You are not the car you drive. Or so that great
5. Kleiner Feigling bottle: Most of the
14. D.H. Pendleton drawing on an envelope:
existentialist Brad Pitt once said. But what if
illustration work I do is pretty detail heavy but I
When I graduated from college in 1999 I had
you are the things you surround yourself with
find that the type of work I’m most attracted to is
absolutely no idea how to start looking for work doing
– the weird shit you choose to collect because
super simple graphic stuff. Like this bottle. I don’t
anything art-related, so I emailed every artist that I
it reignites a memory.
know where this thing came from but I’m guessing
could find online. D.H. Pendleton was one of the only
it’s some sort of German drunk juice.
people that emailed back. It really meant a lot to me –
Michael Sieben keeps little pieces of himself
and still does. I ordered some stickers off his website
all over the place. They sit on his desk when
6. Cookie Monster on a skateboard: Two of
and the envelope showed up with a rad drawing on it.
he’s painting monsters and getting wistful
my favourite things, Jim Henson and plastic. Oh,
It’s been hanging up on my bulletin board ever since.
for the past. They stare down at him from a
and skateboarding.
Thanks Don.
notice-board when he’s writing his column for
Thrasher magazine and telling the world to
7. Fimo (clay) Vans shoe I made in 1994: Not
15. Pulse Art Fair access badge: Okay Mountain
lighten-up. They crop up in the Internet Shack,
real sure why I made this... but I’m pretty sure I
took part in the Pulse Art Fair in Miami this past
the weekly online show he films in his gallery,
wore it as a necklace charm for a few months. It’s
December. We made a convenience store that was
Okay Mountain, that promises “a spastic variety
weird to be nineteen.
inspired by the locally owned stores that surround
of camping, skating and Internet flub”. They
Okay Mountain. Our installation won the Pulse Prize
live in drawers, on shelves and in boxes under
8. Wind-up fish toy: I used to draw this fish a lot
the bed, like a scatterbrain library documenting
when I was younger. I really like the shapes that it’s
his thirty-five years on earth. And guess what?
comprised of.
and the People’s Choice Award. Thanks everybody. 16. Complete set of Donruss Skateboard stickers from the ’70s: I bought these from a weird
He’s not the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world – despite what that anti-consumerist
9. Smiley Face that Rich Jacobs drew on:
antique auction site a few years ago. Everything about
cliché Tyler Durden may say – because his
This was hanging up in the closet at Camp Fig for a
them is awesome. The colours, the illustrations, the
possessions tell stories, and collectively those
long time. I think Rich found this on the sidewalk
lettering. Skateboarding is way more complicated now.
stories make him who he is.
in front of the gallery. When I think of Rich I smile
He’s
the Austin-based
artist who
helps
skateboarding stay tuned in to the simple stuff
and when I think of Camp Fig I smile and when I
17. Paintbrush with an eye on it: I drew an eye
look at smiley faces I smile. So this thing kind of
on this paintbrush so that it would look more arty.
kills it all round. 18. Fake Moustaches: After Keg Party ’zine, I
in life – like ’zines, and kooky stickers, and the beauty of making shit for fun. He’s Michael
10. Roger Skateboards sticker: I own a small
made a little ’zine called Programmed from India.
Sieben and these are his things.
skateboard company called Roger that I started
I was writing under the pen name David Dittmeyer
with my buddy Stacy Lowery in 2008. This is one
– a forty-something alcoholic who couldn’t hold a
1. Camp Fig postcard: Camp Fig is a gallery I
of the stickers we ordered right when we started the
job down. He wore a leather jacket with no shirt on
opened in Austin in 2002 with my wife Allison and
company. I just wanted to include it in this magazine
underneath and had a moustache. I bought a lot of
our friends Katie Friedman and Lee Brooks. We were
because we can’t afford to take out real ads so I try
fake moustaches around this time.
open for about three years and it was one of the most
to sneak this logo into anything I can. 19. Programmed from India Issue No. 1: I made
fun times in my life. We had no idea what we were doing but I think that just made it even better. Really
11. Fucked-up Blind Kids stickers: Blind
eight issues of Programmed from India between
small, really cheap, really gritty; it was kind of like the
Skateboards sticker pack from 1989 drawn by Marc
2001 and 2003. It was a skateboarding ’zine that had
dive bar equivalent of an art gallery.
McKee. One of my favorite skateboard illustrators
almost no skateboarding in it. Mainly just Big Brother
and heavy nostalgia from my formative years on the
magazine-inspired ridiculous articles about immature
board. Steve Rocco was killing it during this time.
concepts. I made most of these at work when I was
2. Art Palace postcard: This is a postcard from my
supposed to be doing corporate illustrations.
first solo show, which was at Art Palace in Austin in 2007. Good times. I miss this place – it used to be a
12. Keg Party interviews on tape: I just found
few blocks away from Okay Mountain but now it’s
this in a box of old tapes. Keg Party was a ’zine I used
20. Rob Roskopp Street Tech Deck: This graphic
about 137 miles away in Houston.
to make with my photographer buddy, and Camp Fig
is the first ‘real’ skateboard that I bought as a kid. I
founding member, Lee Brooks. We started the ’zine
mowed yards to get enough money to buy this thing. I
3. Small Jeff Soto painting: Jeff was kind enough
when we were in college and continued making it
used to stare at it for hours. Jim Phillips, the dude that
to trade me a small painting for a small painting. I’m a
after we graduated – ten issues total, spanning 1999-
designed this graphic, is awesome. He made me want
big fan of Jeff ’s work and his humble personality.
2002. Austin skateboarding, art, music and really
to learn how to draw better.
poorly written articles. 4. Lilelephant patch: My buddy Lance Norman and
21. Miscellaneous ’zines from friends: I love
I started a little T-shirt company in the mid ’90s called
13. Thrasher Pushead sticker: I’ve had this
friends, I love ’zines, and I love getting cool stuff in the
Lilelephant. We never printed more than a dozen shirts
sticker since I was about twelve. I don’t even
mail. So uh... yeah. ’Zines from friends that showed up
of any one design. All of our buddies were ‘sponsored’
remember where I got it, but I remember keeping
in my mailbox. The simple things
– meaning they could come over and print their own
it inside of my calculator case and staring at it in
shirts in our backyard. We printed the shirts on an ice
math class and daydreaming about how awesome
To read an interview with Michael Sieben see
chest and used cereal bowls to mix inks. High tech.
skateboarding is.
www.huckmagazine.com.
78 HUCK