Ed Templeton is not only pro skateboarder, contemporary artist, painter, writer and photographer - no - he is one of the “Beautiful Losers”! In addition to that, he has his own skateboard company, named “Toy Machine” and belongs to the hip creative head of our time.
Also in Berlin artworks of him were shown a few week ago, when he exhibited along with Pettibon and McGee at the Circle Culture Gallery.
Now, Juxtapoz posted a nice two-part talk (part1, part2) about skateboarding, arts and traveling between artist, designer, writer, and photographer** Kelly D. Williams** and Mr. Ed Templeton. Here is an excerpt:
Williams: What about the worst trend in art?
Templeton: Calling someone a “Skate Artist.” Is there a certain thing that can alert you to who is a skate artist? Whoa, I just walked right into that one, painting on a skateboard! But aside from that, what does that mean?
That is like saying “Bicycle artists” anyone who rides a bike and does art is one now a “Bike Artist” People who have a flannel shirt on make art in a certain way, lets call them the “Flannel Shirtists” People who skate and make art do so in a wide variety of ways, so you can’t categorize them into some sort of group that implies that they are making art that is similar in any way.
But there are people who don’t skate, and love to paint on skateboards for “street cred” they think it might give them. If you are trying to be called a “Skate Artist” you already blew it at life.
Ed Templeton - Skaterkids, 2004