Skateboards.

I am right in the middle of illustrating my first children’s book, and I took a few minutes away from painting my book to paint a couple of skateboard decks for an upcoming gallery show I will be part of at the end of the month in 555 gallery in Detroit (more information on this later…). This show is going to showcase a variety of artist’s paintings on skateboard decks. I didn’t want to forcefully “change gears” from the mode in which I am working for this children’s book, so I decided to place a character similar to the one from the story on the board.


When I was a teenager, I loved the Powell Peralta skateboards. I owned a Tommy Guerrero board, a gift from my dad that was stolen not too long after he bought it for me. My dad took me to the sporting goods store to buy me a baseball mitt, but he caved into the pressure I put on him to buy me a skateboard. I tried to ride ramp, but I was only good at street style on my board. I could ollie at one point. I tried to ollie on my friend’s skateboard recently and nearly killed myself.

One of my good friends growing up, Erik DeWaal, had an ALVA skateboard that I always coveted, and my other friend, Simon Blundell, had a HOSOI skateboard that I wanted as well.

I went to my local skate shop the other day and was pleased to see that Powell Peralta is re-releasing their “classic” skate decks again. They are true to the old skateboards; they don’t have the tail on both ends of the board.

I wish that I would have painted on blank skateboard decks when I was a teenager…I just didn’t have the $$$.