Design For Humanity: New Art

Here's a little sample of some new work that will be featured in Billabong's Design For Humanity Event on June 10th...

"Liquid Zen I" - 40" x 24" © Erik Abel 2010
Click for bigger image

New Print:

Click >>HERE<< to view and purchase

This is a high quality print of the artwork I recently did for International Surfing Day 2010

And check out the little interview Surfing Mag did for this >>HERE<<

7 weeks of gross... I mean, growth

"...the male beard communicates an heroic image of the independent, sturdy, and resourceful pioneer, ready, willing and able to do manly things." - beards.org

"In the course of history, men with facial hair have been ascribed various attributes such as wisdom and knowledge, sexual virility, masculinity, or high social status; and, conversely, filthiness, crudeness, or an eccentric disposition. In many cultures, beards are associated with nature and outdoorsmen" -Wikipedia

It's got to be a part of every mans life at some point, a rite of passage of sorts. Part curiosity to see what you look like as a werewolf and part pure laziness. There's really only those 2 reasons why any man would grow one of these annoying things. However, once the curiousity stage passes it sort of grows on you... literally, and the reasons for keeping it go beyond just laziness. It begs to be stroked and groomed. It's becomes a simple, natural pleasure, kinda like petting your dog. It takes on a personality of it's own and soon becomes part of the family. But when you sit down to enjoy a nice hot meal and included in the first bite are several long coarse hairs that are growing out of your top lip, something needs to change. And having to suck coffee, beer and soup out of it? No thanks... time to break out the razor. But I did save a shitload on sunscreen in Indo!

Fun facial hair facts:

1) The study of beards is called pogonology, and the fear of beards is pogonophobia
2) The longest beard ever was grown by Hans Langseth of Norway, whose whiskers stretched an incredible 5.33 m (17.5 feet) when measured upon his death in 1927
3) Number of whiskers on the face of the average man: 30,000
4) The only guy without a beard in ZZTOP has the surname Beard

Billabong's Design For Humanity Event

Come on down and join me and a few thousand others for a wild night at Billabong's 4th annual Design For Humanity event on June 10th in the legendary NYC streets backlot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. I was invited to be one of the featured artists and will have 4 or 5 brand spanking new original pieces for sale in the art show. This year's event will benefit Invisible Children, there's some bad stuff going on there, read up.

Tickets are already on sale. If you're thinking about going, act fast because prices go up the longer you wait. GET TICKETS HERE

Live music, art, booze, food and Billabong models running around on a crazy movie set, all for a good cause... not really a hard decision to make, get your tickets and mark your calendars!!! Yeeeoowwww!

Indo's over, back to Cali

Back from Indo a few days early. Absolutely amazing trip but I've been trying to get better at listening to my gut... and my gut was saying it was just time to head home. (Isn't it silly to schedule a departure before you even arrive somewhere? Why not just leave when you're ready to go?) The lack of productivity and creative outlet over the last 15 months had finally done my head in. Felt like I needed to take a work break from my vacation... didn't think that feeling even existed. Weird. And my iPod became my DiePod and being on Nias for 2 weeks without music drove me to the brink of insanity. So, back home, back in the studio, back to work...

But it figures that the second I had to grab my gear and hop on the plane, I wished I wasn't leaving... mostly because there were about a dozen young, cute, tanned, friendly, Nordic girls lounging and drinking by the pool outside my room waving goodbye (...with tears in their eyes, but it could have just been pool water). No different than normal for an afternoon at the Gora, but it was extra tough just to walk away from heaven knowing I was going to spend the next 20+ hours in aviation hell. Oh well... I'll be back soon and there's no place like home!

Lots of Indo pics and video coming soon...

Words of Wisdom:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." - Steve Jobs