30 years of the Ripper

One of the highlights of ASR had to be Powells art exhibit celebrating the 30 year anniversary of the Ripper. 58 artists interpreted Vernon Courtlandt Johnson’s (VCJ) classic work that is arguably the most iconic skateboard graphic ever created. There are soem names you will know and some that you won’t. Two Northwest artists were among those whose work was commissioned, Jay Meer and Mark Sellman. I was going comment on how the collection seemed kind of weak until I took a look at the complete installation. The individual pieces as presented isolated in popups don’t really do them justice. If you take a look at the installation you’ll get a better appreciation of the works. Check out the Powell Peralta web site for the whole shebang, including pics from the reception and George Powell’s interesting recollections of the design process.

And no, I wasn’t upset that I wasn’t asked to be included in the show. After all, there’s a fine line between tribute and copyright infringement, as you’ll see after the jump.

Initially I was super stoked to create these boards. Other companies had done more famous parodies, but in my mind this was a tribute and not sarcasm. Powell Peralta was the first brand I ever had a strong connection with, and a red Caballero dragon was my first real board. Although I ended up moving on to other brands after buying a couple Powell decks, I always had a special place in my heart filled with unicorns, puppies, rainbows and Powell Peralta. A huge part of that was VCJ’s artwork. Getting back to our tribute, after a while I started to feel like it was lame, not because it had been done ready, but because I thought it showed a lack of creativity that I often criticized other companies for.

Of course, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to resurrect our tribute for the 20th anniversary of the ’86 Bones Brigade Tour, the one that used the ripper graphic extensively. This is our version on a sticker. I don’t think we even went on a tour that year.