Recycled Art Tribute to Sean Cliver & Ray Barbee

Once your deck is mushed or broken doesn’t mean the end. You can turn it into something that can be used again. I was doing art shows and wanted to set myself apart from other artists in the shows I was doing. I was always called the skater dude which I am not sure if it was a compliment or not. Then I was looking at my old decks one day and thought why not make art out of my old decks . What a no brainer so I started with some small star wars stormtrooper cut outs , then my own versions of weird creatures . People were digging it . The thing that I wanted to do is make my art so that you can feel and touch it. Just feel the rawness of a skateboard and its griptape. So I would do deck cut outs and make sure a person could touch and feel the art with out some snotty person yelling “DON’T TOUCH THAT ITS Art” ba humbug jerkface. I think stuff like art should be enjoyed by all your senses sight,touch,smell whatever to get the full effect. One of my favorite artists and great skate design for a graphic was by Sean Cliver. He did Ray Barbee’s rag doll graphic which was the first graphic and street pro I seemed to relate to. A few years ago I drew Clivers graphic on my griptape in 3 primary colors . I finally met Ray Barbee and he saw my board and was hyped on the colors I used and stoked I was into Seans graphic. Now think a minute Ray is one of my favorite pros since I first saw him in public domain now to see and hang with him and he be so hyped on my art drawing of a tribute to Seans original work yes (fan boying out inside cool on outside). So I made one out of recycled decks . I changed just a couple of things like added Vans shoes  just a Tribute to Sean Clivers work. Thank You Sean Cliver for such a great graphic and also the insperation in creating something out of nothing. Here are some pics start to finish of the Barbee deck tribute I did, Please check out for yourselves the amazing art of Sean Cliver and watch Ray Barbee skateboarding and listen to his  music both very insperational on all levels. —-Blair Hess—