Yeah, well to jazz the summer along, I painted my first skate deck for a show that Andrew Davis is putting on at the 555 Gallery back in Detroit. I liked looking at the brand new deck [before I painted it ]. It was made in China. I want to get a real wooden surfboard just to sit around the studio. Really, it makes a big difference. A real mood enhancer. All the while, I kept thinking that Denis Wilson might drop by on his way over to the Spahn Ranch [even though he’s been dead for years]!
My deck is a didactic design with a HELLBENDER salamander motif. I thought it would be cool to make boards with an educational, informational message.
Hellbender in progress in the "Tiki Studio".
The text runs like this:
TALL SILENT TYPE “CLASSIC” YOU THE MAN! HOMIE! HELLBENDER “RAISES HELL WHEN HOOKED!” The Hellbender is a large aquatic salamander [16-20 inches]. Its wrinkled skin makes identification easy. The color varies from spotted yellow to red and brown. Eggs are laid under rocks in shallow water.
The finished deck.
I got all excited thinking of a whole line of salamander boards. This idea goes way back to my childhood where I lived in an old “edge” community, situated between the town [of Millvale, PA] and the suburbs. It still had ‘hollows” like the old hollers in Dark Hollers, damp and stinky in the humid summer. We played in a vast holler that was fast becoming NOT hollow. The land was being filled in from the housing development on the northern ridge. Anyway, there was a lot of shack building, tree swings, animal cruelty, and green apple war games, that type of stuff. Out of this came a legendary piece of wood that had been used for many things by many kids and was reputed to have survived a good burning. Maybe it was A.J., Dube or Sucky who burned it. It was called the “Salamander Board” since, in legend, the salamander was said to have been able to withstand the heat of a fire and survive. It was sort of like an ephemeral talisman from a Lord of the Flies In Your Own Back Yard type of thing bringing it all back home. Yeah! Disclosure: I’ve never been on a skateboard, skis, in line skates or even regular roller skates [not that type of guy!]. Did I say that I lived [literally] around the corner from Meg and Jack White's mansion?
Detail
Andrew [the empresario], Chris [his dudeness] and Joe acting all "Detroit" and 8 Mile at the opening. These guys were my students when I had Don Kilpatrick's job. Hey, Now! with that 40!
Decks by expat Detroiters [now East Bay Hyphy-head Yea-yahs], Squirrel Master L and Serge Gay Jr.
Andrew’s blurb
SATURDAY JULY 28 Please come and join us for a party. There will be 40 custom decks exhibited on the wall or found somewhere in the gallery. The 1% Skate Team will be skating during the event on a quarter pipe, bank and other things built right inside gallery. Live Music session with Brook Jacoby (KILLER) http://www.purevolume.com/brookjacobyhimself !DANCE PARTY! with DJ Scott Zacharias. Beverages will be served!+Free RedBull at event.
