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Respect Mom Butts

Back when I was twelve, I would have punched your mom in the butt if you told me that one day I'd be included in a skateboard graphics retrospective with Jim Phillips.

Next weekend I'm heading to Georgia for the "Skate It or Hang It!?" show at the Museum of Design Atlanta. A few of my skateboard illustrator heroes are also included in the show and I feel really honored to be sharing some museum wall space with them, especially Jim Phillips. Are you kidding me? If you'd told me when I was twelve years old that someday I'd be included in a skateboard graphics retrospective show with Jim Phillips I probably would have punched your mom in the butt. Not really. I totally respect mom butts. But still, I would have done something weird to you.

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I wanted to produce a new screen print for the opening that tied into the theme of the show. I was digging around online trying to find inspirational images from the era that I started skateboarding (mid-80's) when I ran across this photo. In my opinion, it totally captures that era. I did a little research (Facebook polling) and found out that this is a photo of Andy Harris taken by Hal Badal (not sure of the exact year). I contacted Andy to see if he was OK with me producing a print with an image inspired by his photo. Luckily he was.

I say "luckily" because I'd already sent the art to the printer. Fingers crossed and stars aligned. Thanks Andy. And thanks Hal.

By "printer" I mean Brian Rise at Coronado Studio in Austin, TX.

When I say "Brian Rise," what I'm getting at is this dude here in the photo mixing inks to make sure we're on the same page when we say "smokey steel 80s blue." Unfortunately there's not an exact Pantone match for that phrase.

Yeah, these are close.

But maybe with a little more of that "early-evening '87 Chevy Cavalier blue."

Inks often appear different when they dry versus how they appear when they're wet. So, it's important to test your ink on paper and let it dry to get an accurate representation of what color you're working with. And is it just me or does this look like a painting? Dude… anything can be art. Trip on that. But seriously, if you framed this thing nicely you could probably sell it to a rich lady for tens of thousands of dollars. All you'd need is a convincing backstory involving the words "Brooklyn" and/or "collective."

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After we got the ink colors sorted out, I just kind of poked around and shot some photos. I love hanging out in other people's art studios checking out their tools and inspiration.

And their output.

And their regionalism.

And their polite requests.

And all the pretty colors. Don't get me started on the pretty colors. Thanks Brian and thanks Coronado Studio.

Movie Review: Soul Man

C. Thomas Howell eats a bunch of tanning pills and gets a scholarship to Harvard intended for "black" applicants. About a hundred other racist things happen and in the end he totally still gets the girl (Rae Dawn Chong), even though he spent the whole movie being a lying dickhead asshole in blackface. Good job, Hollywood.

The only thing I liked about this movie is that Elaine from Seinfeld is in it and her character's name is Lisa Stimson, which totally sounds like Lisa Simpson.

Previously - I Get It, It's a Cat

Roger Skateboards