I'm all excited for this Maloof Money Cup event this weekend. A lot of the top professional skaters are in town this weekend, so downtown will be a showcase for Xtreme sports enthusiast. But let's not forget about all the supporting industries that make skateboarding so interesting and appealing, most notably art and music. This week we bring you an interview with Ron Cameron, an artist and designer who has worked with countless companies including Nike SB, Warped Tour Music festival, and Heckler magazine...

Skateboarding continues to evolve. It seemed to bloom then die off a little when I was young, now its back to having a very strong presence in our subculture and popculture especially in inner cities in the midwest and on the east coast. What do you think contributed to that the most? And what do you think the skateboarding world contributes to society?
Skateboarding seemed to go in the typical 'boom and bust' roller coaster ride every ten years or so since it's birth in the 1960's. It stabilizes more and more every time so the peaks and valleys aren't as severe as decades go by. The boom in the 60's was aligned with a pop subculture (surf craze, attitude, fashion, music); then the 70's boom made even stronger ties to pop culture (all the entertainment icons including Farrah Fawcett and Leif Garrett were seen on skateboards). Plus the whole Skateboarder Magazine / Z-Boys vibe was everywhere, as Glen E. Friedman quoted the statistic that Skateboarder was the #1 selling news stand publication in 7-11 convenience stores in 1978... that's HUGE! The boom in the 80's is what seemed to lock it in for good. I mean everything from bands, clothing companies, shoe companies to video production, etc... were being started and run by people with a passionate history in skateboarding. I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, and of the right age (a teenager and sponsored skateboarder) to be directly involved with the 80's boom. Every aspect of the underground skateboard culture ran through my veins at that time... and still does - I can't stop!

Oh man... we could go on and on about what skateboarding has brought to the culture and society at large in the 1990's and in to the 2000's. Just look at all the skater slacker attitude in all the T.V. commercials and packaging nowadays. The street clothing take-over. Most innocent bystanders have no idea it was rooted in skateboard culture. Look how many inventive musicians come out as having been skateboarders when they were younger when interviewed for magazines or whatever.

It's all because skateboarding is one of the most free, creative and exciting things to be a part of out there. People that stick with it become obsessively passionate about it. You have to LIVE it. Your observational senses seem to become expanded. You create fun stuff out of rubble. It's endless.

You’re a self-taught artist, you’ve been able to reinvent your style and the style of different companies. What influences your art?

Re-inventinting myself the first time started out of despiration when I had to let go of Blockhead Skateboards in 1990 to start Acme Skateboards with Jim Gray. I was so damn proud of the weird art style that I slowly built up for Blockhead that I figured that if I was to start a new company it had to look completely different; sort of out of respect for my Blockhead style. So I went the opposite direction, I switched to all clean lines, type-set typography, and auto racing motives. When Acme didn't work out for me, I started Grape Netwerk and tried to pull a 180 again for a lot of the same reasons as before. After that it just became habit. Like when me and Pat Tenore started RVCA Clothing in 1999, I didn't want people to know I was doing it, I wanted it to look like some outsider golf company came in from Mars to start a clothing line. That's why the R V C A lettering looks alien-like, or with a cryptic graffiti tag vibe. I would say at the end of the day I just want to blow peoples minds and stoke them out; and make products that I would actually be proud of using. Make the world a more fun, interesting, and exciting place... while at the same time encourage them to look around at the world around them, and make them want to invent a new and better one.

What influences my art? Wow, what a HUGE question. I'd have to say everything around me, from old cartoons, cars, old magazines, animals, record covers, people, TV, attitudes, politicians, feelings; the biggest one probably being music. I've been a hardcore collector of unusual music since the 1980's. I'm working on my graphics retrospective book right now [NOTHING IS COOL - the Perplexingly Rebellious Slacker Skateboard Graphics of Ron Cameron], and I'm putting a lot of my influences in there, showing connections and telling stories.

What was your involvement with Nike SB?

I'd have to say the connection there was Michael Leon, he's a skateboard artist that worked for Nike SB. His first skateboard graphic was for my friend Christian Kline's company called 510 Wood. I'd also done a couple graphics for 510 Wood when he it started in 1994, after he wasn't doing Blue (pre-Stereo) with Jason Lee and Chris Pastras anymore. Michael remembered me from way back then and contacted me in 2008 to see if I'd be interested in doing a "Ron Cameron Collection" for Nike SB. Since I used to wear Nike a lot back around 1985-1990, I said sure - I've always loved to design clothing and shoes!

I got a chance to check out two of your unreleased SB designs. The design with the eyes was sick. Bright colored and creatively designed shoes are in right now. Can we expect more designs like that in the future? Where can someone get some Ron Cameron designed kicks?

The whole collection was worked on back in Fall 2008, the designs are about 80% done, but it all got put on hold after Michael Leon left Nike SB in early 2009. I can't wait to finish them, I haven't even seen any samples yet! I know there were a lot of colorway changes to be made, Michael wanted to go early 80's with CMYK (Cyan, Yellow, Magenta, Black... plus I think green), and I really wanted to go with colors I was into in the late 80's with my Blockhead art which are more weird ugly bright colors. The Dunk design I did was based off a shoe that Chris Miller had hand painted in his TransWorld Skateboarding interview around 1987. It was the mostly black Air Jordan with royal blue trim, he painted one heel aqua green and I always dug that. That was the starting point, I expanded it a lot from there. The all black areas have clear charcoal colored "eyes" art, almost transparent. Then the heel piece has a big Tragicomic character with some spray paint. It should look really good when we finally do finish it.