Luke Taaffe

Luke Taafe is a tal­ented young Aus­tralian artist who spends his time paint­ing and design­ing for the cloth­ing com­pany Roxy/Quiksilver when not enjoy­ing a day in the surf. We catch up with Luke and ask him about his life and inspi­ra­tions.

What was life like grow­ing up?
I grew up in a small town in between Syd­ney and Newc­sa­tle on the NSW Cen­tral Coast, Aus­tralia. It was an excit­ing place to be as a kid as we backed onto a golf course which was also under a kilo­me­tre to the beach. It was a really excit­ing time for myself and every­one around. Me and my friends would build shitty skate ramps, walk to the beach and surf all day, build fires in win­ter on the beach, hang with girls and gen­er­ally enjoy the unpop­u­lated area that it was.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
It always changed depend­ing on what I was doing at the time. Locals like the late, great Mark “Sanga” Sains­bury, Ross Clarke Jones and Shane Pow­ell were always heroes of mine. I remem­ber my first day at high school in 1990 and see­ing Ross in a school boy’s surf­ing pic­ture and going, “Wow! He’s so rad!”

I loved the Pow­ell Per­alta Bones Brigade team as well (like Hawk and Cab), and my dad was some­one I always looked up to and admired.

When did you get your first surf­board?
I think it was around 1984—one of those foamies wrapped in nylon and had a rub­ber sin­gle fin. Gave me ter­ri­ble rashes but it didn’t bother me cause I was hav­ing so much fun.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I just remem­ber going straight all the way to the beach and doing it again and again ‘cause I loved it. I was prob­a­bly in “slug­goes” and had white zinc on my face as I was in the local surf club.

Where did you inter­est in art come from?
My inter­est in art came from being exposed to album cov­ers my father had in his record room. Lots of Zep­pelin, Hen­drix, Black Sab­bath, etcetera and I was always amazed by the art that these bands and artists used. Later on, it was graph­ics I was see­ing on cloth­ing, surf­boards, skateboards—artists like VCJ and Jim Phillips, Mambo artists like Richard Allen and Reg Mombassa.

What is your process when cre­at­ing your art?
I am kind of spon­ta­neous in my approach to a piece. I am con­stantly draw­ing in my scrap­books, col­lect­ing images that I like and tak­ing pho­tos that have some sort of per­sonal con­nec­tion. I build all my frames and half the wood I col­lect for bases comes from rub­bish tips or on the side of the road. I find it reward­ing to see a scrap piece of wood with worn colour and tex­ture, and often won­der where it comes from and if it has a unique past or story. Recy­cling is fun.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
I really love the Cal­i­for­nia coast espe­cially, from Santa Bar­bara to San Fran­cisco. It’s an amaz­ing coast­line with great waves, inter­est­ing landscapes/people and a rich past in surf cul­ture. Big Sur National Park is a real stand­out for me—the kelp beds, the marine life, the cliffs and waves and all the lit­tle overnight stays were memorable.

What is it that makes you such a nice per­son? What code do you live by?
Never been asked that before but I try and give the same respect to every­one I meet. I am gen­er­ally inter­ested in what peo­ple have to say and I like to see peo­ple happy.

Who/what inspires you?
I am inspired by so much: graph­ics in both surf and skate cul­ture, the ocean and the envi­ron­ment, vin­tage fur­ni­ture, pho­tog­ra­phy, old mag­a­zines and post­cards, antiques, other artists, feel­ings, stick­ers, girls and colour.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
I lost my father to mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis four years ago, which was hard to see as it was a degen­er­a­tive dis­ease. In the end his mind was 200% there, but his body was 1% so he gave him­self in so our fam­ily could have a bet­ter life. The great­est thing I have learned in life would be to enjoy every day like it was my last. When I’m down, I think about this and it makes me feel better.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
I wish I hadn’t smoked so much weed as a kid. I feel as though I wasted many years not being as pro­duc­tive as I should have. Mak­ing up for it now though. Sleep­ing has taken a backseat.

What are you most proud of?
Most proud of stick­ing to what I have loved in life from an early age. I am now at a stage of mak­ing a liv­ing being cre­ative so I’m nat­u­rally stoked.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing has a spe­cial mean­ing for me. It has given me a great bunch of friends (and con­tin­ues to do so), mem­o­rable bar­rels, expe­ri­ences and per­spec­tives that peo­ple who don’t surf wouldn’t know and a healthy look at life. It is a great escape which has helped me out at times.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Fam­ily and friends, waves, art and design, good food and new experiences.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Dane Reynolds, Tay­lor Steele, Robin Kegal, Slater, Dustin Humphrey, Thomas Camp­bell, Joel Tudor, Rasta, James Cheale, Dain Thomas, Andrew Crock­ett and Ryan Heywood—all for dif­fer­ent reasons.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
I have col­lected a fair few boards over time that sit in my garage, but boards that I ride are: a 9’4 Shaun Wilde log; two 5’10” twins; a 5’6” G&S sin­gle fin; and a 5’10” Al Mer­rick Pod. When it’s big, I pull out my 7’2” Hot But­tered sin­gle. Favourite board would be my 5’10” Crème twinny I picked up in the States in 2004.

Favourite surf spot would be my local—Wamberal Beach. It has a vari­ety of reefs up the north­ern end and the beachies are always fun.

What’s your favorite meal?
Mex­i­can, seafood and beer

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Bowie, Beach Boys, Hall & Oates, Jus­tice, Joy Divi­sion, Zep­pelin, Tor­toise and Coltrane.

What causes/projects/organizations do you sup­port?
Aus­tralian Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis Soci­ety and The Stop Shark Finning Society.

What’s next for Luke Taaffe?
I have a few exhi­bi­tions and dates booked for next year, includ­ing a com­bined Feb­ru­ary show in Byron Bay with Mia Tani­aka, which will be fun. Work­ing on orga­niz­ing a col­lab­o­ra­tive show for late next year and con­tin­u­ing my role at Roxy in graph­ics and trav­el­ing a bit more. So many coun­tries and peo­ple to meet. Even­tu­ally I would like to exhibit more overseas.

Find out more about Luke Taaffe and his art here.