John Severson’s Painting of Tortola
The only art I’ve ever commissioned for my own personal collection was three paintings by John Severson. When Hurricane Irma hit Tortola, it blew all the windows and doors out of my house, and this was the only painting of the three to survive. When I first got the piece, I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now. It’s very realistic, and I was originally envisioning something more abstract. There are details he got right that I didn’t notice at first, like how swells bend into the bay.
Miki Dora
There are so many stories you hear repeated about Dora. I don’t know which are true and which are false, but one that I’ve always loved is that he collected wood from all over the world to make a surfboard. When someone asked him what he was going to do with the board, he said, “Well, I’m going to ride it, of course.” I don’t know if I would have liked Dora as a person, but his naturally good style as a surfer is very inspiring. It’s effortless, without trying to look effortless, unlike so many pros you see now attempting to look “casual” by putting their hands behind their back when they come out of a tube. I have a framed photograph of Dora that’s still hanging in my house on Tortola that I got during my time working at Surfer. It’s not an amazing photo. The wave is breaking in front of him, but even on a wave like that, he’s worth studying.
Big Thief
I love listening to music while I work. Some of the bands constantly on rotation are: The Replacements, The National, Lucinda Williams, Beach Fossils, Kings of Leon, and Will Johnson. I’m always looking for new music, and I’ve gotten into Big Thief recently. I was listening to the only radio station I get on Tortola, and Big Thief was the special guest artist one night. Instantly hooked, I sat in my parked car late into the night listening to their broadcast performance until it was over.
5’10” Album surfboards broken fin “quad”
It’s hard to pick just one surfboard to talk about. I’ve got at least 50 on Tortola, and I’ve had so many memorable boards come and go over the years. This past winter, I was riding this thick 5’10” quad from Matt Parker at Album Surfboards. I lost it on the rocks and broke out the heel-side rail fin box shortly after I got it. I put some black tape over the busted box, and it still works really well. Now, I actually like how the black tape looks on the bottom. It reminds me of Dora’s boards, where he had things like “For Sale,” “Go Home,” or a black “X” spray-painted on them. I’ve always loved boards that are experimental, and riding something that doesn’t look like every other board you see in the water.
Kurt Vonnegut
The writer who had the first big influence on my work is, for sure, Kurt Vonnegut. There is so much to appreciate in his sarcastic, dry humor, imagination, and social commentary. On a more subtle level, his books helped me realize that a sentence could be one word, or that you can begin a sentence with the word “and,” or that sometimes it’s better to spell a word the way it sounds. I’ve read all of his books, and his freedom with language has definitely carried over into my design work.
[For more David Carson, pick up a copy of TSJ 34.6 to read “The Word is an Image,” by Kyle DeNuccio.]
