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GEOFF MCFETRIDGE

As shred-stick graphic designers plunge headlong into worlds outside of the skateboard parameter, simplified coding and articulation of the common are formed to gain some sort of design recognition. A spark that pushes a viewer to contemplate the intention in a piece reveals relevance from past “moving” images. Through the regulation of the pieces from the graphic mind of Geoff McFetridge, one can realize a common element that strives forth from many a skateboard-stemmed graphic artist’s visage into the world of popular culture. Appeasing the masses for public consumption is a heady task, but what’s left of the skateboard culture possesses important sub-society factual and fictional elements that seem to readily satisfy some wildness and purity that perforates the common interests of group satisfaction. Take a look at the imagery of McFetridge, as he seems to intertwine the modified and sleek image to remedy some a composite that pleases the eye due to the nature of the piece. The themes of expressionist/minimalist Barnett Newman, established well in the expressed ideology that he “achieved” during his stay in Geoff’s hometown of Calgary, Alberta, are a semi-common thread (painting versus commercial). The recent graphic work of McFetridge modifies the “popular” image and pulls it into spectrums of some worked complacency via subtle repetition and works of commercial art junctions. Newman had a vivid grasp of the interpretation and power of the simplified image, stemming from his recognition of the powerful works of the Northwest Coast Native Canadians, all the way through the strict works of the Canadian artists of mid-century Western Canada. Geoff has captured the sense of this heritage in his descriptive works that highlight design concepts culled from a sort of “hybrid” of skateboard design, movement (titular film art direction), and age-old (like it or not) processes of the moving mind of the skateboarder. From the uncanny developments of the cargo pant and the skate sneaker, to the design function of the graphic image to move the skateboarding public and then beyond, the skateboard world continues to show powerful examples of industry developments that all seem to stem from some strange injection of mandatory design ideology. Geoff McFetridge is a prime example of an interpretive graphic artist who contemplates the moving image as part of a urethane-rolling example from the past, structuring it with the direct motion of the controlled public image itself.