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Skateboarding saved my life! As both an activity and culture, skateboarding blew the doors open for me to see how creativity, fearlessness, independence, and style could let me paint my own story. To paraphrase Charles Bukowski, everything, worth saying or doing, dull or dangerous, is better with style. I learned the importance of style from skateboarding but I apply style to my art and pretty much anything else I can. My friend Blaize Blouin, the only pro skater from Charleston, S.C., where I grew up, used to say “trendy tricks come and go, but the need for style is constant”. When I picked up Hugh Holland’s Silver Skate 70’s book I was enthralled by all of the photos, but especially gripped by the shot of an unknown kid doing a stylish backside carve at the Kenter Canyon School banks in 1976. That backside carve photo viscerally reminded me what the essence of style in skateboarding looks like (and feels like). That kid could be doing a backside Smith grind on a half-pipe in the 80’s or a backside Smith on a railing last week. My point is that style in skateboarding is timeless, and once you’ve learned it, or at least witnessed it, you always pay your proper respects. This letterpress print collaboration with Hugh Holland, called “Styles Change-Style Endures,” uses CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black) to represent the full spectrum and diversity of styles and flavors in the skaters palette that also opens minds for the possibilities in life. “Styles Change- Style Endures” is not just my way of paying my proper respects to style in skateboarding, but also paying my respects to authentic voices in skateboard culture who chronicle the past and the future. Juice Magazine has been a voice for core skateboarding, music, and art for 25 years. They did their first feature on me in 1998 and we’ve worked together many times over the years. Running a print mag is always a tough business, for love not money, but is especially challenging during a pandemic. Juice is in financial distress and I want to help. Proceeds from these prints will help Juice stay in biz, but they also have a GoFundMeyou can support to keep them in print. Thanks for caring!-Shepard
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