THE SANTA CRUZ ART COLLECTION
The Act in Public crew went on a road trip earlier this year and visited the company behind Santa Cruz skateboards, NHS, in their offices in the city with the same name as the skateboards - the beautiful city of Santa Cruz, California.
The NHS headquarters in Santa Cruz
Skateboard Nostalgia
A road trip to California is a huge positive experience in itself, but visiting NHS was extraordinary cool and impressive to see all the exciting skateboard related effects hanging everywhere on the walls in the office, and we were especially proud of Act in Public partner, Søren Aaby's pro model, still were a part of the permanent exhibition in the office. So if you ever stop by Santa Cruz, you shouldn't miss the Santa Cruz skateboard museum, which is open to the public and filled with early skateboard nostalgia and irreplaceable shenanigans.
The Søren Aaby Pro Model on top
The Richard Novak office
But it was the Santa Cruz art collection that really stood out as something really special and we loved the decoration of Mr. Richard Novak's office, founder and chairman of NHS, which was a huge skate art treasure. The walls had countless Jim Phillips original drawings, paintings, posters, and serigraph work which was mind-blowing.
The Act in Public crew are great fans of Jim Phillips and his son Jimbo Phillips, who also did Søren Aaby's old graphic, so it wasn’t hard to be stoked. But besides the Phillips family, you would find original stuff like the Jason Jessee 'Guadalupe' graphic, Shepard Fairey’s original ‘HOPE’ lithography, and an awesome ‘Screaming hand’ versions, like the one who just said ‘HAND’ instead of ‘HOPE.’
'Screaming hand' - Shepard Fairey edition
If you kept on looking, you’ll find original skate art, like the posters from ‘Dogtown and Z Boys’, one of the first skateboard competitions ‘Capitola Classic’, ‘Go Skateboarding Day’, ‘The 30thanniversary’, rare Thrasher covers and the first pro model of NHS’s CEO Bob Denike.
Rare posters, magazine covers, and the Bob Denike deck
If you snooze you lose
There’s no doubt that skateboard related art will be more sought after and hard to find as skaters get older and richer and are more interested in having rare skateboard nostalgia hanging on their private walls, rather than ripping them up on the local curbs. We have all witnessed the pricy trend for used original skateboards on eBay and seen the Santa Cruz art collection from that perspective, there’s no doubt that it’s a huge art treasure that Santa Cruz skateboards possess.
Original drawings, posters, and old photos
The good news is that if you are interested, it’s not impossible to become the owner of original art by, for example, by Jim Phillips, since he is fortunately still in full swing, but you shouldn't wait too long, if you want a private skateboard collection at home surrounding with original and unique skate art, as popularity of skate art is on the rise
See you on eBay or on one of the many groups on Facebook exclusively for skateboard collectors and skate art aficionados...
Cheers,
Lars Bernt
Links:
https://www.nhsfunfactory.com/