Painting on Unusual Canvases

Generator member Evan Greenwald found inspiration in a social project for a good cause.  Reach out to him if his new direction is something you would like to participate in or if you have some helpful advice for the next steps he needs to take.

I saw a call to artists looking for local Burlington artists to decorate old snowboards and skateboards that would be sold to fundraise the Chill Foundation, an organization that inspires youth to overcome challenges through board sports. I was given a free snowboard and freedom to paint it however I wanted. In my opinion, the coolest pattern for a snowboard graphic would be bright, colorful, splatter painted design.

Using tape and laser cut stencils, I defined which parts of the board were colorful splatter and which parts were black graphics. Once the paint had dried, some touch up work was done to make everything look crisp and sharp. The top design is mean so that the rider can have a completely different looking board (from their perspective) when they are riding switch and the bottom design is an ode to the great, peaceful state that I live in. I had so much fun with this project that I decided to splatter paint my actually skis and snowboard. I used a latex interior house paint for all of the designs which when dry is surprising water and scratch resistant. So far the designs have sustained two full days of active riding with minimal wear and tear.

 By taking pictures of these painted designs, I am interested in trying to convert these physical paintings into digital graphics that can be scaled and manipulated to fit different board shapes if these designs interest any snowboard manufacturers.  This digitalization process is important if I want to ever get a splatter pattern on the base of a functional snowboard.

 -Evan Greenwald