A whole wall full of skateboard art decks, this photo leads a single page article in the February 2024 issue of Architectural Digest. Yeah, that old school magazine that you used to flip through at the dentist's office to take your mind off your cavity as a kid.
I'm working at a library today, because that's what you do when you're a homeless blogger and artist. Taking a little break between computer things, I picked up a couple of magazines to flip through, while listening to a podcast. I grabbed a couple Architectural Digest magazines, because they caught my eye on the rack. Much to my surprise, the February 2024 issue has a little article about skateboard art decks (link above). The web page is polluted with too many ads, but you can read the short article if you want to, without subscribing, it's half a magazine page long. I think about the future a lot, but I definitely did not see this one coming. Just a weird place to find skateboarding art, more proof that action sports keep seeping deeper and deeper into mainstream society.
Here's an action sports themed video from Architectural Digest that you'll either love or hate
I made my first skateboard art decks when I was back East in 2012. I took the trash out one day in the apartment complex where I was living, and there were three, well worn, muddy, skateboard decks sitting beside the dumpster. I think some mom just cleaned out her son's stuff that had been sitting around the apartment for a while. They were all decks (Baker maybe?) that came out 3 or 4 years earlier. I was doing my Sharpie Scribble Style drawing technique then, but I hadn't really figure out what to do with it. Mostly I was drawing alien drawings with funny captions, I called them Grey Trash, like "trailer park aliens." They just made me laugh, and were fun to draw. I put art, actual drawings on paper, on each deck, with a clear coat, and they looked pretty cool.
Grey Trash (trailer park alien) art deck, 2012. One of the first three I did. #sharpiescribblestyle
Years later, about 2020, I was homeless out here in SoCal, and I was selling drawings, not many, to people on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood. I did a Kobe Bryant tribute deck, after his untimely death, and made a tribute deck. I took it over to Hollywood to see what people would think. The art deck got way more looks than traditional drawings did. It was a chilly night, and I was debating whether I would take off or not. But the Kobe tribute deck sold in 15 or 20 minutes. I got $40 for it, and I had maybe 12 hours or so of work into it, but I was broke, and took the money.
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Kobe Bryant tribute art deck, 2020.
Being homeless, I was sleeping outside, scraping by, and selling some art every month then. I moved up from a 5' X 5', closet-sized storage unit, and moved up to a 10' X 10' unit. That actually turned into a cool little art studio. I started making more art decks, planning to start selling them in Hollywood, and work up to a somewhat steady income, to start getting back on track financially. But this was during the pandemic, like with everyone else during the pandemic, things didn't go as planned. I got behind on rent for the bigger unit, and lost it all two or three months later. Shit happens. I did like doing the art decks, and would like to make some more someday. I don't have a space to store all the supplies and to work now.
I've been doing a lot of writing on Substack lately, a platform designed specifically for writers, check it out:
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