These Artful Surfboards Are Right at Home in Monta
Nico Guilis is best knows for her surf-chic Instagram and website that meld girl power and fashion imagery for its quarter of a million followers. But before Nico was the creative director and photographer behind-the-brand she was an art student. Returning to her roots and bringing her love of surf culture with her, Guilis is releasing a new collection of hand-made surfboards that leverage her own photography and art with the skilled hands of surfboard shapers. The artful results are on display now in the rooms at Montauk's cool kid spot The Surf Lodge as part of its ongoing artist residency. Below, the Cali native and current Long Islander waxes rhapsodic on her latest venture.
What was the inspiration for the boards?
A year ago I began going back to my hand-done art I used to do in art school. I created a whole room in my house with vintage pin up magazines and decided that concept would be amazing on surfboards and skateboards. It’s been about me Nico as an artist and less about the findyourcalifornia brand that I've created, if that makes sense.
There are literally 14 vintage surfboards & 33 skatedecks with my hand-done art in my house. In creating these, I started to feel alive again in a different way, not having to be on my phone or Instagram, using my mind and my hands, diving into creation and creating something completely original with four things I love: photo, design, art and surf.
Tell me about the process of creating them...
My shaper BeCkeR & I choose the shape of board I work on at that time and then I do artwork by hand and choose the colors and pin lines with my glasser, then it goes through many processes to get to where they are finished. It takes five of us to complete one board-you can feel the hand-made love in these.
I’m studying a lot of vintage techniques and I am working on them four days a week-totally disconnected and totally checked out.
What images appear on the boards? Are they all original or did you collaborate with other photographers as well?
It's a mix. For most of the boards, all the images are my original imagery and specialty things I photographed for the pieces. I just finished the second collection, which is really vibrant and I'm working on my third.
There are also two punk surfboards I did with my friend, photographer Jimmy Fontaine's photo series,“Everything Went Black”. Jimmy is someone I’ve respected for years and his masculine black and white imagery really is a great contrast to my feminine energy.
My other friend, inspiration and photographer Jean Pigozzi allowed me to create custom specialty pieces for him with his “Journal from the 70s” series. His “Journal of the 70s” photo book was the first photography volume I bought when I was 24 and living in Paris. This book has inspired me for years and now I’m creating a surf board with it-how much more awesome and far out can you get ?
I love being able to incorporate other artists whose work I really respect-they trust my interpretation of their imagery. It’s f*cking amazing to be honest.
Is each board unique?
I wanted each board to have a different energy and vibe and be from an original place in my head. It pushes me to constantly think and create and also allows each person who collects one to have their own original piece I sign, date and number. They are holding onto something I spent hours on and no one will have that same board-that’s really important and special.
Why surf boards?
I love design and some of my favorite designers are surfboard designers. It allows me to have a range in size and surface. It's also incredibly challenging and magnetic for me. What a surf board represents is history, passion, love, nostalgia, design, art, and respect. All the things I live by and try to recreate. I look for people’s reactions or if I hit a part of their soul that makes them smile or think. It can be surfed on or used as a wall hanger piece, it’s functional art with movement and energy.
Why was Surf Lodge a good partner for you?
My friend Dria Murphy who owns creative brand building company, Alise Collective. She works with Surf Lodge and she saw my boards privately and immediately said I needed to be resident artist with my first collection. Surf Lodge has always cultivated an incredible list of artists to feature over the summers and it was a place I felt would embody the spirit and support I needed to release something I’ve been working towards for a year. I feel really honored to be apart of this summer's residency.
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