Wes Humpston and Kat Von D got together to design a skateboard on Kat’s tv show LA Ink. Supposedly they are going to have a whole line of boards, although it seems more like something that was cooked up just for TV. The first hand drawn original board is being auctioned on eBay to benefit the Tony Hawk Foundation. My DVR didn’t pick up that episode, but someone else’s did. In the beginning of the design process there’s a funny bit where Kat says, “What should we put in the inside?” and Wes responds with “I like to do skulls and stuff.” Didn’t see that one coming. You can see the board in detail and watch the episode after the jump. It hasn’t been edited to show only Wes’ bits (get your mind out of the gutter), but hey, I didn’t have to do anything. The auction ends Friday, November 16 at 6 PM (PST). I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Kat is slightly more photogenic than Wes.

Grip tape stencil art from “Lefthand” in Duluth Minnesota. Get the punchline after the jump, or over at Stencil Revolution.

Some snaps I took at Tigard last week when there were only four people there.

Sheesh! What does it take to get some culture around here? Sure, we had a mini ramp outside of City Hall for a couple of hours, but nothing like this. In Liverpool England there is a nonprofit group called A Foundation whose purpose is to “to support the development, production and exhibition of contemporary visual art and, in particular, to focus on the enrichment and regeneration of Liverpool through culture and the arts.” How are they doing it? By hiring Simparch to install the Free Basin as well as a yet unnamed 40 foot wooden full pipe, which is rare, to say the least. I think there is one at Skatopia, but that may be it.

Made using a similar construction method with a complex layering of multiple wooden spines and ribs, the full pipe’s impressive structure echoes a hull in dry dock.

Hey, whatever you have to tell them to get it paid for… The best part is, the structure will be open for free public skating during gallery hours, from October 19th 2007 to April 20th, 2008. Details and consent forms can be found at A Foundation’s Drum ‘n Basin Greenland Street programme page. Hey UK readers.. let’s get some coverage happening for those of us stuck stateside. Good job A Foundation – You’ve made me want to visit Liverpool more than those Tony Hawk ads make me want to visit California.

UPDATE: Added video of Drum ‘n Basin in action.

[Photos: Left – Rob Meighen. Right – Simparch]
[Source: Liverpool’s The Daily Post]

It looks like Jim Phiilips’ second book of skateboard related art is finally out. The first one was a very good collection, but had more than I cared to see of his early non-skateboard related pieces. I understand it’s good to get a larger sense of history and the context of his style, but I could have done with a little bit less of the overtly hippy stuff and other works with a religious overtone. This new one focuses on skateboard art only, and covers recent work with Pocket Pistols, so The Skateboard Art of Jim Phillips looks to be more than just a rehash of the skate section of the previous book. His publisher must really like him to put this out when his previous book already does a fine job of documenting the skate art. Phillips’ style is such a a standout. While I’m not a fan of most of the monster stuff, I love his style and I’m drawn to his logo design. Even the stuff I don’t like, I still can’t help but stare at and study. I’m looking forward to this one.

[Source: Juxtapoz]

Old School Skateboarding has a gallery of decks painted by Rich Griswold. He hand paints details from classic board graphics and has a really good design sense. His MySpace page has more skate stuff and more photos of the boards. Somebody give the guy some pointers on documenting his art.

If you call “art” gluing a bunch of junk on a skateboard, then you’d love to be in my shoes. I got an incomprehensible email in French from Leo Scalpel with about a hundred pictures of art. I think he wants me to buy them, I’m not sure. Also available on Flickr, twice.

A lot public buildings or parks projects contain some small portion the overall budget to be used for art on the site. I was looking at a picture of the cheesy sculpture outside of the Tigard skatepark when I realized in my travels I’ve seen a lot of bad skatepark art projects and a few good ones, including one you can actually skate. So I’m going to put together a gallery of skatepark art, which will, unfortunately contain mostly crap. Send in your pics (large versions please) and I’ll include them. Top left, kent Washington invert sculpture with MC in the foreground. Photo by Dan Hughes. Top right, the lovely squiggle art at Tigard Oregon. Larger after the jump.

We pretend to be a legitimate source of information on skateboarding and culture here at SnA, but really we’re just a couple of guys wise cracking at a keyboard. Nothing illustrates that more than the fact that I have two links in this post that were supposed to be related, but I’ve lost my notes and context so can’t make a thoughtful analysis. Aww hell, I’m posting it anyway. First we have a gallery of anti skating devices called Unsubtle deterrents. None of the photos are amazing, but the collection sure has an nice calming effect for some reason, even though it should make my blood boil. I only wish they were all the same size and orientation. Next we have a paper by Ocean Howell titled “The Poetics of Security: Skateboarding, Urban Design, and the New Public Space” Sure it’s a bit dry, but the gist is that “skateboarding is exceptionally good at drawing attention to the quietly exclusionary nature of the new public space.” In other words, public spaces are being designed to force the public to use them in ways that the public doesn’t necessarily want to. It’s like the grandmother that gives you $10 for your birthday but tells you you have to put it in the bank and not spend it on comic books or candy. Gee, thanks. There’s a pretty obvious conclusion to draw about modern skatepark design from a street skater’s point of view. In any case Ocean’s article exists on an online archive that craps out after seven pages of text with titles like “Voyeur-god vs. the Spatial Practitioner” that all have to do with skateboarding in public spaces. I haven’t read it all yet. I thought there was no limit to how much I was willing to geek out about skateboarding, but apparently I found it.

It’s amazing how unsophisticated skateboard graphics were in the early 80’s when companies first started to explore designs that were more than just a small logo on the bottom. Believe it or not, some people are going to be pissed off that I posted this picture of a rare old Neil Blender deck that is currently up for auction on eBay. They will say that we are somehow affecting the outcome of the final price, blah blah blah. I’m just using it as an excuse to embed a few Neil Blender videos from YouTube. Notice there is no link to the auction. I don’t want to encourage any (more) of the “Hey, check out my auction!” emails that we already get. After you are done watching these videos, head on over to Neil’s official web site The Heated Wheel.