funding t-moe's ye olde destruction

They always say you can never be too clever, but you can—and annoyingly so. I should know, I do it all the time, but I just can't seem to help myself from routinely tripping over my dick. "So it goes," Kurt Vonnegut would say if he could say, but the point is no one's going to grasp the above not-even-close-to-passingly-funny reference to Finding Nemo, because none of y'all are hip to the abbreviated moniker of our longtime friend Thomas Campbell. Thomas, aka "T-Moe" or "T-Moss," like most of our friends, comes from the world of skateboarding, but perhaps a different skateboarding than the world presently knows—especially with the pursuit now being hailed as a "sport" (bleh) on the slate for the next Summer Olympics (bleh). Sorry, I come from that old world of skateboarding, too, where it once lay ignored on the outer fringes of society and went mostlyhated in whole by everyone—aside from the misfits and creative types that found an island all unto their own to design, that is. Again, times have changed, skateboarding's a hot Thrasher topic now, but there's still a bastion of individuals hellbent on preserving the "visual mythology" of skateboarding as a place to creatively escape the norm and mutter "fuck you" to the world. Thomas is one such defender and he currently has a very Thomas project in the works… —Sean Cliver

So what’s up with this latest project you’re working on?

I have been slowly working on a 16mm skate film called Y.O.D.—Ye Olde Destruction—for almost six years now with a solid grip of shredders, building a bit and skating DIY spots, mostly, but not totally. It's basically a driving movie, where two crews drive around in these two old cars and skate, eventually ending in destruction. Thus, YOD. Gonna try to finish this film by the spring of next year. The list of rippers that will be featured in the film include Evan Smith, Jon Dixon, Jason Adams, Rick McCrank, Max Schaaf, Dennis Busenitz, Caswell Berry, Brent Atchley, Arto Saari, Jason Jessee, Elissa Steamer, Zack Wallin, Ray Barbee, Nick Garcia, Al Partanen, Jeremy Leabres, Jackson Pilz, Zarosh Eggleston, Ben Raemers, Chris Russell, Keegan Sauder, Aron Suski, Roger Mihalko, Taylor Bingaman, Javier Mendizabal, Raven Tershy, Louie Barletta, Barker Barrett, Mark Suciu, and Collin Provost, amongst others.

How have you gone about finding funding for the feature?

I thought up an idea for a grass roots campaign with a lot of amazing visual artists. I asked them to do original art moves on completely unrefined skateboard blanks to raise some funds to get film processed and transferred and get this project completed. Making movies on film is kind of crazy financially in 2017, but the results will be a real treat, I believe. I’m trying to keep this project unsponsored by any companies, so it remains uninhibited in its creative nature and more of a visual gift back to skateboarding. Skateboarding has really given me my creative projection in my life… I pretty much owe everything to it. So this fundraiser is supported by the community and for the community.

What was the basic directive you sent out to all artists and who all responded in kind?

Please help. It was a very free idea. I just wanted my friends to have fun with it, so they really just did what they wanted. Here is a list of the artistic people that lent talented hands to the project: Todd Francis, John Herndon, Evan Hecox, Andy Jenkins, Barry McGee, Simone Shubuck, Richard Colman, Tim Kerr, Neil Blender, Ed Templeton, Cody Hudson, Ron Cameron, Jenny Sharaf, Russ Pope, Sean Cliver, Tod Swank, Chris Reed, Fernando Elvira, Steve Claar, Mat O'Brien, Natas Kaupas, Lori Damiano, Jason Arnold, Jay Howell, Nathaniel Russell, Max Schaaf, Todd Bratrud, Brian Lotti, Geoff McFetridge, Jeff Canham, Jim Houser, and myself. So, to say the least, it takes a village.

How has the response been so far on eBay?

Good… although, a lot of the planks are going for much less than market value. People are scoring. There was an amazing Evan Hecox piece that went for $520 the other day—that's crazy.

How many more sets of art will be rolling out?

There are close to 40 raw, painted, and sculpted blanks. We are dropping six tonight—Monday, December 18—for a five-day auction that will end on this Saturday night. Then we will take a break until after New Year’s and do three more sets of six or seven.

When do you hope to release the film and in what medium?

The film should be done by spring of next year. My plan is to make a limited edition, small, hardcover book with images from the film taken by Brian Gaberman, Arto Saari, Jai Tanju, Joe Brook, and myself—and a download number for the movie inside. After the book comes out, the film will eventually be released free on the Um Yeah Arts Vimeo page for all to enjoy. The band No Age will be making an original soundtrack for the film, and I hope to release a vinyl offering of those recordings also on Um Yeah Arts.