I was fortunate enough to visit the Beautiful Losers art exhibition in Cincinnati a couple years ago. It was a full-on museum exhibition of artists from the skateboarding community, people who have influenced me more than I can put into words, my people, and it was incredible. There were drawings and wall paintings and paper zines and skateboards and sculptures and wooden installations by people like Mark Gonzales, Andy Jenkins, Chris Johanson, CR Stecyk, Raymond Pettibone, Ed Templeton and Neil Blender, among dozens of others. If you google some of those names and check out their art, you just might declare Deliverance a total sham. The first time I went to the exhibit, it was crowded and there was a skate demo going on. I wanted to see more. I was back in the area a month later and went again, by myself (the only way to take in such a spectacle, in my opinion). I felt moved and inspired and even a little bit proud. I'm not on the level of these people, but I am involved in it. I have some of the skateboards, some of the art and even a couple of the zines from the 80s. I have it all in my head and it comes out in sharpies and spray paint. There is a movie about it all, and you can check out the trailer here.
The new Deliverance shirts are here. It's been over a year since there has been a new shirt design. Some clothing company I have going here, huh? Hence the change to "Project". Every shirt, hat and sticker that I've done in the past, when I first see the finished product, I immediately find something (or lots of things) about it that I don't like. You are your own worst critic, you know? I've learned a lot over the years and beyond that, have a really good printer now, in American Icon (same dudes that print FBM, Animal, Shitluck and tons of others). I couldn't be happier with how these came out.
Never Surrender All I know
The "Never Surrender" graphic is one of the very first designs I did for Deliverance, back in 2002. I cleaned it up and straightened it out (it was really lop-sided) and added the motto at the bottom as a kind of celebratory statement regarding five years of existence and a lifetime of giving a shit about this stuff. The "All I know" design I scribbled on the back of an envelope a long time ago. My friend Todd Britton asked more than once if I was going to use it for a shirt. Sometimes I overlook the obvious, I guess. I like the asthetic and the "This is all I know" part is lifted from Robbie Morales in Road Fools 2. I always think of that line. When my wife saw the shirt she said "that's appropriate". Ha ha. I'll have to send Rob-O a shirt.