Surf with a twist. Introducing California artist Tim Lahan, whose clean lines and limitless imagination now live on your favorite Billabong product.
Tell us about your art…
Most of my artwork deals with the everyday. I spend a lot of time walking around looking for a kind of story in things – or a way of seeing myself in the objects in my environment. It might be seeing the last leaf on a small tree, a lone bag of trash on the sidewalk waiting to get picked up, or a worn-out sign that can't be read anymore. I try to take these things into my own practice and give them a place there.
What inspires you?
I'm inspired by a lot of mundane things really – taking walks, looking for weird things, looking for good music, thinking about what to eat next, etc.
Where is your creative space?
I've generally always worked alone, so my creative space or studio has been based where my home is at the time. Since that space has changed frequently over the years it's created an interesting dynamic with how I make my work.
What is your choice of medium?
I mostly work with gouache when I'm drawing or coloring things. Sometimes things end up on the computer but generally everything starts in pencil.
You use a lot of dimension in your art. Can you tell us more about what inspired you to pursue this approach?
I actually think of my work as being pretty 'flat' because of how graphic it is. This pushes me to find a way to convey dimension or depth while maintaining that graphic quality.
Your signature across the collection seems to be driven around bold, serrated yet playful iconography in bright colors. Where did that come from?
The serrated or 'zig zag' style is inspired by the concept of things never being completely still. If you get heady about it, everything is in constant motion in one way or another even if a thing appears to not be moving at all. Sometimes I'lll apply it to common objects doing weird things, like the spring-like palm trees. I also like to think of the technique as loosely inspired by "tramp art", which was a thing back in the early 19th century where people would make elaborate household objects out of discarded wood and carve notches into every surface. I would come across this work a lot in flea markets when I was growing up.
Where can people go to see more of your art?
My website is timlahan.com, but I'm most active on Instagram (@timlahan)
