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MD: Just on the wall outside is the first graphic you�ve done for Powell in over 20 years. What was it like for you working on the new design?
VCJ: [long pause] There�s a bit of grief. Fear of failure. Fear of joy.. and joy�. And disbelief! Because I�ve made myself really so
unlikable in this life. I�ve turned into a puritan!
MD: You have?
VCJ: Yes! I�m MUCH more discriminating in my appetites and values and lifestyle and my daily rhythms. I had elders that I looked up to. And no framework
of morals to live by. And had sabotaged everything by my early 30s.
I�d sabotaged the body. All my relationships. My successes. My health. It�d all been sabotaged. No self esteem! So the recovery of self
esteem has made it possible for me to engage those teachers that I need to engage so that I can re-create a very damaged body. And it can be recreated!
MD: You talk as though letting go of one life� but the image of a phoenix keeps coming to my mind�. Coming up from the ashes....
VCJ: VERY! Very real in this life.
MD: Back in the day when you left the company; what was going through your mind at the time that you came to the decision to leave?
VCJ: Unconsciously the body was preparing for death. Because I hadn�t begun purification yet. And the urgent question of midlife is "Who am I?
What am I doing here? and where do I belong?". And if those questions don�t get answered�. They can be answered in the early years!...you know�
but because I didn�t have elders who instructed me on matters of pursuing the answers to these questions I found the teachers in my 40s. In my 40s I
found the teachers who led me to the path of self knowledge. Now I enjoy what�s called a successful inner dialectic. The ability to ask questions and
get the answers as the soul needs those answers.
MD: The way I look at it is, in those early years you�re too busy climbing the mountain to take a look around. Then you reach middle-age and
you wonder "Is it all down-hill from here? Where do I go?" When you took a look from the top of the mountain at the vista before you�
where did you want to go?
VCJ: Towards self knowledge.
people would kill to get in here...art department door
MD: Do you think that you�ve found that now?
VCJ: Mmm hmm! I know who I am. I am an agent of unknown proportions. Those are 7 words that really answer that question for me. "I am an
agent of unknown proportions". Those words help the soul get situated in the instrument; the body. They help the soul sit in the saddle
that is the body. The horse is the body. The soul rides the body you see.
What am I doing here? I am here to learn by truth. And anybody can say that as a soul.[chuckles]
MD: Do you think a little bit of your soul goes into your work?
VCJ: Not into the physical product. But imagery is like a finger print. A voice print.
MD: So do you feel that each of your images are a print or a reflection of you?.... or is it more "Somebody wants an elephant for a graphic
so that�s what I�m going to draw"?
VCJ: My work is a reflection of something in the culture that hungers for images and at this point in my life I�m not looking to satisfy my personal
ya-yas. I want to satisfy the public with art. Skateboarding and art are so intertwined as a culture that I feel privileged to enjoy a market that
is so blended. Creativity. Self mastery of skateboarding. Mastery of art. Mastery of imagery.
MD: When you look back on your art, is there any that stands out as a favorite?
VCJ: [dismissively] No.
MD: Is there any that stands out as something you didn�t like?
VCJ: Mmmm�.not really. They all represent steps taken to satisfy a company.
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