Saturday

week 7

I decided to look at a couple other indigenous surfboard artists after seeing a story on Vernan Ah Kee i really liked his work where the boards looked like shields. i did find a few artists i dont think they used the shape of the board in the same interesting way as Vernon


Rob Appo

is a self taught artist he lives in tweed heads and enjoyed painting after a friend asked him to paint on of his boards, they both liked it and soon more people were asking rob to paint boards. he works with his cousins, Dean, Scotty and John Rotumah,

“Boards take between 2 to 3 weeks to paint, straight onto the foam blank.”
“I use an acrylic paint that needs to be watered down so the dots are not too thick.”
Robs says that thanks to the porous nature of the foam, it’s no easy medium to paint on, but he reckons he’s figured out a technique that really works well.

Clients have included people from all walks of life - surfers, tourists and even one for the didgeridoo-rocking band Max Judo.

“As far as I know all of my boards are hanging on peoples walls at home or office, which really makes them a cool piece of art, but it would be cool to have one of the Aussie pros surfing on one on the world tour,” Rob says.



Kevin williams

is a descendant of the Wakka Wakka aboriginal people. he is a lawyer and activist, but also an academic a film maker and a self taught artists.
As an activitist, Kevin was responsible for convincing the United Nations in 1998 that John Howard's "Native Title Amendment Act" was in breach of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.


On a personal side note both these artists are self taught does this mean that their work has less meaning because it does not use the techniques and traditional designs passed down from generations? maybe its these artists that are working from what they have seen that are pushing aboriginal art to new places by using untraditional designs.


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