Pushing Mongo Painting
F1 Racer - Oil painting on wood
When I was younger, all I wanted to do was learn flip tricks as fast as possible. I was technically landing 360 flips, nollie flips, frontside flips — all that stuff — but I was super inconsistent. Half the time I’d roll away at turtle speed, arms flailing, and it looked terrible. My whole approach was basically: if I try it a thousand times, I’ll land it eventually. And I did, sometimes. But I wasn’t actually learning anything. Nothing built on itself — every session felt like starting from scratch.
It wasn’t until my late 20s and 30s that I started breaking down what was really happening with my skating. I had to unlearn years of bad habits and start actually paying attention to what was working. Forget about tech gnar and just go back to relearn shuvits, kickflips, 180s, etc. Slowly, it was coming together and I started getting more consistent then ever. Flips felt solid and I was literally kickflipping with my eyes closed. Just feeling the motion and trusting that things would land where they should. One day I landed ten 360 flips in a row just cruising down my home street. That had never happened before. They felt clean — almost easy. No fight, no luck. Just flow.
Now I’m in my 40s, trying to learn to oil paint. I’m watching videos, reading blogs, trying to figure out what I “should” be doing — I can feel myself repeating those early skating mistakes and I know I’m doing it all backwards. Focusing on the end result instead of the basics, using tiny brushes all the time, too much detail too soon, mixing colors on the canvas instead of the palette, blahblahblah. As a painter, I’m basically mall-grabbing, pushing mongo, and making my trucks as tight as possible while I try to varial flip before I can ollie. Just hucking myself at it, hoping something lands.
But at least now I see it happening. I’m trying to slow down and think about technique, even though its not flashy or something I can post on instagram. But I have to trust that all these small steps start to build on each other. The basic steps makes the final steps just another step along the way. Not some giant out of reach leap that is more luck then skill.
Discipline’s always felt like the opposite of skating or any expression — No comply or die! Gonz, Barbee and all my favorite skaters always seemed so loose and free. But, of course, that comes from years of slams and lessons learned. Concrete is a harsh teacher and demands discipline. With painting there’s no bloody shins or gravel in my palms when I mess up (although maybe that would help my ADHD brain to focus when I’m painting??) but it’s always a process. Freedom and expression comes after I’ve put in the time. Once I actually understand my tools, I can build what I want with them. So maybe… yes-comply!?
