Postive Creations: Chris Dyer Book Launch Dec 16 2011

Although I was a little late in getting there, I stopped off at the Positive Creations book launch at the Fresh Paint Gallery on the corner of St. Caths and Hotel-de-Ville last Friday to pay homage and respect to a hard working artist and his latest creation. It's hard to even figure out where to begin with this guy -he's just got so much going on. I first picked up on Chris and his work a couple of years back through my work with Under Pressure and other related events. His painting is some of the most vibrant and colorful I've seen in a while, truly psychedelic. His art captures your senses and then bashes them with an array of color and form. He has had much success with his art, but also as solid skater -you can check him skating at the Urban Ambush Yard here and he has been featured in magazines and other publications over the years.

Besides shredding it up Chris has been painting decks for a while now. Having been an avid skater for years he amassed quite the amount of crushed boards, and one day he started recycling them as canvasses for his art. He had plenty up on the walls at the show but it was a drop in the bucket to the hundreds he has painted over the years. He's even gone so far as to create giant robot-skateboard installation pieces such as the one seen here at Fresh Paint Gallery a few months ago. I found a similar one in his book that he did in 2010 too as well as a ton of his other painted boards.

Chris has been commissioned by dozens of skaters and pro shops to paint custom boards. His colorful and spiritually infused deck art has been celebrated in his own series of skateboards through Creation Skateboards (more than 60 decks to-date). He's done a bunch of art shows -solo and group -here in town, across the country, the States, South America, and wherever else his feet have taken him on his many travels. You can check out his web site here to feast your eyes on his many artistic creations, writings, pictures, and videos of his travels through life and art.

Here are some pics from the event, I wish I had taken more pics of his boards but you can also get a good look if you buy his book which is a solid read and visual joy ride chalked full of great art and good vibes. It's close to three hundred pages are modestly priced at about $40. You should be able to get it at the Fresh Paint Gallery in Montreal, but if from afar or just too lazy then you can find it here on Amazon.

Barry Walsh had some of his boxes with him stacked up in a mighty pyramid too. I had to flick some of the nicer painted models. Some vintage models up there, you gotta appreciate how awesome this collection is. Here are a few shots of these beauties painted by Howek, Sake, Hest1, Chris Dyer, and others.

I was really glad I was able to make the night and congratulate Chris on the book and all his successes. I've only had a chance to read a bit of the copy I picked up and leaf through the rest but I can guarantee that this is a solid production of Chris's work, travels, life, and philosophy. I'm proud to have it in my collection and can't wait to finish going through it. Do yourself a favor and pick it up. You won't be disappointed.

Gnar Down: Urban Ambush Yard June 18 2011

I had the distinct pleasure of stopping by Urban Ambush Yard in the Griff again this past weekend to attend the opening of the pipe for the summer. The weather was perfect, some great beats and music were playing, there was a bbq on demand, and a full compliment of skaters to shred the pipe up. I was hoping to get to come back to Barry's to really get a taste of this spot in full motion, and this was definitely the day to do it.

It was packed full of folks through out the afternoon chilling on the monster patio connecting to the pipe and checking the action. There were lots of great skaters taking part getting some pretty big air and pulling off a whole bunch of shit I don't even have the appreciation to describe properly. I also tried putting together a couple of action frames of Dave Boots and Kevin Cann. Not too sure if they came out that great, but they're posted. Check these photos I took from the day and the event.

Dave Boots landing a successful roll into the pipe.



I finally got Kevin pulling off that air he was working on for a bit. He nailed it a few times but I kept missing him. And in retrospect maybe this sequence should be going the other way... 



 

 

Cheers to Barry and the crew for letting me shoot the event and sharpen my camera skills for this type of action. Most of the time I'm out shooting graff in back alleys and abandoned buldings so this was a fresh break from that. I can't wait till I stop by next time. You can also can check a sick Push video of the days skating here. A real solid compilation of some of the best stuff going down that afternoon.

I'll be posting again soon as I have some more May-June shots to go through. And I've been archiving the monstrous amount of shots I've massed up over the years and will be getting around to some posts from the vault too.