Olympic Thunderbird

Originally uploaded by painincdesigns

Growing up in the UK, all I knew of Natives, let alone Native art was the stereotypical image portrayed in old westerns and John Wayne movies. While I was always intrigued about Native’s and there culture, it wasn’t until I moved to Canada, that I would become exposed to the art of Northwest Coast Natives. In Vancouver, I feel in love with bold and distinct lines of the artwork, as well as the countless stories and symbolism that both these carvings and paintings had, so much that I studied Coastal Art and Culture while in University.

Just before the 2006 Olympics I was approached to paint a ski jump helmet for the games. Naturally I jumped and the opportunity, and was excited to do some native painting. Most of my work involving this style to this point had been carving paddles, and this was also the first piece I had done in a while as I was now living Alberta, where the artwork is not as prevalent.

Even though this project is several years old. I was honored to do such a design and project for an elite athlete for such an important event.

Factory Team of Death
Originally uploaded by Pain Inc Designs

I always find it interesting when cleaning up space on my desktop, as well as files on my computer. Case in point was the 2006 Comic “Pain Inc Designs – Factory Team of Evil”. The comic was designed in conjunction with the promotion of the new 2006 team, as well as to further promote the release of the 2004 film, and to set the tone for the filming of the third installment of the trilogy.

The comic was created to be humorous with a comic book flair for the reader, but more so for the riders, as many of the small section blurbs are contain some inside jokes that happened during filming, and the day to day live of us all.

The cover was actually an airbrush painting on an aluminum panel that is still in my office. It was scanned, taken into a comic filter, and given the grainy old school horror comic look that it has now. Naturally all titling was added digitally. The remainder of photographs were photos taking during filming anywhere from 1999-2006.

This was probably the most active team that was involved in promoting the Pain Incorporated mountain biking community website. The group was involved in filming trick tips for younger riders to learn new skills. Read the full story