introduction by Jim Phillips
Jim Phillips in his Santa Cruz studio. Photo by Matt Barnes
Thoughts and Memories IN RETROSPECT, MY BIG BREAK CAME when I won a cartoon contest in the Surfer magazine car cartoon contest. That cartoon featured Woody, and seeing it in print for the first time was a huge inspiration. I decided to submit more cartoons, this time to Walt Phillips’ Surfing Illustrated – a relatively new publication in those days. Magazines were then published quarterly, so there was a lot of waiting before seeing things in print and the pay was really small, around $10 per submission. But I was then spending every available moment surfing and hanging around the beach with my friends…the idea of a career in surf cartooning was a distant concern… One day I was visiting local legend Gene Van Dyke at his house at Pleasure Point, which overlooked the surf at 38th Avenue. Walt happened to be in town and turned up. The three of us sat on the stairs talking, looking at the ocean. It was then that Walt asked me to draw a threepage cartoon story for Surfing Illustrated. I was totally stoked and it was my intention to make something great for him. But those were the days when I was sleeping in my panel truck on the cliffs; my surfing addiction had already claimed the job I had at O’Neills, my high school diploma, girlfriends, and whatever else came into my life, and that included surf cartooning. I never did complete that job for Walt and I totally regret it, and much else. When my lack of high school credentials meant that my art school scholarship was rescinded, it looked like that was going to be the end of any prospect of a career in art. I turned to fibreglassing surfboards at various surf shops in Santa Cruz and Florida to earn a buck. The whole time I felt like a frustrated artist. I got good at glassing, had become a father and a breadwinner and had to dispel any idea of experimenting with low-paying endeavours like art. There was a point in 1968 that I gave up on that idea. And then a flame was lit. Whilst I was working in Florida a friend from California brought some Zap comic books, with R. Crumb’s hilarious cartoons, and I felt suddenly invigorated. I started experimenting within my surfboard-glassing limitations and kept at it. Suddenly I was in demand and my career as a professional artist took off. Looking back at my body of work it looks like I’ve spent a lot of time creating surf imagery. But this is far from reality. The fact is that there is a paradox with surf art. When a surf artist gets the stoke, they’re far more likely to hit the waves and surf than to go sit in a quiet room and draw pictures of it. And after surfing, drawing a surfing graphic seems very pale compared to the thrill and glory of the day’s sessions. So these are two built-in self-limiting factors. Add the fact that surf graphics aren’t always lucrative, and you get a third; there are plenty of artists who have tossed their enthusiasm into the ring, but have then gone elsewhere looking for more substantial returns. And yet surf graphics have been much more influential than one might have imagined. I’m speaking of skateboarding. Surf graphics, surf culture and even surfing manoeuvres have been very heavily influenced by skateboarding, as we know. The skateboarding industries have embraced graphics to an extent the surf industry could only dream of. But here’s the thing: skateboarding was spawned by surfing, so that you could argue that it was surf that created the skateboarding movement and its first graphics, albeit by the back door! In the pages that follow you’ll see some amazing examples of art and graphics inspired by surf. They might capture the mood and the artistry of the surfer, but, for die-hard surfers like me, the greatest art is still expressed by the style and movement of the surfer in action; there will never be a substitute for that in art, however good the artist! JIM PHILLIPS
7 SURF GRAPHICS
ABOVE: Sewer Surfer. Pen and Ink. RIGHT: O&E Zombie Air. Screenprint. T-shirt design for Ocean and Earth.
SURF GRAPHICS 42
43 SURF GRAPHICS
SURF GRAPHICS 56
FAR LEFT: Mind’s Eye. Digital artwork. LEFT: Time Traveller. Digital artwork. BELOW: Quikwind. Digital artwork.
57 SURF GRAPHICS
TOP LEFT: Venice POP/RIP. Oil on canvas. DF: “I had all these misty memories of visiting a dilapidated amusement park down by the beach when I was a kid. I remember surfers dodging falling pylons supporting rotting carnival attractions. A few years ago I saw footage from the ’70s of the decaying Pacific Ocean Pike amusement park on Venice Pier. To my surprise I realised my memories weren’t imagined.” TOP RIGHT: In Pursuit of Rapture. Oil on canvas. DF: ”At first glance, this could be a very acceptable painting of a surfer you might find at your local themed restaurant, or at that trendy surf-inspired clothing chain at the mall. On closer inspection, it’s not.” ABOVE: Gone. Oil on canvas. DF: “If you’ve been here, you know what I’m talking about. Paddle out and all that stuff…going, going, gone.” RIGHT: Rise. Oil on canvas.
SURF GRAPHICS 78
79 SURF GRAPHICS
PETER GUSTAFSSON. Peter is self-taught kustom and graphic artist based in Stockholm, Sweden. He spends much of his time creating t-shirt graphics for apparel brands such as Nudie Jeans, Denimbirds, JC Jeans, J-Store, Dunderdon and Frank Dandy Superwear. Any spare time he works on his personal pieces, painting in oils and acrylics, drawing, or sculpting in wood, clay or even bones. “Much of my inspiration comes from cartoons and skateboard art and Surf culture has also been a big influence, particularly the air-brushed boards and t-shirt graphics from the 1970s and ’80s.” In 2008 Peter created the memorable foil cover art for the influential book Kustom Graphics. He has shown extensively, including solo shows at the Arts Parts Gallery and Evil Eye in Stockholm, and at the legendary Luz de Jesus in Los Angeles (the Uncommercial Art by Commercial Artists shows), as well as regular kustom and hot rod shows across Europe.
BELOW: Nutty Surf. Pen and ink. RIGHT: Cali Girl. Acrylic on canvas.
SURF GRAPHICS 102
103 SURF GRAPHICS
LEFT: Magic Hibiscus. Acrylic on masonite. RIGHT: Surfer studies. Ink on paper.
SURF GRAPHICS 116
117 SURF GRAPHICS
BELOW: Flying Eyeball. Ink on paper. Boy’s t-shirt design for Quiksilver.
SURF GRAPHICS 132
ABOVE LEFT: Grateful Shred. Ink on paper. Design for Riviera Longboards. ABOVE RIGHT: Skeletons in the Tube. Ink on paper. Design for Riviera Longboards.
133 SURF GRAPHICS
SURF GRAPHICS 190
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Tiki Cat; The Moon Over Manakoora; Diga Diga Doo; Jungle Witch. All acrylic on canvas. LEFT: The Sunken Tiki. Acrylic on canvas.
191 SURF GRAPHICS
ABOVE: Banzai Buick. Acrylic on canvas. Richard Novak collection. RIGHT: Gremlins. Acrylic on canvas.
SURF GRAPHICS 198
199 SURF GRAPHICS
SURF GRAPHICS 208
ABOVE: Surge. Acrylic on masonite. LEFT: Summer. Acrylic on masonite.
209 SURF GRAPHICS
ABOVE: Indo Surf Skull. Watercolour, colour pencil and gesso on illustration board. Used as Billabong t-shirt design. Phil: “It turns out that mine wasn’t an original idea — Rick Rietveld had done it a few years before me, although I didn’t see his piece until after mine came out – I still owe him lunch!”
SURF GRAPHICS 218
SURF GRAPHICS Hardcover + embossed jacket 256 pages on high-quality 160gsm paper ISBN: 978-1-907621-08-6 Available from all good bookshops and online at:
www.koreropress.com
For all the latest news and events follow us on social media To open a trade account or for more details email: info@koreropress.com