By Courtney M. Holbrook
For residents on the East End, daily life can mean a stroll into the art galleries that populate the area. Locals and visitors can venture into Demato’s Fine Art Gallery or head over to Silas Marder’s Gallery — all in a day’s adventure.
For some, there’s no question art lovers are obsessive — the search for objects of beauty can become the Odysseian quest of the art world’s population. There’s the scholar, the lover, the dabbler and the artist himself. Art is life. Life is art.
But there is another activity that captures the young and holds them till their bodies can no longer continue. At first glance, the East End resident may see a young kid passing the summer days without balance or stillness. But look closer, and they may see an activity as obsessive as any artist’s dedication to their canvas and craft.
For skateboarders and their decks, skateboarding is life.
So, what happens when the thrills and adrenaline of skateboarding collide with the passion and insanity of art? Well, East End locals will have a chance to witness that collision in action at the Wampum Party, hosted by Wampum Skate Shop, 2487 Main Street, in Bridgehampton on September 3 from 4 to 8 p.m. Admission is free.
“We asked our artists to design their skateboards for an exhibit at the Lyman Allen Art Museum in Newland, Conn.,” said Marley Ficalora, the co-owner with his brother, Lennon, of the Wampum Skate Shop. “Once we sent those in, our walls were empty. So, we asked the artists to design new ones for our shop and then we’d have a party to celebrate Labor Day.”
The Wampum Party art show was comprised of artists “dedicated to skateboarding and art … the two together,” according to Ficalora.
For the show, the artists selected were young, most of them in their mid to late 20s. The artists and their “decks” — the blank, flat board of the skateboard — include Christian Little, Mike Monahan, Charles Ly (designing T-Shirts), Ryan Duff, Ian Padden and Joe Denny. Despite some who said they had been out of their fields — whether in art or skateboarding — for some time, the enthusiasts jumped into the project.
“I haven’t done as much art in a while, so at first I wasn’t sure he’d want my work,” said Ian Padden, a 23-year-old skateboarder, art enthusiast and East Hampton resident. “But [Lennon and Marley] basically said, ‘Do something cool.’ We had free reign to design what we wanted.”
The idea of “free reign” runs throughout the Wampum show. Padden noted the designs are a form of artistic freedom. And with the medium being wood skateboards, it was a project where artistic freedom of aesthetics “went well with the freedom of skateboarding itself.”
Padden studied art for a time at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He enjoyed working with the skateboards because of the “craftsmanship involved in cutting wood.” Padden noted his “eye for art” had seemingly diminished since his time at Pratt. Working for Wampum provided an opportunity to experiment with two old loves.
Those two old loves — art and skateboarding — go together much more fluidly than one would expect. When Padden discovered skateboarding at age 10, he spent more time “in the park than out of it.” He quickly realized that art was a foundational point in the life of every skateboarder, where what decorated your deck separated you from the rest on the ramp.
Ryan Duff was another pre-pubescent obsessive in and out of the skateboard park from age 10 till his present 25 years. For Duff, combining art with skateboarding was something he always wanted to do. It took Wampum to give him a chance. Duff is a printmaker by trade, born and raised in Montauk.
“I went to SUNY Purchase for printmaking, and I primarily work with copper etchings,” Duff said. “I’ve spent a lot of time in and out of galleries, and to be able to work with wood, with skateboards … it’s a different chance to reach a younger, more accessible group.”
Duff believes his artistic symbolism is expressed more easily through deck art. Throughout his artistic career, Duff has worked with the theme of technology abusing nature and mankind. His deck depicts an exaggerated perspective of “a farmer with his horse and plow, and a robot whipping them to run faster. It’s something that calls to attention our own manipulation by technology.”
Perhaps it’s not surprising Duff, a skateboarder and artist, finds connection with this message of nature’s abuse. If skateboarding and art share anything, it’s a connection to the real, non-technical engagement with activity. The artist picks up his brush or his pencil and places his hands on the canvas or wood. The skateboarder jumps on the board and uses his muscles to glide and pull away from the ground. Both activities share rejection, social bias and obsession among those in its livelihood.
The board of the skateboard itself caused Mike Monahan to focus on social realities. Monahan noted the darkness of the wood inspired “a connection with 19th century violence through the medium. For some reason, just the look of the wood made me think of that time. Maybe it’s because I usually work in velum or plywood, and it was such a striking contrast.”
For the boys of Wampum, the party is a chance to showcase their artistic passions and pay homage to the lifestyle and inspiration skateboarding has offered them.
“I hope people will take a look at these boards and maybe they’ll see something they’ve never seen before,” Duff said. “My hope is that this party and the art people see will stir up a discussion. That’s what art and skateboarding are about.”
