Scratched Pictures

“A majority of the work I do is inspired by music or poetry. When words influence the way I feel it inspires me to paint, and skateboard decks are my favorite medium.
The two boards I’ve done in primary colors stand apart from the others quite a bit. They rely heavily on the imagery while the text is secondary. Both of these boards are original sayings that I’ve used in music I’ve written. The plan was to do a whole series of them, but that has yet to happen.
The four other boards I’ve painted are all about the type. I approached these boards with a much different technique. Very little preliminary thought went into the conception of these boards before production. I would listening to music on the train, or be riding my bike, or reading poetry and a line would stick out so much that I knew as soon as I got home I’d grab a blank deck from my room, and just start painting. I wanted the inspiration I got from the words, how it was making me feel, to show through the type layout. For this reason I didn’t want to ‘over think’ the design of it, I wanted it to come natural. Because the process happened as it did you can see many ‘imperfections’ in the application of the paint. Those imperfections might be my favorite part. You can plan and plan and plan till and idea has been purified into something synthetic, but you can’t duplicate mistakes or the passion you feel at a certain moment in time”. – Matthew Jensen