How My Surfy Art Keeps Me Inspired

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$I was honoured last year to be approached by Billabong to create a piece for their Grom Comp. I was given a good brief to draw a tandem bike that was able to transport all their grommy kind of stuff to the beach. Basically this piece of art is what came out of my brain. What kid wouldn\'t want a bike like this?$

I was honoured last year to be approached by Billabong to create a piece for their Grom Comp. I was given a good brief to draw a tandem bike that was able to transport all their grommy kind of stuff to the beach. Basically this piece of art is what came out of my brain. What kid wouldn't want a bike like this?

$As artists we are always needing to stay fresh and at a place where we are evolving our artwork to be more and more resolved. I went through this phase back in 2014 (before the over saturation of drone photography). I sat and imagined what it must look like to see someone surfing from above. At one of my local beaches, Muriwai, we have these birds called Gannets that will dive bomb next to you thinking your leggy is a fish. I actually think it is more of a joke between Gannets to get surfers to crap themselves. I named this print \"Birds Eye\" after imagining what it must be like for a Gannet seconds before they dive bomb another surfer.$

As artists we are always needing to stay fresh and at a place where we are evolving our artwork to be more and more resolved. I went through this phase back in 2014 (before the over saturation of drone photography). I sat and imagined what it must look like to see someone surfing from above. At one of my local beaches, Muriwai, we have these birds called Gannets that will dive bomb next to you thinking your leggy is a fish. I actually think it is more of a joke between Gannets to get surfers to crap themselves. I named this print "Birds Eye" after imagining what it must be like for a Gannet seconds before they dive bomb another surfer.

$I drew this piece a few years back and it has gone on to be one of my most popular pieces to date. I recently re-released it with indian ink. If you were wondering what this character\'s name is, his name is Mike. He started out in life as Michael, which eventually transitioned into Mike-Cool after the need to create tag to draw on his school books in the mid nineties. Now it’s 2017 and he is known as Mike. A common downfall that Mike has is forgetting his Vegan approved sunblock made from safflower oil and zinc that his wife gave to him to use while paddling surfing the heaving bombs at North Piha. On this occasion while checking the waves in his \'87 Volvo station wagon, Mike realized he forgot his sunblock. The fear of going home with a burnt face and being confronted by his wife was real. He had and epiphany, and thought an easy fix was to wear his good ol’ dad hat in the water. He no longer wears sunblock, but wears a modified dad hat with some string to keep it on his head. This trick saves Mike getting the 3rd degree from the sun and from from his wife for not wearing sunblock.$

I drew this piece a few years back and it has gone on to be one of my most popular pieces to date. I recently re-released it with indian ink. If you were wondering what this character's name is, his name is Mike. He started out in life as Michael, which eventually transitioned into Mike-Cool after the need to create tag to draw on his school books in the mid nineties. Now it’s 2017 and he is known as Mike. A common downfall that Mike has is forgetting his Vegan approved sunblock made from safflower oil and zinc that his wife gave to him to use while paddling surfing the heaving bombs at North Piha. On this occasion while checking the waves in his '87 Volvo station wagon, Mike realized he forgot his sunblock. The fear of going home with a burnt face and being confronted by his wife was real. He had and epiphany, and thought an easy fix was to wear his good ol’ dad hat in the water. He no longer wears sunblock, but wears a modified dad hat with some string to keep it on his head. This trick saves Mike getting the 3rd degree from the sun and from from his wife for not wearing sunblock.

$This has to be one of my favorite collabs I have done ever! Melbourne based architect Michael from @grainofdescent made me this board and I drew up a bunch of graphics to go on it. It is a hollow core Paulownia/Cedar Mini Simmons. I had always wanted a board like this and now I do! I surf it when the waves are soft. It\'s super buoyant and rides like a dream. It doesn\'t get super big on our east coast in NZ so is the perfect fun board.$

This has to be one of my favorite collabs I have done ever! Melbourne based architect Michael from @grainofdescent made me this board and I drew up a bunch of graphics to go on it. It is a hollow core Paulownia/Cedar Mini Simmons. I had always wanted a board like this and now I do! I surf it when the waves are soft. It's super buoyant and rides like a dream. It doesn't get super big on our east coast in NZ so is the perfect fun board.

$This is a brand new collab I completed this year with @garagehandplanes The production of these boards just dropped in the last week! I have spent most of my life riding a thruster. In the last 5 years my interests in surfing became allot more alternative and less mainstream. I have since taken up logging and experimenting with making and surfing alternative short boards. Something that grabbed my attention was body surfing. It\'s raw, pure and hands down some of the most fun you could have in the ocean.$

This is a brand new collab I completed this year with @garagehandplanes The production of these boards just dropped in the last week! I have spent most of my life riding a thruster. In the last 5 years my interests in surfing became allot more alternative and less mainstream. I have since taken up logging and experimenting with making and surfing alternative short boards. Something that grabbed my attention was body surfing. It's raw, pure and hands down some of the most fun you could have in the ocean.

You may have seen my bearded alternative surfer folk while scrolling the feeds of Instagram. It’s been my dream to be an artist since I was six when I first heard of Michaelangelo. 10 years into a career of freelance art and design and I am still inspired by that same dream that started as a kid. Now I’m married with two kids and a freelance career that is so busy, but always keeps me inspired.

You can find more of the author’s awesome work on Instagram here.

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