My name is Conor Colgan. I am a Senior Art Student at St. Mary's College of Maryland and my central focus for my year-long Senior Thesis Project is none other than the art located on the bottom of skateboards, as well as snowboards, skis, surfboards, and generally any other board sport. I did not hear about this project until a little over a day ago and have not had much time to prepare so I hope you enjoy my work and bring me through to L.A.! I seem to be having some trouble with the whole "tags" feature of this website because when I search #girl and #madethis my work is nowhere to be found. Maybe I just cant see my own work? Either way- enough rambling. Here are some skateboards which started out on a retro-printer themed basis and grew from there, enjoy!
The above design was my final variation off of my inital inspiration of doing a Printer-Themed Series.
I love working with vibrant colors, and that combined with some past criticisms I've overheard about Girl boards being "basic," "uninteresting," and specifically, "a Girl sticker someone printed out and stuck on a board" got me thinking: How can you make seemingly basic material captivating? I examined some printers initially to make a series where girl stickers are literally being printed out, but the ink and toner cartidges caught my eye. How do 3 vibrant, yet basic, colors such as the cyan, magenta, and yellow come together to make all the complicated colors we use in our lives today? The answer I came up with was combination and I feel that despite the simplicity of these first designs, they were very successful in creating an interesting look.
The following eventually led to my final design seen above:
The following eventually led to my final design seen above:
Prior to my focus on specifically board-sport oriented artwork, I sought to explore the power of color and repitition to create works of art that captures the viewer's attention and locks him or her into my work. I had planned for these designs and styles to be used on a variety of products: stickers, shirts, boards, etc. I have focused my view, but I feel that some of my prior works would be quite successful as skateboard graphics. The following were displayed at our most recent St. Mary's Project Open Studio:
I have also done other art (not completed for the intent of the Open Studio) in the recent past that still connects with my current focus:
Upon reflection on my most recent work, I found myself being reminded of the passion and excitement that I get from working on sport-related art. I have loved all sports (extreme of otherwise) since I was just a little tike and while the color and patterns I have been using recently help to express the attraction and vibrance that I see sport as containing, I believe that drawing can help deliver the impact of the moment like none other. Next to my recent body of work, the most fun I've had making art prior to this was in my AP Portfolio class during senior year of high school when I decided (as a three sport athlete) to do a focus on something that felt very natural to me: sports. I would like to reincorporate drawing into my next series of works because i feel that the style I draw in would help make a very attractive board graphic. While my medium was not limited to drawing at the time, i believe the following examples showcase the effect I am describing:
Thank you very much for taking the time to look at my work. Whether you are from Girl, Adobe, or anywhere else, please feel free to contact me if you would like my help in getting some work done. Any feedback (positive or negative) is welcomed and appreciated. Hope you enjoyed!
Colgan- Out.
Colgan- Out.
#girl #madethis #girlskateboards Printer Series
