The skateboard virtuoso and documentary filmmaker on why surfing, skating and well, everything, is a creative endeavor
If you ask documentary filmmaker Stacy Peralta, everything in life can be approached as art, down to the most menial of vocations, the most rote and simplistic avocations, and, well, life itself.
“Painting’s just the thing I’m doing, but I’m really learning about myself,” says the 67-year-old surfer-cum-skateboard virtuoso-cum-entrepreneur-cum-director-cum-screenwriter, and now with his first art exhibit—however much that predicates the official title—painter.
“It’s enriching every other part of my life because I’ve realized something, and I’ve realized it only now. I’ve only been painting for under two years. I’ve been wanting to paint my entire life. I started late, got into it, and I went berserk because I liked it so much. But I’ve realized that I’m not learning to paint. I’m learning who I am, and what’s interesting is that at this point in my life, I can see fortunately that I’ve grown, and I’ve sharpened certain things. I get frustrated less now than I used to. I’m more patient than I used to be, and I’m learning all that by learning this new skill of painting. When we learn new things, the key is not that we’re learning new things. The key is to understand we’re really unlocking who we are—and that I’ve learned through painting.”
Peralta is, at base level, a bohemian in the best sense of the word, and it defines not just what he does but how he does it. He approaches everything in his own way, which is at least in part why he happens to have been one of a very small and innovative few who took skateboarding from mom and dad’s flat, featureless driveway to the streets of Venice and later, the hopped pools of Santa Monica, where thanks are due to Peralta (and co.) for everything from the “Bert” slide—named after vanguard of the shortboard revolution, Larry Bertlemann and his high-speed, down-and-dirty cutbacks—to the vertical climb and ultimately the aerial. Who else has done that much for skateboarding, or, for that matter, any sport?
“I’m in everything I’ve done because I didn’t go to college,” says Peralta. “I didn’t get a very good education and everything I got thrown into, I just had to figure out. So all of these things are an art form. Surfing is an art form. Skateboarding is an art form. Painting is an art form. Gardening is an art form. And what I have found in my life is that you can inhabit creative spaces. The great thing about creative spaces is you can inhabit them, but you cannot control them. And that’s probably the best and most important reason why one should pursue a creative craft. Surfing is a never-ending learning process. Skateboarding the same way, painting the same way, gardening the same way.
“Everything we do is art in some form or another. And the more we do one thing, the more I paint, the better I get at surfing, the better I get at surfing, the better I get at gardening. It’s all the same thing, because the way I approach all of these things is the same.”Stacy peralta
In Peralta’s mind, all his passions intersect, in. way. “They’re a way to find inner beauty in yourself and the thing you’re doing – and they’re all about movement,” he says. “Surfing’s about movement. You’re always looking for that stationary, glide position. Skateboarding, the same thing. Even painting. You’re looking for that stationary center where things just come together and surprise you. And that’s why I keep putting myself in these positions.”
A multitude of new hobbies, passions, and pursuits aside, Peralta hasn’t forgotten or abandoned his roots and through it all, he’s still skateboarding however more timidly in contrast with his Z-Boy days: “It’s all gyrating and pumping. Pumping like a surfboard. I actually do it for exercise and toning. And I also do it because it’s been such a huge part of my life and a meaningful part of my life that it’s a touchstone and it’s something I need to do. And so I ride pump boards, essentially.”
Peralta sells himself short—graciously, humbly, and repeatedly—even when it comes to filmmaking. “It’s an art form, yes,” he says, “but instead of me doing the art, I’m documenting people doing it. I’m the artist with a camera looking at other people doing whatever it is that they do. And I’ve got to tell a story that has a beginning, middle, and end through images. And so, it’s an art form. Everything we do is art in some form or another. And the more we do one thing, the more I paint, the better I get at surfing, the better I get at surfing, the better I get at gardening. It’s all the same thing, because the way I approach all of these things is the same.”
A broad and beautiful approach to boot, Stacy.
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