Liam is a skateboarder and artist based in Norwich, England

 

For me, skateboarding was definitely part of my introduction into a lot of art, along with music, and maybe without skating I wouldn’t even be making art now.

 

I think skateboarding attracts a lot of creative people, especially when they’re younger, and as you grow up you find other ways of expressing this creativity, which is why there are so many skaters who are also artists, or musicians, or photographers and filmmakers. I think skateboarding helps people understand that to learn new skills, there will be a certain amount of failure beforehand, which is really important in making art.

 

It also gives people a set of D.I.Y ethics and the ability to reinvent and repurpose the things around them, as well as making you look at the world from a fairly unique perspective. I think that when artists make work it’s always informed by all parts of their life, so for me this means that sometimes my work is informed by skateboarding, or its culture.

 

Sometimes I make work that is directly about skateboarding, but sometimes I make work that I later realised how it was maybe inspired by skateboarding, or its experiences when travelling through the city.

 

I am inspired by a lot of skater-made art, music and films. There so much out there right now. When i first got into ‘skate art’ it was people like Ed Templeton, Fos and Funeral French and guys like that, that inspired me, and they still do, but I think at the moment I get a lot of inspiration and energy from my friends. I think that the No Comply Network is a great idea.

 

I’ve found that after skating for a while and travelling around, the skate community can actually be really tight-knit and close, and its great to have a place online which echoes that. I’m currently working on an exhibition early next year in Norwich, as well as a mural project. I’m planning on putting out a few more zines soon