PUSH 2012 Recap

PUSH 2012 - Division Street Skatepark Auction from Eric Jensen on Vimeo.

A couple posts below we mentioned the Toyhippo deck we fired out to Bend, OR for the Division Street Skate Project's 2012 art show, PUSH. Eric Jensen was kind enough to throw this recap vid together that features all the decks from the show. They were gracious enough to throw our Toyhippo deck on the window, which means...well...we're not really sure. But we're stoked! Check out the vid and look for the TH board at around the 2:00 mark.

Today is May 5th, our Hit Rewindies art show is July 5th. Yes, that is 2 months away. The theme is 90's sport, and we're excited to see everyone come check out our surprises. See you at Gallery 135 in 8 weeks!

Testing The Waters Book

Finally got around to throwing together some cool documentation of our TTW show. We've always had the images online, but it was nice to get a book together for our purposes. Pretty simple screw-post bound, ink jet print. Thank you Canon i9900 for your time and services. A few images below of the book. The cover art matches the graphic we used for the event tees.

July 2012 Art Show Announced

Finally. A year and a half after our last show at Nemo, we'll be firing up yet another art gig at Gallery 135. It's a killer space located on the first floor of IDL's spot in the NW Parkblocks. It's gonna be killer, and we're stoked on it already. Thanks to Jake & Scott at IDL for giving us the thumbs up and being excited enough to work with us. We're definitely humbled to get a chance to show our stuff in their rad space. It's going to be July 5, which is the first Thursday of that month. Bring your Skip-Its and bowl cuts, it's on!!!

We'll have more news as it comes. Pics of Gallery 135 below.

Toyhippo Deck For Charity

A couple weeks ago, the Division Street Skate Project in Bend, OR had their annual PUSH event with tons of skateboard graphics to raise some dough. We were asked to submit a board, so here it is below. We don't have any other photos of it yet, but the show turned around great. We're all just raiders at heart, aren't we?!

HERE is a link to the DSSP facebook page where you can browse around and check out more pics if you'd like!

King Volt Magazine Exclusive

Super fresh art/apparel/sneaker site, King Volt Magazine did a cool little special on Undertow recently. Just had a chance to chat with them about the art show we had at Nemo, as well as our overall breadth of art and apparel. You can check out any of the entries on Undertow at their site, www.kingvoltmagazine.com. They've got all sorts of goodies to look at and browse. Make sure you check back here and at their web site because they'll have more Utow stuff coming up in the very near future.

And then there were none...

Wow. Did that really just happen? What an amazing experience at our debut art show last night. I think it still hasn't really sank in for the three of us yet. We're pretty proud of ourselves though for somehow finding a way to pull that off.

We got a lot of people to thank and I don't want to leave anyone out, so if you helped us in any way for this show, you rock. Big ups to Jordan brand and Nemo HQ for allowing this entire thing to occur. Two powerful forces there bringing two awesome cultures and vibes together for something like this really made the evening. Thanks again, we owe a lot of tees or side hugs to a lot of people.

We got more photos to come in the next few days. Still doing a lot of editing and resizing and such, so stay tuned!

Art show production begins...

Started painting up Nemo last night for our Testing The Waters show (yes, it's friday the 4th) last night. We were there pretty late trying to get in as much as we could. This week is going to be nuts trying to get everything together. It's looking pretty sweet though so far. So check out the pics below, and check out a few more on our facebook profile HERE.

Nemo Tweet

Nemo threw us some backhanded love today by tweeting our art show for all the babays. I say backhanded because they still find it comical to refer to us as Undertown. Thanks a lot KB.

Taking-art show-invites-to-stores Day

Today was our day to get out and get some art show invites in the faces of some potential consumers and whatnot. We spent a lot of time around Hawthorne and 23rd, dropping knowledge and introducing ourselves and what we're about. We mostly just discussed the overall concept behind Undertow and how our show is centered around our collaborations with Nemo and the Jordan brand. Big thanks to all the places that let us chat with them for a bit and drop off some invites. Here's a photo below of some invites on one of the cashwraps to prove we aren't completely full of it. Hope to see a lot of you guys at the show in 3 weeks!

Art show invites have arrived!

Just to prove we're actually having an art show, here you go. 500 5 x 6.5 invites to pass out at eddie bauer and burlington coat factory.

Official art show announcement

June 4th. Be there. Spread the word and bring a single lady or two...

Custom somethings for the art show

We're pretty pumped around here about a special project we've been working on that will be on display and for sale at the art show (June 4th for the babaays). They're a pair of custom Undertow somethings. We can't reveal what or any details about them, but we can tell you that we've been doing a lot of shopping lately for deals on skechers shape-ups. Those and high-top watersocks were definitely high on the list to customize for the show. Take a peak at the teaser below, and make sure you check out the finished product when the show rolls around.

Undertow T-shirts

Designs are done for the first set of the tees that will be available at our art show (June 4th duh ppl). So far we're thinking of doing the white design on a bright blue shirt, but things could change. You never know, we might decide to embroider the design on a mock turtle neck instead. Take a look below.

Updates from Utow

Toyhippo here. It's past 2 AM Saturday morn and I'm still up illustrating stuff for some art. Felt the need to put down some thoughts a bit on Undertow in general. That, and I've been unable to pry myself away from cataloging my entire C&C Music Factory album collection all evening.

But I digress. For those of you that aren't aware, we've got our first art show coming up on Friday, June 4th. It's less than two months away now. It's a daunting feeling, but very exciting. We've got several surprises up our sleeves...err..tentacles....fins..? Anyway, we're gonna let it all hang out because once you're in the animal kingdom, you have no shame.

I think a lot of the surprises we've got are going to blow some peoples' minds. We all can't wait to just get in there and execute all the ideas we have. We actually had to get together and whittle down a lot of them because it was beginning to be overwhelming. Could have turned into a circus very easily. It still might actually, but hopefully it's a tame, well-coordinated circus.

We're gonna have lots of art (shocking), merchandise, free snacks, free drinks, prize giveaways, and a lot more that I so badly want to divulge to everyone right now, but I'm having to practice some serious restraint. I mean it's gonna be June, weather is likely to be beautiful, we'll probably have the roll-up door open, and it's possible my pants will come off at some point if the ladies (or Garth) play their cards right.

Overall though, I think we want to just have a big reason to celebrate the 3 of us finally getting together and doing something we all love doing. We've talked about having an art show with our own work for a few years now, and now we're actually doing it. It's been a huge blessing for us to even have this opportunity.

Client work is great, but our personal art is something that really reflects our passions and personalities to the point where you really have a vested interest in each piece you create. I know for me, each of my pieces revolves around a personal event that I experienced or observed. That will make it even more fun to see other people interact with those experiences and see what sticks and what doesn't. It's going to be a learning experience for all of us that we can all soak in.

Anyway, it's getting too late for this crap. I'm so tired that this is starting to feel like a drunk, rambling, facebook message or something that I would really regret the next morning. Have a whale (yes) of a weekend and don't forget the date, June 4th. We reserve the right to choke, tailwhip, or bite in half anyone we know that pulls a no-show.

Trevor Loves Undertown

A couple weeks old, but got this tip from our friend Steve. Trevor Graves of Nemo HQ dropped us some love on his twitter feed after our art show pitch. He did make one apparent demand: we must change our name to Undertown...

Art Show Announced

We sat down with Trevor and Carey from Nemo Design yesterday with heated negotiations for an Undertow art show in their studio. We gave them an ultimatum: Let us have an art show in your studio, or our feelings will be really hurt. They were in a very sympathetic mood. That, and they knew we were going to blow out an awesome show.

So mark your calendars for the first Friday in June, which I believe is June 4th. We have a lot of work to do.

Thanks Trevor, Carey, & Heather H! (and everyone else I can't list individually)