Only a skater can wander around in southeast Portland, and understand the significance of a Sharpie marker- drawn little bird with “Luda Crooks” written underneath.  The graffiti art of Chet Childress shows up in the places where one would expect it to show up the most: dive bar bathrooms, bus stops, skate-spots, etc.  The above picture is an example taken from his myspace page.  Oh, did I mention that Chet Childress rips? Childress will have a showing of his art from 7-10 pm on Thursday, December 18th at the Department of Skateboarding, located at 15 NE Hancock Portland, OR 97212.

Nice painted deck from Aaron Draplin. Dude is a design hero of sorts for this.

Yeah, sorry this has turned out to be Portland event central for the past few days at SNA. I had other plans but you know what they say about the best laid plans and opinions, or is that assumptions? Errrr, yeah. There’s one skate art show (Hecklewood’s Board Pushers) and one skate art auction for charity (Complete Skate) both happening Thursday December 4th in Portland. One of these days someone is actually going to ask me to take part in one of these instead of just posting about it. Hey skateboarding community! I went to art school. I’m an artist! UPDATE: The Complete skate event is just a showing, the auction takes place online.

NW largest ALL FEMALE skate competition December 13th at Skatebarn in Renton, WA. All ages, all abilities Skate clinic for beginners $300 cash purse for advanced Ramp Jam (Gentlemen welcome!) Live art and live music Gals coming out from Vancouver BC, Oregon, and California (including X-games medalists). Pre-registration and more info available at www.skatelikeagirl.com. Flyer after the jump.

We’ve posted about this before but it’s worth revisiting. There are a few decks that were added after we last posted about it but none since June 2007 though. Refill Seven’s Flickr set.

Ohio has a few renegade skateboard companies, including one called Sleezy Skates. In their own words: homemade spray painted planks from the heart of southern ohio. skatopia lurkers. doin it fer the kids in the sticks! These are a few of my favorites at the top. Although really crude, they have a large “body of work” that has definitely has an outsider art appeal. What more would you expect from the land of Skatopia and Devo? Check out Sleezy Skates.

This shot looks weird to me. I know the shoe is undersized, but the yellow and black object under the trucks looks like a parking block. Throw in the associated depth of field focus and you’ve got an interesting photo, thanks to Carl Warren. Check out the full frame version, this week’s Shot of the Week.

This month, at Fifty 24 PDX Gallery, skateboarder/artist/writer Michael Sieben has his original artwork in an exhibition entitled “From the Desk of Whatserface,” along with Mel Kadel and Travis Millard.  This exhibit is located at 23 NW 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97209, and will last until November 29. Expect paintings with lots of cutesy, renegade monster things with cryptic messages.  Sieben is also a columnist/artist with Thrasher magazine, and has made many skateboards with his trademark style.  Some may remember the video he did with Adidas that SNA covered a few months back.  The above pictures were borrowed from Sieben’s web page.

Daniel Gesmer on Facebook. Now where did I put my skateboard? UPDATE: We’ve removed the photo due to the copyright restrictions of the photographer.

This piece, entitled “Reach for Light,” was built by Ted Hunter for an art exhibit in Hawaii, and also displayed in Philadelphia.  The boards were hand built using the vaccuum method, and the shape of Roarockit’s “classic pintail.” The top graphic was photographed from an actual tulip petal and printed on griptape.  The fusion of the skateboard and the pose of a flower at daybreak create a unique sense of movement in this sculpture.