ARTIST BIO: Growing up in KC sucks. Especially if BMX or skateboarding is your thing. So some time in the late 80’s, I headed west. Knowing nobody outside of MO, I first went to Los Angeles, spent a week looking around and decided there was too much traffic for me. I then headed down the coast to SD/Carlsbad where, by coincidence, DMC was visiting the Haro office for a photo shoot (he had just been picked up by Haro). I somehow got ahold of DMC (well before the cell phone) and he introduced me to Juanitas taco shop and Bob Haro. Unbeknownst to him, Bob became my mentor and gave me my start into the art/graphics field. I remember working long hours for free and, with Bob, staying at the Haro offices at 6066 Corte Del Cedro well after closing time hand coloring xeroxed line drawings of bikes trying to come up with colorways for future models (well before the Macintosh computer). Those days at the early Haro offices are some of the best memories I have. The place exuded fun and it’s one of those places you just wanted to hang out at. Bob was one of the most welcoming people I’d ever met. In the following years, I crashed at his place for months at a time and grew up (relatively speaking) living the dream that continues today. I am currently the Art Director for Mirraco Bike Co. Over the years, I have provided design and related services for several companies such as Bell Helmets/West Coast Choppers, Diamondback, Mongoose, Trek, Raleigh, Univega, Haro, Hasbro Toys, Taylor Made Golf, Physics Golf, Thor Motocross, Jet Pilot, Upper Deck, and Monoptics Sports Telescopes.
Travis Collier
SHORT STATEMENT ON THE ROLE BMX HAD IN MY LIFE: Out of so many things in life I would say that BMX is the one that has brought me to were I am now. It has been my friend and my enemy, my sanity, insanity and by far the hugest influence for better or worse. It is the passion that has lead me to art and design. In retrospect, being exposed to BMX is what made everything "click" and put me exactly where I'm supposed to be as a person and professional. Flatland has given me the discipline, open mind and creativity I need for my endeavors in the years to come. I'm grateful that I was able to find something so incredible in life, and live it to the fullest. Riding curbs today is still just as dope as when I was 12. ARTIST BIO: I've spent the last ten years in parking lots and parkades riding Flatland. Eight of them competing and traveling as a pro. After growing tired of competition I decided to start building on my other passion in art and design. So I decided to give my BMX career a back seat for a while and attend university to study design for a few years. Throughout my BMX career I have been fortunate enough to have some unique relationships with sponsors and others in the industry. So I was able to put myself through school by taking on various freelance projects from my sponsors and other clients. Still competing and traveling in my off time payed the bills during those years in school. So I guess you could say that BMX put me through school and was my "springboard" into design. School is now over and I currently work at one of Vancouver's leading design companies, St. Bernadine Mission Communications (www.stbernadine.com). I continue to travel and compete as pro flatlander, and am fortunate enough to represent companies such as Macneil Bikes, Lotek, and Fremont. **
Steve Crandall
SHORT STATEMENT ON THE ROLE BMX HAD IN MY LIFE: One of the first things I learned on my BMX, was that using the front brakes while riding on an icy sidewalk will make you crash. That was probably 25 or so years ago, on Christmas morning, after I got one of my first BMX bikes. Since then it has taught me about many of the things I consider valuable. Travel, friendship, adventure, and the timeless feeling of the "get rad" has inspired creativity for me, and many others. ARTIST BIO: Steve Crandall is a 34 year-old product of Ithaca, NY. Now residing in Richmond, VA, Crandall spearheaded FBM Bike Company in the late '90s. Combining his comically blunt artwork with US-made bicycle frames and a team of longtime friends, FBM was well received throughout the BMX world. And to this day, the brand is equated with quality, and more importantly, having fun on a bicycle. But it's not always easy to hit the streets in the dead of January in Crandall's hometown, and he learned early on to pick up a paint brush and toil the night away in front of the canvas. Over the past ten years, Crandall's artwork has appeared in numerous art shows around the world. His subjects vary greatly, from wayward pigeons to tasty soup to deteriorated glimpses of old Americana and everything in between. More recently, Crandall was barred from entering Canada for ten years. He refuses to comment, though he has blogged about it.
Andrew Pommier
SHORT STATEMENT ON THE ROLE BMX HAD IN MY LIFE: I saw the movie "RAD" when I was around 11. I got super stoked on BMX bikes, but all I had to try my hand at tricks was a BMX styled bike my parents bought me at Kmart. It's hard to do endos with coaster brakes, but I gave it my best shot. I soon started buying BMX mags, contained in their pages there was a little skateboarding cross-over coverage. Skateboarding started grabbing my attention more than learning about crank arms and how to do tailwhips. ARTIST BIO: Andrew Pommier is in Vancouver, a part of the world where it's pointless to take the fenders off ones bike. He does a bunch of drawings and paintings that sometimes get shown in galleries. In late 2008 he curated a show of five Canadian artists for the Monster Children Gallery in Sydney, Ausrtalia and has worked for various skateboard and clothing companies, such as Toy Machine, Girl, Element, RVCA and Fourstar. In early 2008 Adidas released a three pack of signature shoes by Pommier. At the time of this writing he lives in a small drafty coach house in the east end of the city. In the house is a cranky loud cat that never seems pleased. He likes peanut butter and banana sandwiches. He has been to China once and Australia twice.
Tofer
SHORT STATEMENT ON THE ROLE BMX HAD IN MY LIFE: My first bike ever was an all chrome BMX with a checkered pad set and training wheels. The training wheels lasted a week. Today, I ride an all chrome GT 12" with a laid back seat post and a checkered California Lite handle bar pad. ARTIST BIO: Tofer Chin, a Los Angeles-based artist and photographer, is the co-owner of PG (Plain Gravy), a lifestyle collective that is deeply rooted in the culture of art, skateboarding, and music. Chin recently finished his second photo book, Vacation Standards (a follow-up to Finger Bang, his first book). He has exhibited his work at Commissary Arts in Venice, CA, White Box in New York, Reina Sofia National Museum Art Centre in Madrid, and at ROJO® ArtSpace in Barcelona to name a few. He was recently commissioned by interior designer Kelly Wearstler to produce original paintings for the revamping of the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills and the Viceroy Hotel in Miami. Chin received the 2008 Graphis Design Annual Gold Award for Flaunt No. 79, where he created an original painting for the issue's cover. John Martin ARTIST BIO Growing up in County Cork, Ireland, John knew he wanted to be a designer at an early age. His first love was BMX and it was also his first expression of creativity. While his peers played team sports like football (soccer) and hurling, he was off on his own doing "Kerb Endos" and "Rock Walks," a pastime turned passion that set the tone for the rest of his life. After studying at the Cork College of Fashion Design, he worked in Southern California for seven years at several surf, skate and snowboarding companies. He has spent the last eight years designing products and setting overall creative direction for Nike SB, Nike 6.0 and Nike Snowboarding. Klaus Dyba Artist Statement riding since: 1983 1983 changed my life. Groups of kids on little bikes with knobbly tires entered my city, rode full speed through red traffic lights, jumped curbs and somehow rode away from their normal life. That's how I wanted to be! Even at the age of 13 without Cable-tv or the Internet, everything unusual made me curious! It was a hard fight to get my first bike, but from then on it never left my life. I enjoyed the idea behind Freestyle BMX way more than race and the Freestylin'/Go Magazine was my bible. The dead years of BMX actually brought me into the DIY lifestyle. Somehow I enjoyed doing something nobody else did or understood. BMX was commercially dead but it had opened my own universe with pen friends, zines and roadtrips without cameras. BMX showed me the fun of investing time into projects that no one but yourself or a small group of people are interested in.
Leigh Ramsdell
SHORT STATEMENT ON THE ROLE BMX HAD IN MY LIFE: I’ve been riding my little kid’s bike since I was… well, a little kid. That 20” cycle has opened my eyes in ways I could have never imagined. It’s taken me all over the world, made me new friends, and introduced me to cultures and environments I would have only read in books. My thought process has been forever changed from everyday thinking to, “let’s see what happens if I try this…”, just by thinking of new ways to ride my bike or seeing the slums in Brazil or going down a roll-in in a ice-cooler. I’m always in search of something new and thinking of making the impossible possible while realizing things in life are much too shirt to take too serious. So, whenever my pen touches a canvas or I make a silly short film, all I think about is making someone smile (mostly myself) and taking a little bit of reality, throwing it out the window so it lands in a puddle of dirty rain water that a pigeon is bathing in. I like walnuts. Thank you and enjoy. ARTIST BIO: Leigh is the marketing and creative director at Eastern Bikes in Raleigh, NC. He has no college degree and barely passed high school. Luckily for his dumb ass riding panned out and he was sponsored for many years. It’s at his last sponsor, Eastern Bikes, where Leigh is making the transition from pro rider to team manager and a 9-5 workingman. Always into art, photography and graphic design, he has been self-taught and fortunate to use what he knows with what he loves. Besides riding and working for Eastern Bikes, Leigh also runs a small online site that features his art as well as a lot of his friends: www.randumbness.us
To bid on any of these plates, go to the ARF site today!
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.