Surfer, Skater & Fine Artist Jay Alders finds inspiration from the Dogtown era of skating in his latest work “Rise & Grind”
I remember getting being a teenager and getting the latest issue of Thrasher Magazine in the mail. On the cover was skateboarding pioneer Jay Adams slashing a frontside grind off pool coping. That image that Luke Hudson shot burnt in my mind.
As a kid, those early icons of skating pulled me into an underground culture that at the time had no mainstream acceptance, no billion dollar corporate money behind it and nothing even close to anything resembling the action sports scene nowadays.
My skateboarding scene in the suburbs of New Jersey, thousands of miles from Ventura and Venice and San Diego was a lot less hardcore. We chased rumors to find new backyard halfpipes and a staircase or railing or a parking lot that had just been repaved. Rarely, we hit the holy grail and found an abandoned empty pool hidden in the woods. Mostly though, we relied on curbs and home-made launch ramps outside of our aluminum-sided homes.
Skating was so not cool then, I recall this one time when I first met my friend Eddie. I was in my bedroom and heard the unmistakable sound of urethane on the street roll by.
What?! Another kid that skates in town? I ran outside and rolled up to introduce myself and just like that, I had a new kid in my crew.
About This Skate Art Painting
I wasn’t looking to reproduce the famous photo for this painting. Rather, I wanted to pull from it and add a flavor of my own, just as generations of skaters and surfers have been doing for decades.
I took liberty on tweaking the anatomy and warping the perspective and stretching the elongated limbs with the same free-flowing energy that my skateboarding heroes manipulated the transitions of empty pools and ramps.
Limited Edition, signed and numbered prints are available on both gallery wrapped canvas and archival fine art paper.
The original painting was painted in acrylic on canvas and measures 31 x 31 inches (78.7 x 78.7 cm). To inquire about purchasing the original piece, contact my studio and browse the selections of originals on my online shop.
A little bit About Jay Adams
This new painting of mine, titled “Rise & Grind”, pays tribute to one of the most iconic and influential skateboarders in history, “The Chosen One” himself, the late, great Jay Adams.
Skate culture has canonized Adams for decades, but the mainstream public likely didn’t hear of him until the 2001 skate documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys or the 2005 movie Lords of Dogtown.
Adams was born in 1961 in Venice, California became the youngest member of the Zephyr Skateboarding Team (Z-Boys). Adams died of a heart attack on August 15, 2014.
His skateboard style was bold, free-flowing and powerful. Jay along with the others in his crew were heavily influenced by surfing maneuvers and was able to turn near disasters into “an athletic stream-of-consciousness” as was described in the Dogtown and Z-Boys movie.
