Haroshi

I "StumbledUpon" japanese skater/artist Haroshi...  his artistic style and media form is unique.  He recycles old skateboards (decks, trucks, wheels, everything) and makes sculptures with a wide range of subject matter.  Most of his works seem to show the personality of a skateboarder, which I think is fun.  The subject matter behind is works is often fun, ironic, or silly.  When you look at his works, you can see how much he loves skateboarding!  

Since his early teens, Haroshi's passion was skateboarding.  He always felt bad just throwing away old and broken boards.  While some people make benches or chairs out of old boards, Haroshi makes moose heads, skulls, popular cartoon depictions, every day objects and abstract works of art. 

While his works are fun and unique, they are amazing because of the master wood-working craftsmanship and the wide range of ways he "plays" with his unique medium.  Some of his works are stacked, some are carved.  He also plays with wooden mosiacs and the idea of dots and pixels.  

What is more amazing is his familiarity with his medium!  Being unfamiliar with skateboards, non-skaters and I would assume that skateboards are fairly flat and similar in shape and materials... But we are mistaken! Apparently, skateboards' structures vary according to brand, style, factory, and popular skaters' signature models.  There are manufactured in different sizes, shapes, densities, and materials.  Haroshi is familiar with all of these variables and characteristics.  He can defferentiate between thousands of used boards...what they were used for and more importantly, how they can be used, stacked, shaped, or carved in his works of art.

His attention to detail is immaculate.  

But Haroshi's work doesn't stop with creativity, style, unique flare, and craftsmanship.  Inside each of his works is a broken or deteriorated piece of a skateboard that is specifically chosen by Haroshi.  This small piece within each of his works is the most important to him.  While most people would consider these objects as useless junk from a failed "Big Make" attempt, Haroshi thinks of them as the heart or "soul piece" of the work.  To me, this is a beautiful and personal connection of himself to his works.