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In honor of Jeff Anderson and the camaraderie created by his love for art, family, and friends,

each month on the 23^rd

I AM SNOWBOARDING is highlighting one of the  art pieces along with the artists who created it.

This month’s featured partnership is:

“the Radient Legend of Mammoth”

Photo: Ryan Boyes, Laguna Beach, CA

Fine Art: Ben Brough, Costa Mesa, CA

Photograph, Acrylic, a soundtrack, and a few tears over Giclee on canvas

25 1/2 x 38 1/2 in (64.77 x 97.79 cm)

2009

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This photograph of Jeff Anderson was created by Ryan Boyes in Mammoth Lakes, California, 2003. Captured with a standard Polaroid.

Ryan Boyes: “Billy and I were posted up at the Red Bull house in Mammoth early January 2003. Jeff rang up Billy and explained how his first Burton Pro model had just arrived. Within minutes Jeff charged through the door holding his weapon under one arm. We all circled around… one by one, checked the weight, flexed it, examined the tip and tail profiles, looked down the side cut and stood on the board; improvising where we’d mount the bindings. A right of passage with any board, perhaps maybe more of a ritual before riding. It was our introduction to the first ever Jeff Anderson pro model. Jeff was glowing and I could see Billy was proud of his younger brother. Thumbs up!”

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Collecting the polaroid image for the project was a wonderful task. Ryan had given the small photo to Jane and she had it among other photos at  her house in the desert. With Levi in tow, Torrey drove two hours east, and on a beautiful Fall afternoon spent several hours pouring through Jane’s scrap book of photos and memories and hearing many many stories about Jeff and Billy.

The photo was brought back to Orange County, scanned, enlarged onto canvas by RYNo in Lake Tahoe then sent back to Ben Brough to add his work in Costa Mesa, California, October 2009.

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Ben Brough: “When I got the canvas in the mail I was like oh shit I gotta paint on this thing and mess it up? It was this great photo that I just wanted to hang on my wall – Jeff looking so stoked on holding his board. And it took me awhile. I put it in the studio and sat and stared at it for a couple days before I started working on it. Then, the night I started working on it, it was weird… I had my iPod on shuffle – which has I don’t know how many songs – but every other song was a song off the Basquiat soundtrack. When we were kids Jeff took me to see the movie and he turned me on to Basquiat. It was just a really great bonding time with him just being… young and free… with all these dreams and ideas for the future…. and while I was painting… the soundrack kept coming on and I kept getting goose bumps like someone was in the room with me. I just started like totally crying when I was painting… not cause I was sad I wasn’t happy I wasn’t sad my eyes were just leaking..  The John Cale Hallelujah song was playing. It was the end credit song of the Baquiat movie and I just felt like Jeff was there. I’m a pretty spiritual person and I definitely felt someone in the room with me – Jeff was in the room with me. It was like he came and was hanging out. It felt great… it really felt great.”

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In February 2010 when the I AM show traveled to Tokyo, “the Radient Legend of Mammoth” was used by Volcom for a t-shirt highlighting all the tour stops of the exhibition. Select sizes of these shirts are available for purchase – email info@AR4T.com. All proceeds go to the JLA Fund through The JLA Project. Now Japan..Japan was an extremely memorable trip… but that’s for another day.

Please check back next month for more stories about the making of I AM…

Ben - Boyes - Blacky - I AM - Mammoth Nov 2009

ABOUT BEN BROUGH

Ben Brough is a self-taught American artist working in the traditional style of painting and collage. Born in California, raised in Hawaii, Ben started his focus on art when he traveled the world as a surfer, logging images in one of his many journals that he’d always keep close by. Preferring to make art with a childlike scraw, embracing humanistic emotions with a goal of raw mythical impact. Ben has shown his art in galleries worldwide. His art has been made iconic through the world of graphic design, his original paintings are a must have for any contemporary art collection.

In honor of Ben’s upcoming solo art exhibition, photographer / filmmaker Jesse Fulton spent several evenings with Ben in his studio quietly taking notes. What emerged is a beautiful commentary on Ben’s art and exciting prelude to the art soon to be on display. Please view the extended version which includes an interview with Ben at www.AR4T.com/blog.

“A Million Charming Creatures,” Artwork by Ben Brough runs July 31st through August 15th, 2010, at 210 AR4T SPACE, 210 North PCH (between Broadway and Cliff), Laguna Beach, CA. The opening reception, on Saturday July 31st, from 7 to 10 pm, is free and open to the public. For more information, contact 210 AR4T Space at 415.690.6180 or info@AR4T.com.

ABOUT RYAN BOYES

Ryan Boyes grew up in Wrightwood, CA and moved to Mammoth in his late teens to finish High School. Like many hippy kids, he had big plans of moving out west to pursue his dreams. Except for Ryan, moving west actually meant going east to Montana where he lived off and on for the next ten years, eventually scoring a dream job as the snow team manager at Volcom.

After many years of admiring the work of other photographers, Ryan picked up a camera and starting shooting. With a keen eye for detail that shows in his work, Ryan’s passion for getting the best shot and his dedication to photography and snowboarding go hand in hand.

Currently Ryan stays true to his hippy roots by living in Laguna Beach, California and takes long bike rides with his beautiful wife Bonnie.

Ben Brough is an American artist. His work has primitive playfull aura mixed with colorful subjects, that lately are loosely based around American consumerism , coastal culture , cinema and fine dining. He currently lives by the beach in Costa Mesa, CA with his wife and two daughters.

Ben is partnered with photographer Ryan Boyes.

Ryan Boyes grew up in Wrightwood, CA and moved to Mammoth in his late teens to finish High School. Like many hippy kids, he had big plans of moving out west to pursue his dreams. Except for Ryan, moving west actually meant going east to Montana where he lived off and on for the next ten years, eventually scoring a dream job as the snow team manager at Volcom.

After many years of admiring the work of other photographers, Ryan picked up a camera and starting shooting. With a keen eye for detail that shows in his work, Ryan’s passion for getting the best shot and his dedication to photography and snowboarding go hand in hand.

Currently Ryan stays true to his hippy roots by living in Laguna Beach, California and takes long bike rides with his fiancée Bonnie.

Ryan is partnered with artist Ben Brough

A story about Jeff that you would like to share:

“Jeff, Billy, Andrew Marriner and myself went to spend a summer day at Thalia Street in Laguna. Jeff got into beach mode, aborts his shirt and offers his skin to the sun. We all get a chuckle out of his whiteness and laugh about not having any sunscreen. Halfway down the stairs a local girl bounces towards us, looks Jeff in the eyes, smiles and offers a hello. Jeff got speechless, actually dumbfounded. His head followed the girl up the stairs for a second. Finally his thoughts catch up to him and replies, “damn….I should have been a pro surfer. Did you see that girl? She was half naked!!!”

Shem Roose

Shem Roose is a husband, father of two wild banshees, and freelance photographer living in Northern Vermont. He has been snowboarding since 1986, and shooting photos since 1991. His first published photo ran in Transworld Snowboarding Magazine’s Photo annual in 1994.

Description of what was happening the day Shem shot the photo of Jeffy used for the I AM SNOWBOARDING project: “Jeff was filming with Shane Charlebois for Whitey’s movie. On the way to this spot, I was driving behind Jeff and we were moving along down the highway at a good clip. All of a sudden, Jeff’s snowmobile trailer started swerving behind his truck…I thought the sled was going to fly off the trailer and into the pavement. He slowed down and got the trailer back under control, and we went about the rest of our day.”

Shem Roose is partnered with artist Scott Lenhardt

Scott Lenhardt, a Gemini, grew up in Southern VT. He has been making art for most of his life. Scott is perhaps most notibly known for his record 48 or 49 Burton graphics completed over the years. He is currently living in New York where he shows once in awhile at the Taxter and Spengemann Gallery and occasionally gets to go on a trip to paint a mural in such places as New Zealand and Austria.

Scott Lenhardt is partnered with photographer Shem Roose

“Skeleton Man” by Jeff Anderson 1997

Limited Edition of TEN –  24″ x 36″ x 1.5″ fine art reproduction Giclee custom printed on Birch wood.

$350 unframed, $500 w. black frame as shown.

Please email torrey (at) AR4T.com for an order form.

more….

I’m just another man trying to make the most of the american dream. Every morning someone new greets me in the mirror just depends on what I have to do that day. I’m aware of myself, the things that surround me and I express that awareness within my photos. I try to keep it simple yet it always gets complicated. ?That’s my life and I wouldn’t change a thing.

A story about Jeff…

“It’s funny because my fondest memories of hanging with Jeffy were out in the backcountry building jumps. It’s ironic because everyone thinks of him as a jibber but he was one of those kids that was just naturally talented on a snowboard where ever he may be. Anyway Jeffy had all this special lingo; funny sayings of sort and at the time Shane was his filmer yet more than that. He was like a big brother. Jeffy was always asking him for advice and stuff and they would trade funny stories. I would be laughing so hard, I could barely shovel – Jeffy with his misty lingo and Capt Stoney breaking off stoneyisms. It was those moments of unique simplicity that I remember.”

Stan Evans is partnered with artist Robert “Sticky” Shaw

A story about Jeff that you would like to share:

One time we were in Burlington, VT…
Jeff had to leave to catch a flight, but he didn’t want to go.
the house we were staying at was about to erupt into a super fun party night.
Lots of good people, music and art going down.
Jeff kept lagging at the door, just wanting to stay.
Then he grabbed a crayon and a piece of paper and he scribbled down all frantic-like.
He handed the page to me and said: “this is how I feel right now”… and left.
The drawing was of a scraggily skeleton all sad.
I Still have that drawing.. and looking at it brings a smile everytime.
Its amazing that in one picture, scribbled down in second of time
Completely addressed how
Jeffy
felt about
Having to go…

Shane is partnered with Blotto

Billy Anderson: “This is where it all started for Jeff and I. They opened the shop around 1989.  It was only a few blocks form our house. We went into the shop with excuse that we were looking for our Dad, he was doing some maintenance as they were building out the shop.  From the first time we went in I think we went back everyday for the next five years.  At one point we had built a make shift ramp that took up 90% of the store. Ronnie McCoy really took good care of us. He took us on some of our first trips and introduced us to all of our sponsors. He was the one that introduced us to the Volcom family.”

A small group of friends representing Stormriders got together to collaborate on a piece of art for the I AM SNOWBOARDING exhibit. Jeff’s Mammoth pass was donated by Steven Brown, and the art was completed by Blacky, Voich and Pete….

BRIAN “BLACKY” COOK

Bay Area born and raised I followed some friends to mammoth in ‘97 to get rad in the snow. After living there for a couple months skateboarding and fishing, I landed a job for the winter working night crew at canyon lodge. My buddies did that the previous winter, helped me get in, and it seemed awesome – work at night/ride all day.

Everyday we skated by Stormriders on our way to the Nelsons ramp. I would stop by, hang out and bs with Ronnie. I worked at a skateshop back home and I felt comfortable being there. One day Ronnie asks me what I was planning on doing for work, I told him night crew and he just plainly asks me if I would rather work for him. I was stoked! I am such a board rat that the thought of working in a snowboardshop was way better than cleaning shit off toilets in the middle of the night.

Over the next 4 years I had some awesome times there, learned everything I know about snowboarding from Ronnie and Kevin and met many friends.

Aaron and Peter are 2 of those friends. While creating our piece it might as well been 1999 again, the 3 of us tuning boards with Jeff sitting on the counter hanging out. Working in a shop is like an extended family since you spend so much time there. I guess that makes these guys my brothers.

I want to thank Ron McCoy for teaching me all about what snowboarding is, how it should be and for paving the way for all snowboarders in Mammoth.

PETER STOW

Born and raised skating the streets of Bishop, Calif. at the base of the Sierras, I finally tried snowboarding for the first time in 6th grade and never looked back. I rented my first board from Ron McCoy at Storm Riders – that Kemper Kid was pretty sweet. From then on, I was the little grom that would hang out at the shop as much as possible, and with my dad working at Mammoth Mountain I had plenty of time to hang. I remember running around the original shop with Jeffy and causing all sorts of mayhem. Once I was old enough to work at the shop I was stoked, getting paid to be where I would have been anyway.

Some of my better friendships came from working in the shop so when I was able to work with Blacky and Voich on this piece I was very excited. It was just like the old days, hanging out telling stories and talking shit on each other – it’s like we didn’t miss a day although it had been years.

I believe Jeffy would be proud of the art we created. Working on it was pure chaos; then all of the sudden, it was a amazing art piece that I am very proud to say I was part of. Just like Jeffy, a lot of chaos, but when it came down to it he was an amazing friend too.

These days I am fortunate enough to own a Graphic Design company which allows me to work from home, so this winter I decided to make my home Mammoth once again. The last time had my own place in Mammoth was 97-98 El Nino, I hope this year compares.

Storm Riders forever …

STEVEN BROWN

Growing up with Jeff helped inspire me to snowboard. Now that he is gone he inspires me to become an artist. Sometimes I see him a lot in everyday signs like driving to work and seeing a person with an orange hat on.

AND THE REST OF THE STORMRIDER’S CREW:

Joe Weniger, Kevin Calder, Josh Huckaby, Jon Warren, Matty Thompson, Billy Anderson, Eli Weiner, Tom Weniger, Teddy Monney, Brad Phillips, Ryan Boyes, Matt Voss, Dustin del Giudice, Nap Gibson, and beautiful ladies Denise, Bree and Alisa Mokler Harper.

Ronnie McCoy…. we love you.