10.17.2010

chrome ball incident #543: the solitary arts






















Skateboarders are the most creative people in the world. Fuck your art school.

A by-nowhere-even-close-to-complete assortment of some of my favorite etchings, sketchings, snappings, and tinkerings that stem from our little neck of the woods.

This one goes out to Peel.

A special tip of the hat to Aaron Rose, who's Beautiful Losers show we saw in 2004 honestly knocked the breath clean out of me... an experience much like seeing my first skate magazine some 20 years prior. This site is very much a reaction to what we saw that day back in Cincinnati.

Glad to be back. How is everyone?

19 comments:

Daniel said...

Thanks so so much for this post. I have never seen that photo of Kilgallen before!

some poser said...

Chris Johanson's Anti Hero graphics were the best.

tony hawk said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tony hawk said...

I always wanted a psycho stick.

ATM said...

Amazing post.

Keith said...

so many good artists. That Chocolate ad deserves to be on a shirt.

Is that Powell wanted ad the one that got Cliver his job there?

Welcome back E!

peel said...

Thanks, Chops! So many good memories, good artists, and inspiration! I love you!

Anonymous said...

Grigley Street Ghost was my first pro-model deck, after a Santa Cruz Bullet board with Chicago trucks (complete from a skate shop in Boston), a Nash from K-mart of someplace like that, and a handful of plastic banana boards and free formers in the 70s.

I'm not sure if I even knew who Grigley was before I got the board, but i do remember a sick trick tip from him on how to do a miller flip on a curb.

I love that in that ad he's doing a flatland boneless one with skate-able ledges and handrails in the background, like ghosts from the future.

rthdghuyfy said...

Nice to have you back!
That Jovontae ad was the best. The Kareem Campbell "da lench mob" graphic, also by Marc McKee was pretty epic with nickname's for everyone. The everslick day's where are you now?
Great post, thank you.

Anonymous said...

great to have you back. excellent selection.

anyone remember jawhn dettman? he had a pretty cool style. i remember an awesome painting of a wheelcair dude getting air on a half-pipe... always liked that one.

also: no tod swank?

dedleg said...

Sweet post! Nice way to mix it up.

Anonymous said...

You need to do an everslick post.

mb said...

Everslicks are back! Check the Santa Cruz website, i think that's where I saw it. Rad post btw.

Anonymous said...

Guys... can anyone tell me which company the "Mommy taught me..." ad (shot by Spike) was for. Would love to know.

Croupier said...

Incredible post, thank you so much, Chops!
Glad the Ball is back!

chops said...

thanks guys.

keith, yup. that's the one.

anon1, dj twit pretty much hit the nail on the head. its hard to imagine but at the time this came out, it really didn't raise as many eyebrows as it probably should've because by that point, World had pretty much challenged every taboo it could possibly think of... though it would continue trying to do so.

<3 peel.

anon2, excellent point about that street ghost ad. super good. thanks.

anon3, i have that. its from a "hands that bite" feature in TWS '87, I'll post it up on the next go-round. Along with some swank.

the spike "jesus" shot was obviously for a world company but not quite sure after that. this was when world ads start getting more scattered, right before girl started. case in point, the ad rocco ran the month prior to this in thrasher was for German Bearings.

thanks again guys.

Unknown said...

that slap cover was a life changer. twist mad circle era man that shit was just a good period in history.

Day Labor said...

Chris Johanson looks like Louie Barletta in that photo!

Anonymous said...

wrong. skateboarders aren't the most creative people. just the opposite. they are not original at all and beautiful losers and aaron rose suck too. oh yeah, so does spike jones. where the wild things are? are you kidding me? biggest piece of shit ever. people who are involved in skateboarding feel like they have to like people like larry clark, spike jones etc. the only creative person involved with skateboarding is harmony korine. at least he's original.