As you’ve probably heard by now, Stoked’s fundraiser on May 16th, Stoked on Spring, is featuring 15 skate decks built by youth in the Stoked Plus: Skateboard Build after-school program that have been collaboratively designed by professional artists and Stoked youth, which will be available for bidding through a silent auction at the event. The silent auction will also feature work by emerging and established artists. Today’s Stoked on Spring Spotlight features the collaboration between Luis and our long-time friend, supporter, and rad artist Jack Laroux.
Luis is junior at the Brooklyn Latin School in Bushwick. He recently completed the Stoked Plus: Skateboard Build after-school program this winter. He also came along to several Snow Mentor days this winter with Stoked, during which he developed into an impressive snowboarder.
Jack Laroux‘s vivid cubist interpretation of a psychedelic world is based upon stained glass and shattered glass imagery that portray the effects of light illuminating and shining through transparent surfaces. It is enhanced by urban, surreal and abstract concepts spawned by life experiences in combination with embellished stories intriguing viewers to continuously explore the enigmatic and layered composition of light – hearted subjects. This animated quality, central to his artwork, keeps art patrons mesmerized and anticipating what they will discover next by interpreting his work.
When Luis first showed up to work on the board with Jack, he said he had been unable to plan a design good enough for this project because all his ideas centered around baseball and cooking, his two favorite hobbies. Fortunately, Jack was able to help put Luis’s ideas into a concrete vision, resulting in the piece below that shows a baseball split open with the New York City skyline bursting out of it among flames and a Big Apple (get it?). Realizing that baseball and food can combine to make an awesome skateboard design, Luis now has hopes of buying the board himself, citing it as the “coolest thing ever.” In accordance with Jack’s painting style, this piece is composed of layer upon layer of paint, the bottom of which is the Dominican flag, true to Luis’s heritage.
Jack and Luis's completed board
Help support Stoked’s youth development and action sports program by buying tickets to Stoked on Spring. All proceeds of the event will directly support Stoked’s after-school program, Stoked Plus: Skateboard Build. Keep tuning in to our blog all next week for more Stoked on Spring Spotlights.
