Jamie Watson

Jamie Wat­son is an artist who loves surf­ing, art, and life. She is the author of the pop­u­lar surf blog “Pineap­ple Luv.” Her prints are a col­or­ful reflec­tion of her love and pas­sion for the ocean and island life. She shares with us her thoughts and inter­ests.

When did you get your first surf­board?
The year 2000. I traded it for a new-ish TV and DVD player that I had.

What was the feel­ing you had when you you first stood on a surf­board?
Wow, it was a thrilling, happy rush (and I was prob­a­bly going really slow). It was in Waikiki around 1998. The feel­ing was so good that I couldn’t stop think­ing about it and finally real­ized I needed to get a wet­suit and not worry about the cold water in North­ern California.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Well, in order of age I wanted to be a teacher, shop owner, flight atten­dant (my dad was a pilot) and inte­rior designer. Now I want to be like John Severson.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young girl?
My grand­mother, Grace Coles. She helped sup­port her fam­ily as a teenager by play­ing the organ in silent movie the­aters. And her pres­ence made peo­ple really happy. I admired peo­ple who were happy and self assured and kind to all peo­ple. And the inter­est­ing, seem­ingly fear­less cre­ative ones like David Bowie.

Where did you study paint­ing?
I stud­ied paint­ing and print­mak­ing at San Jose State Uni­ver­sity and found a cou­ple of men­tors after graduating.

What is your process when cre­at­ing your art?
I usu­ally go to my stu­dio and think about col­ors first. When I fig­ure out my palette, I take the paint and just use my instincts to get started. If I get stuck, I’ll look at things I’ve cut out of mag­a­zines or look at a Taschen book, for exam­ple. I work until the kinks are fig­ured out and then I start print­ing and see what hap­pens! I do mono­types mostly these days.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out?
And why?
Hawaii. I have been to some inter­est­ing places like Haiti and lived near New Orleans, but Hawaii.  Because I need some­thing that it offers. Such beauty, so much surf­ing, and the aloha spirit. It’s really there. You can feel it.

What is it that makes you such a nice per­son? What code do you live by?
Gosh thank you, Glenn. My mom taught my brother and I (with many of her own sto­ries and exam­ples) to be kind to oth­ers, to include them and to be a friend, espe­cially if they are left out. And my dad’s side of the fam­ily has a gen­tle sweet­ness to them – which might be genetic.

Who/what inspires you?
My hus­band and my brother who make their liv­ing doing what they love, and they are very good at what they do. Some­one like Thomas Camp­bell inspires me. John Sev­er­son for all the neat, cre­ative things he has done. Any­one who is true to them­selves inspires me. A lot of musi­cians inspire me. Peo­ple who are really in touch with nature. Shoot I could go on for­ever, I think nearly every­thing inspires me.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
That life is a fun game. That you can play it and it can be as full of as much love and inter­est­ing things that you can han­dle. And that feel­ing one with the love of God or the Uni­verse and oth­ers is the best feel­ing in the world. And that smil­ing is very, very important.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
I wish I were braver to do what I love and do what it takes to make that my career. I hope I can get to that point some­day. I’ve always worked in an office and I’m just start­ing to make peace with that.

What are you most proud of?
That I keep mak­ing my art and I keep grow­ing as a per­son. I am proud of all the things I’ve learned about life, so that I have a happy mar­riage and get along with all of my fam­ily and friends very well. That kind of means learn­ing about your­self so you can align your good feel­ings and instincts with the stars, so to speak and cre­ate a happy life.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
It means free­dom to me and com­muning with nature. It goes deep and it has changed my life in that the more I surf, the health­ier I get, in my body and mind. It has also changed my life in that I have just begun to tap into the amaz­ing com­mu­nity of surfers in the world, much of which has come to me through blog­ging. Some amaz­ing things have resulted such as par­tic­i­pat­ing in group art shows and help­ing to pro­duce the Matt­son Fam­ily Art Benefit.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Mak­ing art, lis­ten­ing to music, surf­ing in warm water, being in nature, being with Jay, my dog, my fam­ily… and those small moments like receiv­ing a smile from a stranger, feel­ing a breeze on your face, watch­ing birds on the bird­feeder, cof­fee in the French press…

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Well I am not an expert but per­haps because I’m attracted to it, I’m notic­ing there’s an artis­tic move­ment right now. I think there is an appre­ci­a­tion for Joel Tudor and the ver­sa­til­ity of a rider like Rob Machado… free surfers like Dono­van Franken­re­iter, Dave Ras­tovich and then peo­ple like Alex Knost, Cyrus Sut­ton, Ryan Burch, Chris­t­ian Wach, Kas­sia Meador… I’m also see­ing new respect for inno­v­a­tive rid­ers like Derek Hynd and George Gree­nough.  I’m keep­ing my eye on Malia Manuel. I fol­low her on Twitter.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favorite board?
Your favorite surfspot?
I have my first board still, an 8’0 (I don’t remem­ber who shaped it) and my newest and favorite board, a 9’0 shaped by Ted Gallup. I really want to surf for the rest of my life and get a lot bet­ter at it.  Favorite local surfspot is Sharks Cove in Capi­tola. I am a sucker for Waikiki. The few times I’ve gone, there have been long, mel­low rides and plenty of room for everyone.

What’s your favorite meal?
Yum­mi­est and health­i­est would be some sushi like tuna maguro and avo­cado rolls and some man­goes and pineapple.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
The lat­est album by The Mother Hips, “Pacific Dust”, the sound­track to the film “Whip It”, a cou­ple of Tommy Guer­rero CDs, Bob Dylan “Live at the Gaslight 1962″ and a med­ley of Hawai­ian music to pump me up for our upcom­ing trip to Oahu!

What causes/ projects/ orga­ni­za­tions do you sup­port?
In the last cou­ple of years I real­ized that my affin­ity for the ocean gives me the desire to feel respon­si­ble for help­ing to keep our oceans clean. Surfrider Foun­da­tion is tops on my list, as well as Save the Waves and research ves­sels such as Algalita, who study the effects of plas­tic in our seas and marine life.

What’s next for Jamie Wat­son?
I will be curat­ing a Brazil­ian show in San Diego next sum­mer. It’s not final­ized yet so details to come… and I really want to pro­duce a small art and film fes­ti­val near San Fran­cisco that will ben­e­fit the ocean. And even­tu­ally have an online surfing/lifestyle shop that will fea­ture amaz­ingly cool designs on comfy t-shirts, and inspir­ing art­work. And maybe a spe­cial sec­tion for jokes.

Find out more about Jamie Wat­son and her art here. Fol­low Jamie’s blog Pineap­ple Luv here.