LOVE & GUTS – EYES WIDE OPEN EXHIBITION

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Amberb

It’s the Maloof Money Cup weekend in New York City, and last night was the opening night of  ”LOVE & GUTS” art exhibition. Oakley, Thrasher, Red Bull, and Juxtapoz brought together a diverse group of artists to exhibit their work, which were dedicated to fellow skaters that have passed away.

Kirk and I filmed the installation, so keep an eye out for the short film, which will be released soon.

Pictured above, Don Pendleton stands in front of two of his pieces that were featured. Click for more portraits of the other artists involved…

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MR NIGHTCAP OAK

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Amberb

Earlier this year I was asked to join an exhibition in Australia, curated by Rick Bannister. The exhibition is called “The Keg Show”. Twelve artists were given a keg to customize, and then throughout June, each keg would then go on display in Byron Bay, Gold Coast, and Sydney art shows.

For the past year I have been living in Southern California. The landscape is arid dry desert, and very beautiful, but I often crave the tropical smells and humid climate of the rainforest from my home, on the East coast of Australia. My art work is inspired by The Nightcap Oak, which is found in the Big Scrub rainforests of northern New South Wales.

My creature, Mr Nightcap Oak, is a bit of a booze hound (not surprising since his innards are a keg). He belongs to the Eidothea genus of the Proteaceae family and grows up to 40m tall. Uniquely found in the Big Scrub of Northern New South Wales, Mr Nightcap Oak is as ancient as the super continent of Gondwana and is now classified as an Endangered Species.

The Big Scrub was once the largest expanse of subtropical rainforest in Australia, extending over 75,000 hectares between Byron Bay, Ballina and Lismore, and today less than 1 percent remains.

If we keep cutting these gentle giants down, our children in the future won’t get the chance to appreciate these beautiful trees, and so I created a sad stump of the Nightcap Oak. He holds the last green leaf of his once great ancient foliage as a reminder that once he dies, there will be no more.

I hope that my creature Mr Nightcap Oak will help raise awareness for the diminishing Big Scrub rainforest and threatened species within that diverse ecosystem.

100% profit of the sale of Mr Nightcap Oak will be donated to Rainforest Rescue, a non-profit organization that has been protecting and restoring rainforest in Australia and internationally since 1998 by promoting projects to re-establish rainforest by planting, maintenance and restoration programs.

Please check out Rainforest rescue’s website and learn more about the beautiful Nightcap Oak.

http://www.rainforestrescue.org.au/

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LOVE & GUTS – STEVE CABALLERO

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Amberb

The Love & Guts Art Show, presented by Oakley, Juxtapoz and Thrasher, is set to make its return to New York City with a specially themed show entitled Eyes Wide Open. After touring the show in Wellington, New Zealand and Bondi Beach, Australia earlier this year, Love & Guts hits New York City on Friday the 4th of June.

The exhibition is centered around celebrating the lives of skaters that left us far too soon. Although gone physically, the impressions left by them have lived on, and to further immortalize them, Eyes Wide Open comes to street skating’s mecca, New York City, for what promises to be the largest Love & Guts exhibition to date.

The show historically has been centered around the art of skating legends Lance Mountain, Pat Ngoho, Steve Caballero and Steve Olson, but has gone on to include many other skaters from skating’s past and present. For Eyes Wide Open NYC, the show enlisted the talents of Chad Muska, Armando Roura, Don Pendelton, Giovanni Reda, Dennis McNett and Ivory & Shelter Serra whose work will be accompanying that of Mountain, Ngoho, Caballero and Olson.

We met up with Pat Ngoho, Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero recently… Check out this clip filmed by Kirk Dianda of Steve Caballero talking about Love & Guts.

STEVE CABALLERO – LOVE & GUTS COMMERCIAL from KIRK on Vimeo.

LOVE & GUTS – LANCE MOUNTAIN

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Amberb

The Love & Guts Art Show, presented by Oakley, Juxtapoz and Thrasher, is set to make its return to New York City with a specially themed show entitled Eyes Wide Open. After touring the show in Wellington, New Zealand and Bondi Beach, Australia earlier this year, Love & Guts hits New York City on Friday the 4th of June.

The exhibition is centered around celebrating the lives of skaters that left us far too soon. Although gone physically, the impressions left by them have lived on, and to further immortalize them, Eyes Wide Open comes to street skating’s mecca, New York City, for what promises to be the largest Love & Guts exhibition to date.

The show historically has been centered around the art of skating legends Lance Mountain, Pat Ngoho, Steve Caballero and Steve Olson, but has gone on to include many other skaters from skating’s past and present. For Eyes Wide Open NYC, the show enlisted the talents of Chad Muska, Armando Roura, Don Pendelton, Giovanni Reda, Dennis McNett and Ivory & Shelter Serra whose work will be accompanying that of Mountain, Ngoho, Caballero and Olson.

We met up with Pat Ngoho, Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero recently… Check out this clip filmed by Kirk Dianda of Lance Mountain talking about the event.

LANCE MOUNTAIN – LOVE & GUTS COMMERCIAL from KIRK on Vimeo.

LOVE & GUTS – PAT NGOHO

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Amberb

The Love & Guts Art Show, presented by Oakley, Juxtapoz and Thrasher, is set to make its return to New York City with a specially themed show entitled Eyes Wide Open. After touring the show in Wellington, New Zealand and Bondi Beach, Australia earlier this year, Love & Guts hits New York City on Friday the 4th of June.

The exhibition is centered around celebrating the lives of skaters that left us far too soon. Although gone physically, the impressions left by them have lived on, and to further immortalize them, Eyes Wide Open comes to street skating’s mecca, New York City, for what promises to be the largest Love & Guts exhibition to date.

The show historically has been centered around the art of skating legends Lance Mountain, Pat Ngoho, Steve Caballero and Steve Olson, but has gone on to include many other skaters from skating’s past and present. For Eyes Wide Open NYC, the show enlisted the talents of Chad Muska, Armando Roura, Don Pendelton, Giovanni Reda, Dennis McNett and Ivory & Shelter Serra whose work will be accompanying that of Mountain, Ngoho, Caballero and Olson.

We met up with Pat Ngoho, Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero recently… Check out this clip filmed by Kirk Dianda of Pat Ngoho talking about Love & Guts.

PAT NGOHO – LOVE & GUTS COMMERCIAL from KIRK on Vimeo.

MAKE IT COUNT PHOTO SERIES – JEREMY FISH

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Amberb

Throughout 2009, Kirk Dianda filmed and edited MAKE IT COUNT, The Element Story. The documentary is a four-part series, that tells the story of the iconic brand and the people that helped shape what it is today.

Element recently released a 200-page photo book, which includes a DVD of the film too (available at elementskateboards.com). The book is jam-packed with imagery from Element’s 20 years of defining moments, including ads, unseen photos, graphics, and behind the scenes photos from the film.

Throughout the production process, I was lucky enough to travel with Kirk while he interviewed this collection of truly inspiring people and shoot behind the scenes photos.

Jeremy Fish is a creative like no other. His creativity ranges from illustration and painting, to intricate wood work and carved characters, to working on short films (in front of and behind the lens in Fishtales). He is one of the few artist that has managed to play in the commercial world as well as uphold his position in the high-end art scene.

Here are a collection of photos I shot of Jeremy in his studio in San Francisco.

Check out Jeremy’s blog here.

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FRIDAY 16TH JULY…SAVE THE DATE!

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Amberb

TRIO BEHIND THE SCENES – LEVI BROWN

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Amberb

Ricki Bedenbaugh reminds me of The BFG (The Big Friendly Giant) from my favorite children’s book by Roald Dahl. He catches good dreams and blows them into kids’ bedrooms at night. And like The BFG, Ricki’s gigantic height is contrasted by his gentle nature. Anyway he’s one awesome dude.

For some time now, Ricki has been working on TRIO, the 3-part Element video series. The first part released last week, which was Chad Tim Tim’s, and it was met with resounding response from its viewers. The second part, starring Levi Brown, was released on Friday, and it too has been well received in the short amount of time it’s been live.

Due to his height, Levi could also be a Big Friendly Giant, but put him on a skateboard and he becomes Godzilla!

Here are a couple of behind the scenes photos of Ricki shooting the intro for Levi’s part.

Also check out the Levi’s TRIO part here.

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ROSIE WAVE

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Amberb

I would like to introduce “Rosie Wave”, who was made especially for Luci!!

xox

MAKE IT COUNT PHOTO SERIES – CHAD TIM TIM

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Amberb

Throughout 2009, Kirk Dianda filmed and edited MAKE IT COUNT, The Element Story. The documentary is a four-part series, that tells the story of the iconic brand and the people that helped shape what it is today.

Element recently released a 200-page photo book, which includes a DVD of the film too (available at elementskateboards.com). The book is jam-packed with imagery from Element’s 20 years of defining moments, including ads, unseen photos, graphics, and behind the scenes photos from the film.

Throughout the production process, I was lucky enough to travel with Kirk while he interviewed this collection of truly inspiring people and shoot behind the scenes photos.

Here is a selection of photos I took while we interviewed Chad Tim Tim at his house in Long Beach, California.

Chad is a devoted father and committed husband. And this peaceful nature transcends into his skateboarding, with a well-respected career, defined by precision and power.

Check out his latest part from the new Element video series; TRIO by clicking here.