So, Janine and I were recently in California for the
Berrics, Crossroads Show and
ASR. We spent about a week out there and while we were at a Bones/Powell
after party we ran into
Chaz and his friend from Portland Jay
Meer. The party we were at was a small thing that they were putting on for the
anniversary or the "Ripper" graphic in which many famous skateboard artists from over the years had submitted their work. Jay
Meer was one of those artists, his was an especially small piece considering the media which he used was Aerosol. Apparently Jay
Meer had been doing a lot of murals and large pieces at Burnside since 1993. In 2003 he and a friend of his that had moved to Texas arranged to roll out 13 of the Burnside
homies for a "Burnside to
Southside" trip and session. All the heavy Burnside
locals were in attendance and Jay never forgot about
Southside Skatepark. When we met him at the party he introduced himself to us and gave us a short rundown, the event was vaguely in my memory, 2003 seems so close yet so far away, you know. Janine and I went back to the hotel and eventually back to Texas a didn't think much of it. A few month later the phone at the shop rang and Dakota Roberson spoke with Jay
regarding Jay being in Texas and wanting to come by and possibly "Get Up" in the park somewhere. He called again and spoke with Janine and confirmed that, yes you can come down a put something up, but no we had no idea what. once Jay arrived at the park we walked around and settled down on the large wall above the big prop. The big prop is scheduled for a change for this year's Johnny
Romano Skate Jam but we are fairly confident that the prop won't be getting any taller so the 9'x36' canvas seemed like a safe bet. So, Jay and I went to the bar to start figuring out what to do, we went through a ton of his previous works on
http://www.jaymeer.com/ and I let him know what I liked and what I didn't like and what I thought would be good for the park. Eventually it dawned on me that
Southside Skatepark is in it's 15
th year of operation and that we really hadn't done anything to kick that off yet. I always loved the "First Ten Years of Burnside" mural that Jay did in 2000, see Skateboarder article "Ten Things You Didn't Know About Burnside" to see the image I am talking about. I was wanting Jay to do something along those lines, the regional imagery choices were his idea, he wanted to tie it in to our area. He said he had never done a Cow Skull before, but skulls were his specialty, if you asked me, he nailed it. Thanks go out to
Jaymeer, I was having a hard time getting my head around putting up something like this in the park due to my normal cleanliness
battle cry. Thanks for opening my eyes to something fresh and new all the locals and the staff are really enjoing it and it makes us very proud to be a part of such a long history here at Southside Skatepark.
So, Janine and I were recently in California for the Berrics, Crossroads Show and ASR. We spent about a week out there and while we were at a Bones/Powell after party we ran into Chaz and his friend from Portland Jay Meer. The party we were at was a small thing that they were putting on for the anniversary or the "Ripper" graphic in which many famous skateboard artists from over the years had submitted their work. Jay Meer was one of those artists, his was an especially small piece considering the media which he used was Aerosol. Apparently Jay Meer had been doing a lot of murals and large pieces at Burnside since 1993. In 2003 he and a friend of his that had moved to Texas arranged to roll out 13 of the Burnside homies for a "Burnside to Southside" trip and session. All the heavy Burnside locals were in attendance and Jay never forgot about Southside Skatepark. When we met him at the party he introduced himself to us and gave us a short rundown, the event was vaguely in my memory, 2003 seems so close yet so far away, you know. Janine and I went back to the hotel and eventually back to Texas a didn't think much of it. A few month later the phone at the shop rang and Dakota Roberson spoke with Jay regarding Jay being in Texas and wanting to come by and possibly "Get Up" in the park somewhere. He called again and spoke with Janine and confirmed that, yes you can come down a put something up, but no we had no idea what. once Jay arrived at the park we walked around and settled down on the large wall above the big prop. The big prop is scheduled for a change for this year's Johnny Romano Skate Jam but we are fairly confident that the prop won't be getting any taller so the 9'x36' canvas seemed like a safe bet. So, Jay and I went to the bar to start figuring out what to do, we went through a ton of his previous works on http://www.jaymeer.com/ and I let him know what I liked and what I didn't like and what I thought would be good for the park. Eventually it dawned on me that Southside Skatepark is in it's 15th year of operation and that we really hadn't done anything to kick that off yet. I always loved the "First Ten Years of Burnside" mural that Jay did in 2000, see Skateboarder article "Ten Things You Didn't Know About Burnside" to see the image I am talking about. I was wanting Jay to do something along those lines, the regional imagery choices were his idea, he wanted to tie it in to our area. He said he had never done a Cow Skull before, but skulls were his specialty, if you asked me, he nailed it. Thanks go out to Jaymeer, I was having a hard time getting my head around putting up something like this in the park due to my normal cleanliness battle cry. Thanks for opening my eyes to something fresh and new all the locals and the staff are really enjoing it and it makes us very proud to be a part of such a long history here at Southside Skatepark.
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