+ Art of Skateboarding Articles

   On Saturday June 16th, Mark Eddings, Jay Salillas and I were up early, on the road by 9am, and headed over from Birmingham for the 2 hour drive to Atlanta to check out the "Skate It or Hang It?" art show opening that day at the Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA). Exhibition curator W. Todd Vaught had spent the better part of a year or so pulling this all together to include a wide variety of decks through the years as well as having famous artist in person for the show's opening. In addition, W. Todd and team had somehow pulled off having Peachtree Street from around the Fox Theater all the way down to MODA closed off for a skate "parade" (led by legendary Georgia skater and Ramp Ranchero, Jeff Load Stephenson!) and demo at the end. Throughout the day, the exhibition opening also included original installations by Atlanta-based artists and educational activities for children (and adults behaving like children) which allowed them to design and create their own skateboard decks. There were over 150 boards on display as well as original artwork from artists Sean Cliver, Lance Mountain, Jim Phillips, VCJ, Andy Howell, Wes Humpston, Michael Siebel, and Steve Olson. Being as ArtofSkateboarding.com is all about this sort of thing, I had to make the trip to check it out....not to mention, it was a great excuse to go hit the many local skateparks with our Atlanta friends and maybe convincing Mountain and Olson to join us after checking out the show!