This Second Friday Artist Reception will feature Santa Cruz Skateboards as well as Jim Phillips’ ink illustrations! This private collection beyond his creation of “The Screaming Hand” show his investment to the local community and to the Santa Cruz Culture. We are going to have a permanent skateboard art wall that will rotate local skateboard artists and have skateboards that our hotel guests can borrow for the day to explore Santa Cruz.
Our unveiling and reception of this interactive art wall will be Friday, January 10th, 2020 at 6:30 pm. Reception is from 6:00 – 9:00 pm. The wall will feature Jim Phillips art and official Screaming hand cocktail (his creation). For the first quarter, the interactive art / skateboard wall, will focus on Jim Phillips art designs. The “Screaming Hand”, designed by Jim Phillips Sr. in 1973, is the main logo of the Santa Cruz brand. A detached hand drenched in blood, blue in color with a mouth that said everything gnarly about skateboard culture and its endearing roots. Pulling inspiration from the surf and drag racing culture in Santa Cruz, Jim Phillips has created some of the most iconic skate graphics of all time.
It was Phillips skateboard art that put skateboarding firmly on the map across the world in the early 1980’s. If you think about how huge skateboarding became back then, and then look at who was at the controls of designing its very lifestyle, it was down to Phillips. One man, working for one company, and that company was Santa Cruz Skateboards. Jim Phillips is a graphic artist who is best known for his surf and skateboard art. Born in San Jose, Ca, he has lived most all of his life in Santa Cruz. Jim’s first published work was in the spring 1962 issue of Surfer Quarterly, his “Woody” a pen and illustration was a winner of a 1961 surf car cartoon contest held by the magazine. Soon Jim’s surf art began to appear in the major surf magazines during the 60’s and beyond.
His earliest jobs were in local surf shops that were manufacturing surfboards, where much of his work was applying art and designs to surfboards. In 1965 and 66 Jim studied fine art under a scholarship at California of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Phillips became sole artist and art director for NHS Inc, during their early hears in the 1970’s and 80’s where he created thousands of decks, t-shirts, stickers, product illustration and skateboard magazine ads.
In 1988 he founded Phillips Studios where he trained young skateboarding artists to create designs for NHS. Jim’s art has grown ever more popular in his later days and NHS currently markets his work in 80 countries. In 2016 – 2017, The Streaming Hand, an NHS art exhibit tribute to Jim Phillips’ art, traveled to 25 art venues worldwide, invited 50 world class artists to join, and broke all attendance and membership records at the eight month exhibit at the Santa Cruz Art and History Museum. In 2020 NHS will be presenting a similar traveling art show based on Jim’s art and advertising for Santa Cruz wheels, and will culminate a world wide exhibit at the MAH in the Spring of 2021.
Lee Charron, Creative Art Dir at NHS, will curate the wall and will keep it fresh & exciting as the seasons change! Lee was an instrumental player to focus on the illustrations and art that attracted people to the brand. Nearly 20 years with NHS and it’s proven to be the move that the skateboard community & Santa Cruz needed! Being it’s first public showing, this gallery is a must-see!
Hotel Paradox
611 Ocean Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 United States
