Sure, half the year is over, but at only $5 this 2015 calendar is 66% off. Brought to you by Sam McPheeters and Jesse Michaels.

Jay Schmetz paints a lot of animals in domestic settings. In addition to a beaver brushing his teeth, he has also painted a fair amount of skateboarding creatures. Most of the animal shredders are dogs, but you’ll also find the occasional pig, cat, rabbit, elephant, cow, or sheep. If you become enamored of them you can buy various reproductions and originals. My two favorites are at the top. Something about an Elephant on a skateboard is already funny, but when you throw in a handstand… Well, that’s art!

It’s Earth Day, so if you want to listen to your old 7″ singles you might consider picking up one of these 45 Dome Shots, a collaboration with Maple XO and John Cardiel. Earth day?? This should have been a collab for Record Store Day.

“Skateboard Action” was a popular title for kids books in the 80’s, as this is not the only book to use it. Skateboard Action from the Fun to Draw series was published in 1989 by Hamburger Press. The illustrations are by Ed Francis, so the blame for mislabeling has to go with the author Debra Rowley. It’s got 36 pages jam packed with goofy little fox on a skateboard cartoons and the typical 4 step drawing instructions you find in these things. The illustrator has the human figure basics down but occasionally has difficulty placing the figure in relation to ramps and coping. It’s as if someone went through a skateboard magazine and cut out the skateboarder from each photograph and the illustrator used them as a reference without knowing how they related to the real world. The illustrator’s take on aftermarket 80’s skate graphics and fashion is spot on and worth a chuckle. Part one of the installment after the jump.

Troy Sliter sent me this picture a long time ago. Very skate-able public art in Melbourne, Australia. I feel like I’ve seen this in a magazine since then. Hm.. Apparently “skateable” is not a word according to my built in spell check. Art is a word. A four letter word. I am just rambling.

We’ve seen basketball once, and tennis not once, but twice. Here’s a California Rampworks build for Nike that combines basketball and golf terrains with skateboarding. The Nike SB Popup Skateboard Park was built for Go Skateboarding Day in 2014.

You’re looking at a 1990 painting by Claude Harrison titled “Magic Skateboard” that sold at auction by Christies for about $4,500. Claude Harrison was a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters who lived from 1922 to 2009. He painted straight forward portraits, but he eventually developed a sort of fetish for harlequin figures. So this is Magic Skateboard, but it’s not this magic skateboard. – Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

My grandfather had a finished basement with a bar that he built. Hell, he built the whole house, actually. The shelves behind the bar were packed with glassware, weird ice breakers, nut crackers, and various measuring and stirring devices. There was almost the same amount of space devoted to novelty bottles (shaped like monks and monkeys, oddly enough), the prerequisite hollow coconut, and assorted knickknacks, including several character sculptures made out of welded nuts and bolts. Pop’s metal people weren’t skateboarding however, they were doing things like golfing and standing around. I imagine them practicing their lines for an upcoming casting call in a “You want it when??!!” sign. This particular sculpture was spotted over at Troy Sliter’s house several years ago. I just found it while cleaning out the old hard drive. Time for a cocktail, maybe I’ll head out on the lanai and have a sweat on the davenport while I eat some filberts.

Check out this Ed Syder interview in Caught in the Crossfire about his self published book called Natas and Gonz. It’s not like those guys don’t get any respect, but this tribute to Natas and Gonz (and the Simpsons, apparently) is 52 pages of fun… at least I assume it is. I haven’t seen it yet, but it would be hard to imagine a book about these guys being anything less than fun. The first pressing sold out, but you can preorder the 2nd pressing for £10.00. Postage to the USA is £3.95… so that’s around $22 delivered. While you’re digging around his site, check out other items like the Skater’s Alphabet. [Source: Caught in the Crossfire]

Mr Plant, although he goes by his semi-French moniker Monsieur Plant on the inter webs, makes art primarily about and with sticks and flowers. Sounds like a bunch of hippie crap, right? It’s actually pretty cool. Mr Plant has a pretty cohesive aesthetic, some of his work is quite beautiful. [Source: Bitchslap] – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.