Deck 001 & Deck 002

Two decks for a show, tufted instead of painted.

These went into a group skateboard deck show at ADX Portland, the maker studio I'm a member of. The brief is the deck shape - that long rounded pill everyone knows - and what you do inside it is yours. I did what I always do: I reached for yarn instead of paint.

Deck 001, on the left, is monochrome and hard-edged - cream, grays, and black cut into arcs, blocks, and angular shards, a little cubist, a little Bauhaus. It's the more structural of the two: the composition does the work, and the palette stays out of its way.

Deck 002 is the opposite instinct. Vertical bands of cream, rust, orange, gold, and brown running the length of the deck, a warm sunset laid down in stripes. No drawing, just color doing all the talking - the earth-tone cousin of the traffic-light and Birdhaus pieces.

Same shape, two grammars: one that composes and one that glows. Hung side by side on the same wall, they read as a conversation - which is the fun of making two for one show instead of one.

A skateboard is built to be ridden and scuffed. These are built to be touched and hung. Same silhouette, opposite fate.