Low Tide by Ea Eckerman. More at the Waveriders Gallery.

I’m an art junkie, but I think any surfer could have a great time at the San Diego Surfrider chapter’s annual art gala. It’s a great excuse to put on a suit and your best Hawaiian shirt, get your girl on your arm, bid on art and drink wine. It’s not hard to leave with a beautiful wall hanger.

Last years event was a blast and helped raise lots of cash for things like fighting the Trestles toll road, beach cleanups and water quality tests. Plus, the chocolate fondue fountain was tasty. Tickets are available through the chapter, but sell out fast!

You can see more of Peter’s work at his site, Artichoking. If you live remotely close to North County, this should be a great show.

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If Mark Rothko surfed, he would have made paintings like Wolfgang Bloch. More at The Surf Gallery.

I found this last friday (12/22/06) on an afternoon Beacons check, which generally comes immediately after any Kotija fish taco run. Anyone know if this is the same guy that had a pic recently in the Surfer’s Journal?
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Photography, painting, screen prints and industrial design by members of the surf and skate cultures turned a standard North County San Diego evening into a super fun art filled outing. Slideshow and write-up after the jump…

I’ve been hanging onto this link for a while now, waiting for the kind of week that leaves nothing to hope for when the weekend arrives. The kind of Friday that comes after such an oppressively horizontal week, even the most loyal subjects are ready to spend the first hour or more of a throw away day kicking back with some PDF zines. To anyone feeling this description I present This Rich Tapestry.

On the surface, TRT consists of The Surfers Weekly (published once a month and is behind), Form and Gratitude. Dive deeper and there are larger groupings of words and galleries of print and pollariod photos to puruse found down links I can’t recall.

To borrow a line from “A Text of Gratitude”, “The joy is in the doing done.”

Scene. Thats the word for it. The event was packed full of people representing every decade back to the 50s. The parking lot was a brown bagger’s beer garden with Fuck You Hero’s and Dogtown remainants leaning against every car. 50s Love Boat captain hats and rolled sleeves, 60s hippies, 70s derls, even 80s pop wannnabes sported every type of fashion imaginable. One of the best LA contridictions I saw was a girl wearing high heels who had big bumps on the tops of her feet from knee paddling. Sweet.

If it wasn’t for the saltwater footprints on the parking lot asphalt, the art enthusiast would be hard pressed to identify this show as surf art. Large areas of empty color shared the canvas with illustrations and text that managed to complement each other. Sculpture in the form of quaint houses, painted with his tale-tale line work and characters prompted multiple walk arounds. An intricate installation reflecting his work area gave you the impression he would be making live art at the show.

It was interesting to note that drawings and photos of waves were almost non existant compared to his Laguna show at The Surf Gallery. The odd doodle contained a curved liquid form, but the images and even references to the body of work produced by Sprout were absent. All that remains is his distinct ‘mark’ and handrawn typography. Cambell’s work is either out growing the log riding, in trim surf scene it helped define or dragging the scene along with it. Most likely, it’s the latter.

More from LA, including TONs of Malibu photos in the next day or two.

Opening for new works by Thomas Cambell Saturday 6-8pm in DT LA.

More info at the Roberts & Tilton Gallery