Archives: fine-art
First a quick background on the images. I love swimming in the ocean with a camera when the weather is rough and/or ominous. In this case the camera was a Nikon Z6 fitted with the NikkorZ 14-30mm f/4 S lens. To keep the equipment dry it was placed inside an Outex underwater housing. There are many days of doing this that I come back with little to show, lighting can be flat or subject matters simply do not appear. However in this case I was fortunate to have a few quick burst of sunlight combined with dramatic clouds and even… Continue reading
The 15 Surfboards by 15 Shapers—aka 15X15—project was completed in August of 2015 when the 15th surfboard was shaped and finished by Bob McTavish and his team in Byron Bay, Australia. However, two more things needed to be done to properly conclude the project. The first was a book, something I had not planned on. Not until late into the project, after amassing a large collection of images while documenting the making of each board, did I begin contemplating the idea of a book. It seemed inappropriate to not give proper documentation to the work that went into 15X15. Thus… Continue reading
Surfboard art #15 – The Beginning, the final chapter in this saga known as 15 Surfboards by 15 Shapers. I stood looking down at the board that Bill McLean had just finished glassing and became emotional thinking back to how far this project had come. It didn’t start five years ago with the first surfboard, Firo’s Pipeline. No, it goes back much further. Back to when my father bought me a surfboard at the age of 13 and I fell in love with surfing. Back to when he gifted me my first camera, an amphibious Nikonis III, for graduating a… Continue reading
I’m not sure if I should refer to the hand shaper of board #14 in the 15 Surfboards by 15 Shapers project by his name, Jim Phillips, or his alter ego, ‘The Genius.’ In actuality there is little that differentiates the two personas, though I do believe there is a transformation that happens when a piece of wood or foam is placed in Jim’s hands. It is at that time that one witnesses a true genius at work. Prior to meeting and working with Jim I asked the previous shapers in the project to suggest a top shaper/craftsman from Southern… Continue reading
The 3 Amigos – the unlucky lucky one Believe in it or not, #13 is significant for its unpopularity. After all, tall buildings skip the 13th floor all together. But where exactly is the 13th floor? I mean how do you go from the 12th to the 14th with out passing through the 13th? Is there a black hole that passes through time and space, that defies gravity and three dimensions simply so that we don’t land on #13? I don’t know, this is all fascinating but honestly what does it have to do with a surfboard, even the one… Continue reading
When a second B.A.T. surfboard was shaped by Brian Tudor and adorned with the #2 of 8 “Down The Line” print I envisioned it being ridden by a skilled surfer that I could photograph to showcase the ‘functional art’ aspect of my Surfboard Art Project (SArtP). The pictures could then be used to promote the functionality and aesthetic beauty of a hand crafted surfboard with an in-layed original photographic print. What I did not foresee was donating it to charity. An astute intern at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) came across one of the boards from the SArtP while… Continue reading