do it. Puts things in perspective & keeps me motivated.

Sounds like you’re a bit of a naturalist too?

Ha, ya I guess that might’ve sounded a little granola crunchy huh? I’m stoked on technology too though; it’s pretty amazing. I just never had video games as a kid & used to be really jealous of the kids who did, but in retrospect that was one of the best things for me because it forced me to be outdoors and realize how amazing nature & ecology are. Pure entertainment!

When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? Was there a defining moment where you said, “This is the path for me…”?

Hmmm. There has definitely not been a defining moment & I don’t know that I’m ready to say that it’s “the path for me” or anything like that. I mean I definitely love writing and always will, but I really like having lots of different projects going on, especially the shaping & entrepreneurial stuff. Keeps things fresh & interesting. Let’s see how this first book goes before we go labeling me a writer (laughs).

Besides the words on a page, what does it take to be a successful writer in this day and age?

How should I know? So far all I’ve sold is a few Surf Poetry Calendars! I guess it seems like success in most things is a combination of authenticity, connecting with people, marketing yourself well and a bit of luck. In terms of children’s books I think it’s recognizing that kids are digesting literature much differently than when you or I were young. I hope there’s always a place for old-fashioned print, but it’s no secret that kids now are most engaged when they’re interacting with literature on the iPad and other digital devices.

You also shape surfboards. How did you get started in board building? And what are your inspirations for surfboard design? What types of boards do you make?

When I was 14 I broke my ankle and couldn’t play basketball for a season so I ordered a blank, cloth and some resin and made my first board. The glass job left a lot to be desired, but the shape was descent and it surfed surprisingly well. I loved the idea of riding something I made so I turned our woodshed into a shaping bay and started making boards for myself and friends. I knew early on that pro surfing wasn’t in the cards for me, but was getting really positive feedback on my shapes and felt like building boards for some of the best surfers and waves in the world was within reach. My company is called Ride Anything, so I make all types of boards from performance shapes and grovelers to guns, logs & alaias. I’ve kinda been on a square-nose kick lately and boards like our Chicken Nugget have been really popular.

As someone who started shaping in the backyard, what would be your advice to a youngster who wants to make their first board?

Go slow, light hands near the stringer, don’t cut your finger off.

What do you see as the future of surfboard design.

People will always be tinkering with shapes, modernizing old concepts and calling them “revolutionary.” The real breakthroughs will be in materials that are more durable and sustainable without sacrificing performance. I hope we can explore new ways to fine tune flex properties at different focal points throughout the board. We all need to adopt more environmentally responsible processes, myself included.

Favorite surfer?

Carissa Moore. I’ve seen her out at Lowers quite a bit lately just killing it. I hope she gives the boys a run for their money at Triple Crown!

You’re based in San Clemente, CA, but I understand you have roots on the East Coast as well. Can you tell us a little about how you made it out west?

I grew up on Cape Cod, MA and absolutely love it there. There are some amazing waves when it’s on, with a really solid crew of local surfers. When I started looking at colleges I was pretty set on California and applied all over the place. Somehow I tricked Stanford into accepting me and was really fortunate to go there. That place is just so special and it didn’t hurt that Santa Cruz and OB were about an hour or so away. I still love the east coast and make it back often, but for the past 9 years CA has been home.

You are working on your book Where Albatross Soar. Tell us a little bit about the book and what you are trying to convey?

Ya, it’s been a really fun project and I’m super excited about it. Basically it’s a surf- inspired story about waves and the big, spinning storms that create them. The best way to learn more about what I’m trying to accomplish with Where Albatross Soar is to check out the video on my Kickstarter page. I introduce & narrate the story there.

What was the inspiration behind writing a children’s book?

I’ve wanted to write a kid’s book for a while now. I think being part of a child’s development and influencing the way they think about things is one of the most humbling, inspirational things I can imagine. I can’t wait to see it come together and hope it becomes a story that inspires children to explore nature and appreciate the ocean a little more.

What’s your vision for where you’d like this book to take you?

Hmmm. I don’t really know. Indo would be nice! Honestly, I’m just excited to get it out there and see what people think. Hopefully it leads to more books, maybe not all children’s books, but stuff that makes people think, without being overly preachy. If I can use my writing to inspire people to get out, enjoy the outdoors and develop a stronger appreciation for nature I’ll be very happy.

How can people help?

Check out Where Albatross Soar on Kickstarter. Watch the video and if you like it I hope you’ll consider supporting my project & spreading the word, which will allow me to move forward with the next phase of the book. There are some pretty cool incentives including pre-ordering signed 1st edition copies, dedicating or sponsoring the book and even one of a kind, collectable surfboards. We’re also looking for back cover endorsement quotes from any top pros & surf icons out there.

To support Where Albatross Soar, visit & share the following link:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bryanknowles/where-albatross-soar

To contact Bryan directly you can email him at bryan@rideanything.com

Or check out his various work at:

www.surfpoetry.com
http://www.rideanything.com/

Blakeney Sanford is an amazing contemporary artist we recently ran into that we thought was WELL WORTH finding a bit more about…a true woman of the DIY culture. This Santa Barbara resident creates gorgeous, innovative sculptures and paintings. Her work ranges from pint-sized art pieces to large 40′ installations that will blow your mind. Working with industrial materials such as rebar, fiberglass, and looking to nature for inspiration, Blakeney has successfully carved out her own unique style of art that we are sure you will dig. We hope you enjoy this thoughtful and complete interview with the artist herself…

How did you first get started in creating art? And was there a defining moment along the way that made you say, “This is what I need to be doing for the rest of my life”, or was it something you knew you wanted to do from the get go?

I’ve always loved to create, but it wasn’t until 2008 that I really jumped full bore into my career as an artist. In 2006, I was traveling in Baja when my appendix ruptured. It took me two days and miles of dirt roads to get to a medical facility and in that time I got really sick, my stomach bulging like a watermelon, coming close to the point of no return… After a major surgery in a funky farm town in Mexico, and a year spent in and out of a hospital in California, I had had some time to consider my life and what I had chosen to do so far. I realized that in my core, I really wasn’t very happy and hadn’t been, but that I had the power to make changes in my life and that I really was the only one that could. It was time to stop ignoring myself, and time to start making art.

Now my creative process is my work, my passion, my purpose and I know in my gut of all guts that it is exactly what I am supposed to be doing with my life. It’s funny to me how cliché stories like these become; how it takes those massive life-changing glimpses of mortality to put us on point, to clarify, to set us straight…

You have such an awesome and unusual name. Any story behind it?

Thanks! I’m a last name girl. My name, Blakeney, is my grandmother’s maiden name. It’s Welsh in its origin. I’ve never met another… It usually takes three goes at the coffee shop for them to get it right. I’m a grandma combo: my middle name is Virginia and was the name of my other grandmother. I secretly like to imagine that, beyond my name, I might possibly be a mix of both of these creative, elegant, and capable women…

Blakeney & her nautulus alaia. Joni Sternbach Shoot

Alaia, olo, & SUP paddle

How did how did you learn to create these amazing sculptures?

I spent my twenties really struggling to feel like I was doing something of purpose with my life. I toyed in a bunch of different careers and activities. I was a teacher, on sailboats for 25 days at a time, and then taught math in the classroom. I worked as a cook on a dive boat, rebuilt a CAL 40, took an extensive bike trip, worked a grape harvest, learned to ice climb, and surfed in far off places, not realizing how much each of these experiences would affect or have an impact on the next. So when I really decided to commit to my art career, I had all of these tools that I had acquired from all of my jobs and adventures in my tool belt. I had skills that had developed through life experience. It turned out that each thing I had done that seemed invaluable at the time had HUGE value. I have a knack for experimenting so I was willing to take these skills and then apply them to the next thing in line. Thus evolved my first major body of work, my blue resin series, involving learned skills in engineering and building. The defining moment of my resin career was while installing a toilet in the sailboat that I was rebuilding and I was shocked at the flexibility that I had with the material. You can basically build ANYTHING out of resin.

My first show, my debut, was a one-nighter in a courtyard of a beauty salon in San Clemente, CA. I had denied myself creative freedom for so long that the piece I created was massive: the 40′ long sculpture, “Shades of Blue,” was an opportunity to introduce the world to the creativity I had kept bottled up inside for so long. I think that is a big part of why my work has always been so large in scale: my creativity has needed a BIG outlet.

I’ve since created sculptures in this material ranging in size from 3′ to 50′, hanging from ceilings and structures, freestanding on floors and mounted on walls. Many are site specific while the others can be moved and installed in any location.

Left, Middle Peak, and Right

Left, Middle Peak, and Right

Can you talk a little bit about the process in creating them?

When I first experience or look at space with the intention of creating an installation, I typically have an immediate inspiration. When I first saw the courtyard in San Clemente, I envisioned a massive wave barreling over the space, and my brain and my hands went to work creating the piece. Knowing that resin had a translucent quality, I began the process of experimentation, developing a system to create the materials that I needed to bring my vision to fruition. The work has a contemporary contrast using industrial materials to translate a natural experience.

I spend ages in the mental engineering and envisioning steps when creating my work. I make sketches and drawings. I apply my love for mathematics to the engineering and construction process of the pieces. I spend time in the space where the pieces will live. I lay awake at night and realize that things will or will not work in the construction aspect. Day and night, the creative process is constant.

I create all of the resin panels that I use in my work by hand, in my studio, using molds that I’ve invented or built. This involves measuring and mixing resin, prepping molds, pouring and curing, and popping out the end result. I’ve created pieces that use steel as a structure, and others that are themselves structural. I bend all of the steel myself by hand or with a machine and I work with an awesome welder to tack the pieces together. This work is a PHENOMENAL commitment in time, energy and physical labor. Installations are multi-month processes, with 15+ hour days in the welding shop and the studio and round the clock installation processes on site. My hands hurt for days after and the scars are deep. It is thoroughly exhausting, but SO BEYOND exciting and seeing the outcome makes it worth it. The work is striking and feels so good on so many levels.

In surviving these pushes and these sleepless nights, I have learned that, in the end, everything comes together perfectly, exactly as it is meant to. So much of art, I’ve found, evolves from either knowing a skill and being able to apply it, or having the willingness to experiment and learn something new, creating a method to execute a vision. It evolves from the materials that you have lying around, or that you have access to and from the willingness to discover new methods, which leads you to the most unexpected places and the amazing people that inhabit them. People are really keen to teach when you’re willing to learn.

Small Day at Teahupoo. Epoxy resin, fiberglass screen, rebar , 9x12x8

Kelly & Raimana. photo: Duane Uyeda, photographiccontent.com

What is the inspiration behind them?

It’s a mixture of my need for time in nature and my intrigue with machinery and the industrial world.

I grew up on a ranch on California’s central coast close to where I now live. My parents have farmed organic vineyards and made wine my entire life, and spending time in nature, both in and on the water in the hills, has always been really important to them and they passed this on to me. I really connected with the ocean as an adult when I began surfing at 18, and the ocean has since influenced many of my decisions regarding the who’s, what’s and where’s of my life.

This coastal inspiration has thus have been a very fitting subject in my art. As most surfers will rattle on about the ‘cleansing of the ocean and how surfing takes them to another place, I too will join the bandwagon in claiming surfing to be a hugely important part of my routine. The sensation is like no other, and the variety of implements that you can use to achieve that feeling is so inspiring to me. My sessions are about playfulness, about having fun. Whether surfing tandem or on a longboard, riding a random shape or a handplane, the motion of my body on a peeling wave does something to me. For me. And for that I am grateful. So naturally, it was appropriate that my first major series in my professional career as an artist has been dedicated to translating this healing experience to the masses.

Blue Tube. Epoxy resin, fiberglass screen, rebar, 9x35x2

Deep. Epoxy resin, fiberglass screen, steel, 9x3.5x4

Cresting. Epoxy resin, fiberglass, steel, 18x12x12

What has been the evolution of your art? What mediums did you start with and how has your methods and style changed over time?

Crayons, paints, and paper have always been a fixture in my reality. I spent many a wine dinner diving into my drawings while my parents told their story to interested consumers. Now I love using traditional materials, such as paint and clay and plaster, as well as discovering materials, and experimenting and figuring out what can bring my vision to fruition. Much of my work contrasts nature and natural materials with contemporary materials or technologies. The hardware store and the McMaster Carr catalog are two of my favorite places to get lost in… Endless possibilities!

I have another series that I am working on right now called the “Shark Park Series.” It mixes traditional mediums, acrylic and panel and gold leaf, in a contemporary style. The series evolved from a photo shoot that we did at 6am in a kids park in Santa Barbara that we refer to as ‘Shark Park’ because of the giant shark play toy (although there are a few ‘shark parks’ in our neck of the woods up here that have personal significance to my family…) The photos were super. I then translated their silhouettes into a contemporary portrayal of bikini-clad women. There is something really beautiful and intriguing and sexy about bikinis and the female form, as there is about the allure of gold and the aesthetic of multiples. Bringing all of this together created the Shark Park Series. Initially as an effort to create something small and marketable (4″x6″), the series has evolved into an entity all its own, and now ranges from little to larger than life.

Shark Park series postcard

Tell us a little bit about your work with B&B Designs. What exactly is B&B Designs? And what is your involvement with them?

I met my beau, Bennett about a year after my Baja incident. The first present he gave me was a hand plane that he had shaped out of scrap balsa and had affixed an old windsurfing foot strap to. I loved to concept of surfing something that he had made. Soon after, our friends needed a stand up paddle, so, in what would become a common occurrence, we turned again to the scrap pile and went to work. We shaped a blade, I inlaid it with an abalone design, and glassed it, and we stuck it onto an old windsurfing mast. Perfect. And that was really the beginning of B&B Designs.

We both are mad for the ocean and love to surf and play and we really enjoy just being silly in the water on ANY ocean implement. It really brings us pure joy.

We’ve since crafted alaias, SUP paddles and many hand planes, and have made a little business of it. Most of the work is crafted out of found materials: scraps from shapers, tables found on the side of the road, hand harvested agave, and piles of barn wood. Each piece is super unique; either inlaid with abalone, overlaid with gold leaf, or embellished with a sketch or drawing. The pieces really are beautiful and although our completion time for commissions takes an exorbitantly long time, I like to think our work is worth it… It really comes from the heart and is made with love!

Rogue Wave. Epoxy resin, fiberglass screen, rebar, 13x12x12. photo Bill Dewey

How has working with resin affected your relationship with surfboards? You involved in any board building yourself?

Resin is an amazing material. I can do SO much with it. Really, I can create anything out of this plastic. I use epoxy resin from Fiberglass Hawaii. They have been amazing at coaching me in methods, but is has taken extensive experimentation in developing the systems for creating my work. In being aware of my impact on the planet, I’ve been on the hunt for a bio resin and I’ve just found an awesome company in Los Angeles, Entropy Resins, that I am going to begin working with!

I haven’t delved into shaping/glassing large format boards. I’ve been sticking to hand planes and paddle blades, and shaping and glassing those. We do have a collection of boards that we are surfing right now that we haven’t so much shaped as reshaped… We find so many boards broken in half in dumpsters, so we chop of the frayed edges and stick them back together and shape down the rails and glass ‘em up. We’re always amazed at how well they ride!

Building Swell. Epoxy resin, fiberglass screen, steel, 35x18. photo Nick Reinhardt

Shades of Blue. Epoxy resin, fiberglass screen, rebar, wire. 12x10x35

Where can people see your work? And what’s next for Blakeney Sanford?

My website and my mailing list are great ways to keep up with my work. There’s always something on the horizon!

And what’s next? THE MAKING OF MORE ART! I’m continuing to do a bunch of work with ROXY/Quiksilver right now on in-store installations, which is super fun and exciting. I also have a few gallery shows coming down the pike. Museum shows, international shows, commissions for private collectors and corporate clients, and design collaborations are goals that I’m working on attaining right now as well.

And then of course, there’s always the need to get inspired! More learning, traveling and blissful surf please! I’m loving connecting with inspired and interesting people that are imagining their lives as they want them to be and are bringing ideas to fruition. This life is beautiful, intriguing, challenging and endlessly refreshing.

Stay up to date with Blakeney’s work at www.blakeneysanford.com or www.facebook.com/pages/Blakeney-Sanford-Fine-Art/353779465778