Unity Skate

A few months ago I wrangled my way into designing a skateboard deck for Unity Skateshop, a local business that I'd like to help support. I stopped skating around the age of twelve (because I was ridiculously uncoordinated and looked like a moron on a skate board) so I probably won't be doing much shopping in the store, though I might buy some shoes there one of these days.

Anyway the owner, Dana, was stoked about getting local artists to work on a series of limited edition shop decks. When I told him what I do he was interested and asked me to be one of his designers. To make a long story short, Dana wasn't that into the idea of having an old-school engraving of Benjamin Franklin on his decks. I totally get why he might not like the idea, but I want to keep some continuity between this work and the printmaking stuff I'm currently doing which revolves around historical figures. He suggested replacing Franklin with the bear or the tiger from Good Fellow in Six Parts, a print project about the Reagan Administration. I was fine with doing something similar to that, so I came up with a second design. I'm standing my ground on "our country is full of good citizens" though. I don't know what it really means, but I'm desperate to not remove it. Now I'll just have to convince Dana.