The Brilliance!

This feature on Jim Phillips, one of the most talented pioneers of skate art, starts out like this - “You know what’s great? People who “used to skate,” because that designation covers pretty much every American male from the ages of 18 to 40. Everyone relates.” Hmm. I’m an American male, almost 22, and I didn’t “used to skate”. Not even a little. I really wish I did… I just…didn’t. I played Uno and hung out with friends from my church on Sunday afternoons playing home run derby and watching VHS tapes of Michael Jordan highlights. And here I am, years later, trying to validate being a fan of Jim Phillips work, despite not having ever really skated in my life. But I think that’s what makes his stuff so cool…and what makes any artist good… is that everyone, not just a little niche of people, can enjoy his work. The era when his stuff was emerging and at its most popular is over, but to me, even though I didn’t live that lifestyle in that place or time, doesn’t matter. I can look at it today and totally appreciate it, get into it, and love it. That’s all kind of my intro to talking about this feature on Jim’s work and his studio, but I just had to get that out of the way and give him his proper respect for making universally appealing, timeless work. Ok. So anyways, now that I think about it, there’s not much to actually say besides just click the link and check out the feature, because it’s totally worth it and completely awesome, to be frank. If you’re an artist, you probably grew up doodling a lot in notebooks at school…and I guess my last thought here is that Jim Phillips took those doodles we all did and made them into something more, something complete… So anyways - get to it, and check this feature out…pictures of Jim showing original sketches, the first ever drawing of the Santa Cruz logo, his awesome board collection and garage…etc… CAN HAZ LINK!? YES! IZ BELOW!