As vain as it sounds, sometimes the board graphic is just as important as the board profile. A boards flex and camber should reflect your riding style, but given how expressive turning a piece of wood can be, the artwork should too.
This idea that the graphic under your feet plays a role in what board you buy—whether subconscious or not—is not new either. There's a deeply rooted history between artists and board graphics, with collaborations dating back decades. Think back to 2010, when Burton teamed up with British fashion designer Paul Smith. His love for stripes translated into a revamped Burton Vapor that retailed for $1,199.95. More economical examples came in the form of this years DWD line, where our friend John G designed yet another stunning Wizard Stick.
We're glad there's always been this creative touch to the conventional camber, and K2 recognizes that too. For them, the artists are as much a part of the equation as the engineers, and that's why, for the second year in a row, they teamed up with Colorado based artist, Peter Sutherland, to elevate the latest Landscape collection.
Peter Sutherland is a lifelong snowboarder (and total hippie) that’s spent his life focusing on creating. After spending twenty years in New York City, his creativity seems to have no boundaries. The Big Apple tends to have that effect on artists, and you can definitely see the influence through his photography, graphic design, painting and installation work (portfolio here). Even so, he recently returned to his home state of Colorado to get back to his roots. A pretty big lifestyle change if you ask us, but it seems like that perspective shift is exactly what fuels is creativity.
As K2 puts it, "his work often highlights this juxtaposition between cities, and man-made infrastructure and the natural landscapes teeming across the West."
As Maia Ruth Lee, Sutherland's Spouse, puts it, "Peter is an uncompromising documentarian. He doesn’t miss an opportunity to capture memories. His works aren’t like Cartier-Bresson’s pictures, or images of distress, but things he wants to remember, however mundane or ordinary. He sees things that I will
never see, and that is his gift.”
Now, fully settled back into Salida, Colorado, the man behind the Landscape collection met up with Seamus Foster at his studio to discuss his roots, interests, and inspiration behind his most recent board graphics.
