EXHIBIT: Skateboard decks a canvas for NLR show's artists

A skateboard can become a conveyance for expression.

Like an artist, a skater learns certain skills foreign to most of us and uses them to make a statement: Here I am, see what I can do, watch this kickflip.

And while skaters use their imagination to express themselves on their boards, artists have long used skateboards for their own creativity. An exhibit opening Saturday at Dedicated Visual Art Studio and Gallery in North Little Rock will feature the work of over 30 Arkansas artists who have transformed blank, wooden skateboard decks into pieces of art, more suitable for hanging on a wall than for ollying over a curb.

Fluke Life Art Show is curated by Matthew Thompson, founder of Fluke, the fanzine he created in 1991 to document the Central Arkansas punk rock scene.

Thompson grew up in North Little Rock and now lives in Phoenix, where he still publishes Fluke and maintains the www.flukefanzine.com site as well as @fluke_fanzine on Instagram. The 52-page issue 17 was published last month and features an interview with National Book Award-winning graphic novelist Nate Powell, who grew up in North Little Rock. Powell also created the current issue's cover art.

This is the second year Thompson has curated a Fluke-affiliated skateboard art exhibit. Last year's event was held in Phoenix, but the 48-year-old Thompson wanted to bring the 2019 version back home.

The show will feature boards with artwork by Jermaine Gibson, Phillip Rex Huddleston, Olivia Trimble, Hannah Miller, John Kushmaul, Lilia Berenice Hernandez, Kevin Kerby, milkdadd, Jake Jackson, buZ blurr and others.

All of the decks will be for sale, with prices ranging from $100-$150, Thompson says.

Along with the boards, the exhibit will feature classic Arkansas 'zines like Lighten Up and ephemera from Thompson's collection.

"I'll have old Fluke issues dating back to 1991 and things from the Fluke archives. There will also be an Arkansas 'zine archive dating back to the '80s."

The exhibit brings together some of Thompson's lifelong passions.

"I've skated off and on my whole life," he says. "Skateboarding is what introduced me to punk rock, and punk rock is what Fluke has pretty much focused on all these years. I've always been interested in art, and I wanted to tie it all together — skateboards, art, 'zines."

Expect to see boards adorned with stencils, paint and even one that has been carved and torched.

"There are a lot of different techniques being used," Thompson says.

The show is also a sort of homage to Paige Hearn who has been building skateboards in North Little Rock since the '80s. The 31-inch long, 8-inch wide, hard rock maple decks featured in the exhibit were all made in North Little Rock by Hearn's company, Skateboard Plus.

Thompson recalls being 13 years old and riding his bicycle from Park Hill to Levy, where Hearn was building a half-pipe ramp for a pro-am competition behind his family's furniture store that attracted skaters like Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero and Christian Hosoi.

"He didn't talk down to me. He talked to me like an equal," Thompson says. "I was in awe. I owe a lot to Paige Hearn for what he did for me as a kid and for a lot of kids in Arkansas. I've been skating his skate decks since high school. He has just been a huge influence on Little Rock and North Little Rock skate kids."

Hearn's decks have been used in marketing campaigns by bands like Metallica and JFA, and he says he plans to check out the show.

"We always like to see what people decide to do with them. It's a surprise every time, whether they do something simple or complicated, whether it's by someone really old or young, someone with lots of experience or no experience in art, it's all good. The main point is seeing someone having a good time with them."

Jose Hernandez is the owner of Dedicated Visual Art Studio and Gallery and, as with last year's Arizona show, will have a board in this year's exhibit.

"I met Matthew last year when he did the show in Phoenix," Hernandez says. "He hit me up about a show here, and I said: 'Let's do it.'"

Much of Hernandez's work is a lot larger than the space offered on a skateboard. He and Jermaine Gibson, who was also in last year's show, created the Peace Mural on Seventh Street in Little Rock, and Hernandez has painted murals for Cromwell Architects, Engineers, Inc.; Rebel Kettle; Dunbar Gardens; the North Little Rock Boys and Girls Club; Stephens Elementary School and at other spots in Central Arkansas.

"It's different, definitely," he says of working on skate decks. "I'm used to doing big walls, so going small is always a challenge. But I like painting skateboards."

His piece will feature "a mixture of inks, paint markers, spray paint and acrylics," he says.

Gibson says his entry for this year features four decks attached to plywood.

"It's all one cohesive piece," he says. "I used artist-grade spray paint, a lot of acrylics, there's a lot of hand-painted stuff."

Like Hernandez, Gibson is a muralist and usually works on a much bigger scale, like the patio and floor he created at Town Pump and the Stars Wars-, Aliens- and Super Mario Brothers-themed bathrooms at Pizza d' Action.

"The bigger the better," he says of his preference, "but I'll paint on anything — pieces of wood that I find, I'll take old paintings from Goodwill and redo them ... I have a knack for finding cool stuff to paint on, and I like painting on skateboards. They're pretty fun."

For Thompson, the skate and punk rock tribes found as a teenager in North Little Rock are still influences on his life, and he's glad to return home and share this art.

"I was a kid soaking up this culture that, really, has shaped my life," he says. "My kids skate, and I skate with them. There's a lot of freedom in skateboarding, a lot of freedom and imagination. And I'm really happy to bring this home. It means a lot to me because Little Rock has always supported Fluke. It's very uplifting to get so much interest and for so many people to be on board, pun intended."

Weekend on 12/26/2019