Not to Scale: Andy Jenkins
Not to Scale: Andy Jenkins
Two creators, two paths intertwined. Eric Koston, the skate icon; Andy Jenkins, the renowned graphic artist. Over the course of 20 years of collaboration, the two have managed to leave an ever-lasting impact on one another, a sport and a culture. The mural at The Berrics is both an illustration of how they live out their obsessions and their mutually inspirational relationship. Learn more at Oakley.com/koston.
Content
23.817 -> I think my whole process
with art and my life as an artist
28.834 -> began really early
when I was probably in grade school.
33.76 -> My dad was an artist to begin with,
so I had a lot of influence from him.
38 -> In school I remember in particular
we had a project in art
40.891 -> where we did a linoleum block cut,
this was like in fourth grade,
44.582 -> and I did one and the teacher
really liked it, and I thought,
46.971 -> "Wow, that's crazy.
Somebody actually liked what I did."
50.342 -> And I thought, "I'm going to be an
artist," right there in my fourth grade.
54.045 -> I never really waivered from that.
55.885 -> I always thought I was going to do
something in terms of art
58.34 -> or graphic design or something
creative in that way.
68.297 -> I'll show you guys some
of the initial sketches first.
72.777 -> Basically what I did at first
was put the scaling down.
76.651 -> That's the first thing that scared me
was it's 45 feet by 20 feet.
80.582 -> The last mural we did
was with Geoff McFetridge,
83.702 -> who's also done
a lot of graphics for Girl.
86.02 -> So when it came time to do another one,
how would I not do something with Andy?
91.634 -> I've been doing stuff with Andy forever.
94.765 -> Eric's cool, man, he lets me go
where I want to go with it,
98.411 -> and then he'll take a look
at what I've got cooking
100.651 -> and will tell me, this
is a direction he likes,
103.668 -> this is one he digs and we'll modify
from there and go with it.
108.148 -> I didn't really want to tell him
what to do.
109.874 -> It's more like... here's this giant wall,
here's this gigantic canvas.
113.805 -> What do you feel like doing with it?
And it's kind of cool.
116.16 -> He kind of went back to
basically his signature style.
120.377 -> On this one in particular
I went with a lot of the character ideas
124.994 -> that I've done from
the old Wrench Pilot days.
128.514 -> The memory is looking in Trans World
and seeing that Wrench Pilot comic series.
133.428 -> That was the first time
I've seen any of his art.
136.308 -> It was always cool
when I was a kid looking at that.
138.697 -> Like, "Sick, they got their own comics."
140.937 -> It was kind of unique in that way.
142.685 -> Like, there's skate comics.
146.114 -> What I like and what you kind of get
148.674 -> from his style of art
is for the most part motion.
153.165 -> The swirls and the motion
of the path the skater took.
168.731 -> Everything came together at once
as far as the idea for the wall.
173.074 -> The focus was on Eric
and the fact that he's from LA,
176.765 -> and the whole LA street skate vibe
came into play.
181.314 -> I started to think about
how can we relate that to the Berrics,
183.977 -> and then the idea came
to just use that wall quarter pipe,
187.6 -> blend it right into
the environment itself.
190.822 -> The swirls came in directly form that.
193.622 -> I thought, "That would be cool
to play off that."
196.091 -> Then I thought, "Well it looks like
a wallride coming off the thing,"
199.577 -> so let's do Eric doing
a backside wallride.
203.428 -> It doesn't look like Eric
because you don't see his face
206.434 -> or anything like that,
but it's implied.
214.582 -> I've always been a big fan of Eric's
on the board and as a person too.
219.005 -> On the board I love it because
he's such an insane skateboarder,
222.64 -> but he also knows how to
not take himself too seriously.
226.497 -> He has just a totally approachable,
fun way of skateboarding,
230.537 -> and that I was really appreciative of.
237.76 -> Andy's impact is huge.
239.36 -> For 20 years to be creating
the images for Girl for that long,
243.954 -> anyone who's been into skateboarding,
I'm pretty sure they've seen his work.
247.954 -> He's definitely legendary status.
251.438 -> Because of the fact that it's not only
going to be a mural at the Berrics,
256.057 -> but it is going to be a skateboard,
and it is going to be a display,
259.074 -> the fact that I can have something to do
with a piece with Oakley
263.188 -> that's going to be seen by kids
all over the world is pretty insane.
269.177 -> Of course we have to make a board of that.
271.337 -> Something that good,
people should have a piece of that,
274.308 -> maybe in their hands, in their
possession, hopefully on their wall.
276.971 -> Maybe they'll skate it, whatever.
Actually doesn't matter.
278.971 -> Skate it, hang it up, just appreciate it.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9Fg6wLyXmk