Skate or Fry...

I'll spare you the story of how I was a poser in 6th and/or 7th grade.  My pals were skaters and I was still in my chubby "I can eat 2 whole Church's chicken breasts, a couple of wings, 2 ears of corn, and maybe 2 of their peach pies" stage.  I also had a "skater" haircut.  I could not skate and I didn't have a skateboard.  To make matters worse, they misspelled my name in the yearbook that year.  "Shanea".  To be fair, in my state at the time, I had what could have passed for the beginnings of breasts.  Man, it also sucked that I wore THE SAME SHIRT for yearbook pictures two years in a row.  Thanks for watch dogging me there, mom.  Sigh.

But all of that is water under the bridge...or...ya know...asphalt under the wheels?  That was a stretch.  Sorry.

Anyway, this is a piece I did for the "Art on the Move" art auction organized by Hernando Skates, the folks involved with bringing a long overdue skate park to my hometown of Hernando.  I was asked by their public relations director (and old friend) Miranda Mitchell to donate some art.

This was one of the first things I've done outside of my editorial work for the CA and since my departure.  To be TOTALLY honest, I didn't even know how to approach image-making that wasn't guided by some type of article or narrative.  I just futzed around in my sketchbook for a while and after drawing lots of horned people in profile, which I have a weird tendency toward, I panicked, settled on one, and gave him a skateboard necklace and a pair of Chuck Taylors for earrings.  Then he just sort of turned into a devil guy with a flaming, severed head and I settled on the concept of "skate or fry" instead of "skate or die".  That's what all the skate rats said, right?  Skate or die?  Or am I totally square and just making up lame stuff?

If I had my druthers I'd make a few changes to this guy, but I'm just going to commit to him be a one-off print and call it a day.

Anyway, here he is.