George Peterson

"My aim with this series is to celebrate the iconic nature of the skateboard as well as the creative/destructive energy that goes into forming the raw material I start with.  As a person who obsesses about all the different wood species, I have come to see these broken and banged up pieces of plywood as a type of exotic material.  Not because it’s rare or expensive, but that it’s been processed in very unique and specific ways. 

Creatively speaking, this series owes a lot to the culture and industry of skateboarding.  Like making art, skateboarding is a very creative and personal outlet.  It is also inherently destructive; boards get worn down, cracked and broken.  It is a subtle and unintended type of wood sculpting.  This series is about layers:  it speaks of the utility and beauty of wood, the culture and byproducts of our modern world and the visual/textural language I’ve developed through my work as an artist." - From the Artist