SKATE and CREATE!

Painted Skateboards

Is there anything as fun as skateboards? As our good friend Johnny Rad would say "I love skating! Isn't skating grrrreat?!" Well, that's just what I was thinking when I was approached with an opporunity to participate in a project involving painting skateboards. One of our famous local haunts here in Jacksonville, Florida is a place called Monkey's Uncle. Both my sister and I worked there for years, and are great friends with the owners to this day, which is why I was very happy to help with the fundraiser they were hosting along with the November Void magazine release party. Painted skateboards were being auctioned off to benefit First Coast No More Homeless Pets, and all the proceeds would go to this amazing group who are doing amazing things. 
    The Void magazine was commemorating their November issue, and there were at least a dozen skateboards submitted. Some pieces of art were several boards long! As I only has the two - generously found and donated to me by Void Magazine - I did two separate boards. Since the fundraiser was about pets...I figured I'd just stick to what I love and do the best - pups (and a cat snuck in there.) I belt sanded the boards (since they seemed to have a full and happy life) to remove the old stickers and varnish and painted them with model car paint. I like the model car varnish that comes in the little jars that you paint with a brush. It dries quickly and has a great shine to it, and is virtually impossible to get off of the surface you paint! I bought a model car paint kit at Michaels craft store that included the colors red, yellow, blue, green, black, gold, silver, white and a jar of paint thinner for cleaning your brush for about $12. I have LOTS left over for my next project and although it's a little harder to mix colors (like orange) with the varnish than with traditional paints, it leaves a great strong, polished look that was quite impressive and stood out next to some of the other pieces. 
     The Void fundraiser at Monkeys Uncle was quite an event. They had a photographer and a runway of sorts for people to walk in front of to strike their best celebrity pose. Naturally I was too chicken to walk infront of it since my husband had a gig and I was flying solo, and my fashionista stance is a little rusty. The art at the show included many different skateboards - and I'm sorry that I didn't take a photo of them all displayed together- with lots of styles and subject matter represented so there was something there for every artistic taste. I know we raised over $500 that night for the organization just from the art, possibly much more. The last information I recieved was that one of my boards got a bid of $130.00 and the other had a bid of $50, though which one brought what price is a mystery to me! I was very happy and met lots of wonderful people from Void magazine and we helped ANIMALS! Yay!!  Until next time animal lovers!

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