Please tell us about the link between Gigi’s brief to you and the finished artwork.
There wasn’t really a brief as Gigi picked the finished artwork. You gotta ask him why he chose it and how it spoke to him.
How exactly did you & Twotma collaborate?
Collaboration is an important part of my artistic practice. Twotma and I met online through Instagram. We were instantly electrified by each other’s work. I asked her if she wanted to collaborate on a couple of drawings, and we’ve had kind of an ongoing game of collab drawings since then. One party sends a couple “unfinished” drawings for the other to finish. Snail mail, real paper, real paints. In this case, it was Aimee’s black ink line drawing that I drew over with watercolour. All of the black in this one has been done by Twotma, all colour lines are added on by me later.
Talk to us about the graphic and what it means.
To me, it’s about love, play, connection, longing, and the merging line between dream and reality. Also, a merging of human emotions and deeper, animal instincts.
Twotma’s drawing (to me) expresses a longing of the masculine for the feminine, while the feminine in turn seems to be dreaming of something else, unknown. That “else” is then embodied in the feline creature that I drew, a young leopard maybe, looking both a bit insecure but at the same time dangerous – with its fierce red claws, maybe a little clumsy but playful and open to adventure.
I never consciously think about these things while drawing – I work completely from intuition, just letting the lines flow and kind of try to let the drawing express itself through me. In that aspect, for me it’s also a good representation of Gigi’s way of riding a snowboard. His style is so pure, effortless, and playful in the best sense of the word. To me it feels like he’s able to tap into some other dimension of reality when he’s riding, an intuitive expression of flow and cosmic harmony, almost like he’s sleepwalking. Also, his snowboarding is a lot reminiscent of a cat, always landing on his feet, so it’s doubly fitting 🙂
(Did I mention Gigi is one of my all-time favourite snowboarders? ;D )
How would you describe your art in general?
Collaboration, intuition, and an emphasis on process all play fundamental parts in my art creation. My art practice is a kind of an exploration of the unconscious, tapping into unknown realms and see what images I come back with. I like to look at the drawings that I help come into being and be surprised by what happened on the paper.
My preferred medium is mostly drawing, but I also do larger paintings and sometimes photography, video, and animation too… I love doing little gif-loops for example. I like to work on shared drawings with others, both live and remotely. I feel if we, as humans, want to get out of the mess we’re in right now on this planet, our only way is to acknowledge the interconnectedness of everything and collaborate, so that’s what I like to explore in my artistic work.
Play and collaboration to me are also very important aspects of snow/skate/boarding. Having a great day on your board with friends is almost always a matter of collaborating. Playing on boards with your friends in the snow is the best, you see something your homie does, you try to incorporate it in your riding, you do it different, the next person sees it and does her own interpretation. That to me is a form of collaborative evolution that I like to celebrate both through my riding and my art. You see, I take playing very seriously 🙂 And I feel like that’s what Gigi’s doing with Slash, too.
What work have you done in the snowboard/action sports world before?
I’ve worked with German indie skate brands: Nebel Skateboards and Ocean Skateboards, and I’m stoked on my recent graphic I did with them.
I did a graphic for a Powderskate for Draw Snowskates. Other than that, I had a couple of pages in Method mag where I drew characters over snow and skate photos from the 90s.
I hope to do more work in skate and snowboard graphics – I started skating at age 6 and snowboarding at age 12, making board graphics has always been a dream of mine. I’d really love to design a powsurfboard, too. So yes, hit me up for commissions : )
Where can we find your work?
@ravingindian on Insta and on my http://ravingindian.tumblr.com
Where will you hang your snowboard?
Right now it is sitting comfily in a boardbag in my basement, impatiently waiting to be ridden next winter : )
Gigi
Gigi, how did you come across Marcus & Twotma?
That’s not too long ago, maybe a year and a half?
What was your brief to them?
I told Marcus I wanted to have him make me my most important board graphic; then I asked if he was down. It would be for the new Slash ATV that I shaped for Slash’s 10-year anniversary – given this is going to be the one I will ride the most. Very much drawn to his colour palette, mostly consisting of blue, white, red, yellow, and green. Simple as that. I wanted it because of his drawings being so intuitively carefree like when gazing at clouds in the sky. I’ve worked with many artists and it’s important to me to add that facete to complete a product. It’s too important of a chance. In fact, it is to partake in what the lifestyle of snowboarding always has presented me with – it doesn’t matter how good you are as an athlete in this industry, you sure have a talent of some sort that will keep this train on the tracks. As long as we include talents like you playing your favourite instrument, we are good.
This colourway runs through your 686, Union, and Dragon lines… please explain your thinking behind the colour palette.
Well because I am granted the chance to endorse my own product, I make sure it fits to a tight looking kit. This year came down to my favourite cold blue.