VORY V ZAKONE

This is a series of pieces created for Endeavor's new High 5 snowboard for the 2012/2013 season. Max Jenke at Endeavor set the direction for this one, asking me to look into Russian prison tattoos. I started with a few great online resources, found a couple books and watched Alix Lambert's "Mark of Cain", and Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises". As I dug through the material I became fascinated by the rich language of the tattoos and became interested in a shadowy group known as the Vory V Zakone. Vory V Zakone, Russian for "Thieves in Law", is a title bestowed upon respected and high ranking criminals that follow a strict set of rules known as the "Thieves Code". The Vory V Zakone came into being in the early Soviet period as a ruling group within the swelling prison population of the gulags, and went on to become a highly influential part of the world of Russian organized crime.

The central aspect of these pieces are the tattoos. Inmates in Russian prisons use a detailed set of tattoos to indicate their position or rank within the prison hierarchy and the criminal underworld. These detailed pieces of art, often created using primitive, hobbled together equipment, are steeped in symbolism and meaning. For example a rose indicates that the wearer went to prison as an adolescent, while a tattoo of Mary with the baby Jesus represents that the individual was born a criminal. 

Each board graphic is centered around a specific tattoo. The 157 is "BARDAK", Russian for "whorehouse" and used in prison parlance to mean "this is what is killing us", and features a collage of vices: drugs, alcohol, women, violence etc. On the 155 the focus is an orthodox crucifix tattooed on the chest which means "Prince of Thieves" and that the individual is a high ranking Vor. 

These tattoos are displayed on figures that are also adorned with secondary tattoos and have their identities hidden. Behind and below the figures are collages of weapons, Russian icons, maps and symbols that relate to the essence of the meaning of that particular tattoo and speak to the criminal/prison theme of the series.

Originally I had intended to keep these pieces grey scale or with subtle blue wash in an attempt to capture the look and feel of the wonderful period photographs of Russian prison inmates and their tattoos that I had been using for reference. But due to marketing and product differentiation reasons Endeavor requested that the boards be coloured. I've always been a fan on Russian aviation camouflage so I used the colours from those patterns as a starting point and massaged them further. 

For the base graphic we used the letters of "Endeavor" encased in the frames of Russian prison ring tattoos across the fingers. The same base graphic is used across all the boards in the series, just coloured to match each individual top sheet. 

Below are few pages from the 2012/2013 Endeavor catalogue featuring the production versions of the boards, tech specs. etc..

These boards are currently being promoted along with the new Endeavor line (including some more great work from Rory Doyle) on the trade show circuit and should be available late summer/early fall 2012.

Thanks to Max, Rob and Jason at Endeavor for their input and support. Catalogue images courtesy of Endeavor Snowboard Design.

THE STAR (emperor)

This new one was created as a design for a possible 2nd model kit for Michael Fichtenmayer's Industria Mechanika. The first kit, based on my Dystopic (ventilate) piece is currently in the master modelling stage and hopefully I'll have some progress images to post soon!

As the 28th piece is this series this one was inspired by the 28th path on the the Tree of Life, "the ruler". The colours are from the four worlds, and the tertiary graphic elements speak to correspondences of this path. The title comes from the tarot association, The Star. In divination the meanings of this card are hope, guidance and future possibilities, represented here by the female cosmonaut curled in a fetal position. Her fixed gaze tells us she has the determination to grasp one of these possibilities and to reach her chosen future potential.

The subtitle "the emperor", while possibly reinforcing the title of the 28th path, is more of a nod to Crowley, who proclaimed that Tzaddi was not The Star, and that the true Hebrew letter for this path was Heh, a letter more traditionally associated with Path 15 and the Emperor.

High res. and details at my Flickr.

STATE OF THE ART

Here are a few pics of my wall at State of the Art. I hung giclees of my board art for Endeavor's 2011/2012 line, along with an example of one of the finished snowboards. As usual the show featured some great art from a host of amazing artists. It was nice to exhibit with friends and work colleagues (one present, one former), Rory Doyle and Nelson "Dedos" Garcia. I shared a whole wall with Doyle and his wonderful "Wood Grains and Chest Stains" series.

The Endeavor exhibit showcased the whole 2011/2012 line of boards. Here my "Always in the Dark" board is sandwiched between Doyle's awesome Next and B.O.D. boards.

The show is up until April 23rd, at the Whistler Conference Centre.

Thanks to Kassia O'Conner for her hard work curating the show, and to Jean and Angus for putting me up while I was in Whistler!

STATE OF THE ART

I'm going to be exhibiting some of the art I created for Endeavor Snowboard Design's 2011-2012 line at this years State of the Art show up in Whistler. This show always showcases some great art, and the opening night is good time, so if you are in the area come by and check it out. The show runs from April 15th to the 23rd, at the Whistler Conference Centre.

HIGH 5

As mentioned in a previous post, here are the graphics for Endeavor's High 5 board for the 2011/2012 season. These graphics differ from the original "I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me" pieces in that they have been lengthened to fit the boards, minor text changes (the title pluralized as Max Jenke thought it would better represent the Endeavor crew), and the addition of patch graphics and info. text.

The base graphics are patches that incorporate the central figures of the topsheet image as well as some of the other symbolism of the patch that inspired that particular board.

The top image is a promotional shot of the 155 "Sneeky Pete" board, the second is from the 2011/2012 Endeavor catalogue and the third is my final design sheet.

I COULD TELL YOU....

I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have To Be Destroyed By Me is group of five pieces created for Endeavor Snowboard Design's High 5 Board for the 2011/2012 season. The project was based on material from Trevor Paglan's book of the same name. This wonderful book is an examination of the visual culture of the American Military's black/classified programs, presented through the patches worn by the units involved in these programs. For each of these mysterious patches obtained by Paglan, a rough history is given and the obscure symbolism is deciphered (or at least an attempt is made). It is a small but fascinating glimpse into a hidden world.

Max Jenke from Endeavor gave me the book, asked me to read it, and come up with a graphic based on, or inspired by the contents. I struggled with it at first. While I'm a bit of an aviation geek and know some of the history of this material, I had a hard time getting over the bravado and cheesiness of it all. But I had faith in the idea and there was enough interest in the symbolism involved so I sunk my teeth into that and learned to embrace the less desirable aspects of the material.

The central figure in each piece is an interpretation of the major design element of a particular patch. This central figure bleeds out into a dark area that contains elements from the symbolism and history of the program that the patch relates to. These elements are faint, incomplete and obscured, and this, along with the heavy use of black speaks to the idea that these projects are from a world hidden from view. As a large portion of the patches in Trevor Paglan's book deal with projects that involve aircraft, at the bottom of the frame is a mash up of aircraft, both real and theoretical, that were developed out of American black military projects. Again these elements are kept dark and obscured.

The work presented here are the pieces in their original form. They were lengthened for use as topsheet graphics on the snowboards, and base patch graphics were designed for each board. I'll post images of these in the future when I get some shots of the prototypes from Endeavor.

AIRHOLE

Here are a few images I created for Airhole's 2010 facemask line. These pieces were for the "Aviator Series", and I guess they figured that I would be good for the job given my apparent love for helmets, cables, wires, hoses etc. Anyways, these were a lot of fun and they should be hitting the shelves in the fall (if they aren't already!).

HIGH 5 VIDS

Here are a couple of videos featuring the Endeavor High 5 board that features the Hexagram images from my Entartete Kunst series. The first is a product knowledge video produced for Endeavor by Randy Ross. The product shots look amazing and I don't look like a total fool (I hate being on camera)......You can find it here or on the Endeavor website.

The second vid is from Snowboard Review.com at their 2010 Snowboard Test. From the print review:

"This was the last board which I tested at the 2010 UK board test and it was so nice to finish off with a traditional cambered twin which had, in our opinion, the best graphics of any board at the test. The topsheet was basically made up of Endeavor's 'Cosmonaut" graphic which was beautifully printed and the base shared the same burnt orange colour with very detailed Space-odyssey style sci-fi space 'things' painted on it. The cost of such elaborate artwork cannot have been cheap and this board looked so good I was desperate for it to work for me on the hill. Fortunately, I was not to be disappointed."

Check the video here.

STATE OF THE ART

Here are a few pics of my wall at the State of the Art exhibit that ran for a week up in Whistler. The show was good, with some great work by some really talented artists, and it was nice to hang out with some old friends before the heading over to the opening party.

Thanks to Kassia O'Connor for organizing the event, Max Jenke for giving me a spot at the show, and to Richard Alm for doing a great job with the giclees!

Photos courtesy of WSSF.

STATE OF THE ART

I've been invited to be part of the State of the Art exhibit up in Whistler again. Last year was a lot of fun and I think a number of the artists that participated in the exhibit last year are returning this year, so it should be a good show. The show starts on April 18th and runs for a week at the Whistler Conference Center. If you are in or around Whistler that week you should come and check it out.

HIGH 5 - "5th"

Since there were five boards in this series I had to create a fifth top sheet image. While this image is not considered part of the Hexagram series, and is exclusive to Endeavor, I did follow the same elemental inspiration for it's conception and design. The colour, and symbology all relate to the spirit element and has hits of the other four colours representing that this element is the embodiment of the other four combined.

I've included the two top sheets that I created for this fifth board. The female one was done first, but I was then asked to change this (along with the yellow/air Hexagram image), to a male for the sake of the "jibbers". I've also included the base graphic, which is actually a chunk of the second Entartete Kunst image, "Milkcow" (see below), re purposed, as I was running out of time to get these done!

HIGH 5

Endeavor Snowboards used my Hexagram Series (see below), for the graphics on their High 5 board for their 2010/2011 line up. The images were perfect for boards, with their long vertical compositions, and the helmets fitting so well into the nose of the board. The top two images come from the new Endeavor catalogue, and the boards will be released late summer/early fall 2010.

The third image is the final the design comp (that's why they are all the same length and have the same info.), where you can see the graphics a little better. The images had to change a little for production. Some changes were minor, like lengthening the bottom of the images to fit the board dimensions, while others were quite extreme, such as changing the female form on the yellow image to a male. This was done as the Board of Directors at Endeavor felt that the gnarled old male faces would be more appealing to the the target market for this particular board ("jibbers" I believe they called them).

Thanks to Endeavor for making this happen, and thanks to Max Jenke and Rob Dow at Endeavor for their time and feedback.

Photos by Scott Serfas, courtesy of Endeavor Snowboard Design.

STATE OF THE ART

The State of the Art show opened last Saturday up in Whistler at the Telus Conference Centre. The show is part of the Telus Ski and Snowboard Festival. Here are a few pics of most of the work that I displayed at the show. There is a lot of great work up there, so if your in Whistler between now and Sunday, go check it out.

The opening night party was a blast. Thanks to all my friends that came up from Vancouver to see the opening. Thanks to Rory Doyle for setting up my wall, and thanks to Max Jenke and Endeavor Snowboards for giving me a space at the show!

DIAMOND

Last year I designed the graphics for Endeavor Snowboard Design's 09/10 Diamond Series. As a women's freeride board the graphic was meant to encompass the ideas of strength and beauty. The overall style (linework with "hits" of colour), was predetermined but I had complete control over the content. So I created a hand drawn visual collage constructed from elements that symbolized these two ideas in magick, mythology, and the Qabala.

Above is a shot of the preproduction model (thats why the graphic is a little off center), my final design sheet with the topsheet and the two bases as well as a sample of one of the clothing pieces created using the artwork.

This project was a blast. Big thanks to Max at Endeavor for giving me the opportunity and for keeping me on track with the base graphics! Thanks to Rory Doyle for setting the whole thing up! Photos courtesy of Endeavor Snowboard Design.