Painting
Curated by Eric Merrell
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Tails Of… Painting
Introduction
For the past few years, I’ve been working on a series of oil paintings of classic California skate spots – the Nude Bowl, Hollywood High, Wallenberg, Pink Motel, China Banks – as well as some steep streets and skate parks. Some of the spots I skated, but the majority of them I knew from watching skate videos or seeing in magazines, so it’s been an interesting sort of reexamining something familiar to me. Rather than featuring a skater (although some do, like the West L.A. Courthouse), I thought it would be fun to interpret the spots themselves, as they speak to creativity and movement in their own way.
I feel fortunate to have found the creative outlets of skateboarding and art at a young age. As a quiet kid, I kept to myself a lot, drawing in my sketchbook or sessioning my small jump ramp on the sidewalk in front of my house. Riding a skateboard down the street was a way of expressing yourself and led to new friends, just as art can be a great connector.
Think of your favorite skaters, your favorite artists: chances are you can describe the characteristics that make them unique and drew you to them. Is the spot memorable, did it influence the trick? What kinds of things do you like to draw? Are you cruising a mellow street or bombing a super chunky hill like Baxter? All of these things are customizable, whether your setup has grip tape or an array of paint tubes.
There’s nobody insisting that we go create. You have to have that inner drive that gets you outdoors, pushing down the street or in front of the easel; additionally, there’s no guarantee that anything will come of it. We build on the failures and learn from them, but I think we mainly follow these pursuits for the satisfaction they provide. More satisfying than any 9-5 job that your heart isn’t in, at any rate. Our brains crave creative play. Keep at it, keep showing up day after day for that battle, and eventually, you’ll figure out a way to land it. And the way you solve it will be unique.
Skateboarders and artists see opportunities everywhere. Just as it takes time to learn how to ollie, it takes time to learn how to push paint around a canvas. These things get more and more dialed in with time and effort. This issue was put together around the idea of painting, so it should be rad to see how everyone approaches that in their own way.
Eric Merrell
Table of Contents
Tails Of… is a print magazine and we’d love for you to experience it in that form if possible. We also understand that we can’t reach everyone in that way so we’ll publish some of the articles online. These could get released over time, eventually… if we get around to it.
10 : Joseph Hart & Ryan Wallace
16 : Ed Templeton
18 : Matt Curtius
20 : Shelter Serra
22 : Dave Aron
26 : Scott W. Prior
28 : Rich Jacobs
30 : Lia Halloran
32 : Mike Perry
36 : Kevin Christy
42 : Ryan Bubnis
44 : Dave the Chimp
46 : Brian Lotti
48 : Eric Merrell
52 : Mesngr
54 : Hannah Eddy
56 : Justin Santora
58 : Ben Horton
66 : Andy Jenkins
Contributors
Editor
John Freeborn
The Core Counsel
Rich Jacobs, Jai Tanju, Jim Houser, Ben Horton
Contributing Interviewers & Writers
Eric Merrell, Tom Maher, John Freeborn, and Souris Hong
Huge Thank You to all the Interview Subjects
All artwork are the copyright of the artists and are in use here to showcase their talents. We encourage you to go out and find their work, share, and support the artists. Tails Of makes no claim to any of these individual’s works