Art on the Move
Four young artists celebrate skateboarding culture
The life of a skateboard can be short. Breathtaking moves on hard surfaces can cause skateboard decks to break within months or even weeks. Yet, skaters want boards that reflect their individuality and style. The visual flair they add to their decks is sometimes as essential as the skater’s obsession to learn skills and sharpen tricks.
The skateboarding subculture crackles with raw creative energy. The U.S. Postal Service celebrates this energy and independent spirit with four new Forever® stamps.
When art director Antonio Alcalá was approached to design four Art of the Skateboard stamps, he knew reaching out to the community of riders and artists was essential.
“Today, skateboarding culture attracts a greater diversity of young people than ever before, and the artwork reflects a wide variety of cultures and traditions,” says Alcalá. “These riders and artists look at their boards as canvases. I couldn’t hire someone who had never ridden a skateboard to illustrate these stamps.”
Alcalá reached out to artist MasPaz (Federico Frum), whose murals around Washington, D.C., had caught Alcalá’s eye. MasPaz was thrilled at the assignment — and his initial sketches proved the concept would work.
But Alcalá was just getting started. “I was interested in showing diversity in art and regionalism, as well as gender and backgrounds,” he says. Using his new connections in the skateboarding community, he was able to commission three other talented artists.
Together, the four artists’ captivating designs capture skateboarding’s excitement while reflecting the diversity and influences of the creators themselves.
MasPaz’s final artwork captures a stylized jaguar in black, white, and gold. His bold strokes respect the traditions of much Indigenous art.
Alaskan native Crystal Worl expresses her Tlingit/Athabascan heritage with a blue and indigo salmon rendered in formline. The striking style of the northern Northwest Coast uses lines that swell, bend, and curve to create the outline of the form the artist wishes to represent.
Self-taught artist William James Taylor Junior of Virginia created a bold graphic abstraction of red lines and curves against an orange background. He simplified his usually frenetic style to read well within the space constraints of the skateboard and the stamp.
And Arizona native and expert skater Di’Orr Greenwood connects her Navajo and skateboarding cultures. Her design includes eagle feathers at the ends — a powerful symbol of both the Navajo and the U.S. Postal Service, whose logo is a stylized eagle.
Alcalá designed each stamp to feature a photograph of a skateboard held aloft to display the underside of the maple deck. His muted color saturation of each human model draws the eye to the skateboard itself. Graphic lines radiate from each skateboard in colors coordinated with the artwork.
“I hope people see that skateboarding culture and art go hand-in-hand,” says Alcalá. “I want these stamps to resonate with people so they will want to learn more about this exciting subculture.”