Ty Williams is a tal­ented artist and surfer liv­ing in the North­east. His quirky and orig­i­nal art is inspired by his surf­ing lifestyle and eclec­tic taste in music. Mak­ing peo­ple happy with his unique art­work is his mis­sion. Ty was gen­er­ous to spend some time answer­ing a few ques­tions.

What was life like grow­ing up?
I grew up kind of mov­ing around. I am from the US Vir­gin Islands, but grew up between there, Florida, and the north­east (Maine and NH). So, nat­u­rally, I got to see some cool places and expe­ri­ence dif­fer­ent cultures.

I spent a lot of my time in the ocean—not really surf­ing. I was really into snor­kel­ing; I wanted to be a marine biol­o­gist. I think I saw Flip­per or some­thing, and really was stoked on the thought of work­ing underwater—either that or dig­ging up dinosaurs.

My par­ents both are really cre­ative peo­ple, so I was lucky to have that in my life.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young?
When I was young—Am I still young? I’m 25—I looked up to sci­en­tists and artists. I think it wasn’t long before I got the skate­board bug and then really got into the per­son­al­i­ties of the skate world.

I looked up to my par­ents, for the most part, grow­ing up. My mom was a cre­ative woman, always mak­ing stuff, and my dad is an unimag­in­ably tal­ented builder/ designer.

When did you get your first surf­board?
After my fam­ily moved from the Vir­gin Islands, I got my first surfboard—ironically, in Maine. Yes, it’s cold. This was, like, 6th or 7th grade. It was a short­board, a Char­lie Bald­win with blue flames. It was kind of amaz­ing, come to think of it.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
I think I’m sim­i­lar to most folks when I say that when I stood up on that board, in cold, mushy shore crum­blers, I was hooked like the board had nico­tine in it. I knew after that wave that surf­ing was the one thing that made me feel uncon­di­tion­ally happy.

Where did you inter­est in art come from?
I grew up drawing—mostly dinosaurs and any­thing related. I loved books with cool pic­tures, so I always tried to get ideas or draw like the artists in the books. I would get so frus­trated; I remem­ber when I couldn’t get the hang of draw­ing and just kept plug­ging away at it. Seeing the art in the skate­board world is what really kicked me in the pants and taught me that I didn’t need to draw real­is­ti­cally. Skate­board graph­ics like Neil Blender’s were the things I remem­ber. I also really loved Ed Templeton’s boards when those came out.

What is your process when cre­at­ing your art?
My process has changed a lot in the past cou­ple years. When I first started out, I used to make stuff that I thought peo­ple would like or per­haps want to have—kind of became lame to me after while, espe­cially after I saw so much of the surf art scene just cycle through itself.

So then I tried being more hon­est in my work and that meant mak­ing things that might be weirder or more of an inside joke—and things I’m inter­ested in, not just what I felt would make for a good tee design. So, yeah, these days my process is mak­ing things I feel I want to make and try­ing to weed out the stuff I am not into mak­ing. I think every­one has that strug­gle if they do some­thing cre­ative for a living.

Recently, I have been doing more mixed media and I really like it and, just like before, in a cou­ple years I might cycle that out and be doing some­thing else. But the process, and my humor/voice, I hope is present in all of it.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
This past year, I got to spend three months in Japan for an art show I had in Tokyo, and I got to live in a place called Kamakura. It was great for me as it forced me to relax and really be shut out as I don’t speak Japan­ese. The peo­ple were the coolest and patient with me talk­ing with my hands and try­ing to draw what I needed. The trip made for some great rela­tion­ships and some won­der­ful projects that I have in the works.

Japan has things so much more dialed than we do, at least in terms of recy­cling and how they live their lives. It’s so clean and so orga­nized. Nat­u­rally though, because of the strict work envi­ron­ment there, I’m sure it gets stress­ful like any­where. They also have good waves. I surfed a place called Ebiji (spelling wrong I’m sure). That was just unreal wedgy, punchy surf.

What is it that makes you such a nice per­son? What code do you live by?
Boy, I def­i­nitely want to think I’m nice, but I know it’s a jour­ney and it’s entirely my own. I do very much believe in the thought that we get what we put out there, and I also respect peo­ple that do things authen­ti­cally and don’t inten­tion­ally copy some­one. I think hon­esty is a big part. But I’m going to take this ques­tion as a big com­pli­ment. Thank you for think­ing I’m nice.

Who/what inspires you?
My inspi­ra­tions stem from a num­ber of things, but I sup­pose the main ones are the ocean and sail­ing or any cul­ture that is involved in or around those. Surf­ing really is an after­thought to my art as I try my best to refrain from lim­it­ing myself to “surf artist”. I think my friend­ships and past rela­tion­ships inspire a lot of what I do. If it weren’t for that, I don’t think I’d feel the desire to make stuff.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
These are some heavy ques­tions. Yikes! The great­est thing I’ve learned so far is to be as nice as pos­si­ble, and to relax as best as pos­si­ble. As with those two approaches, I like to think I’ll make out okay. But I have to say I’m still learn­ing and some­times I feel like I’m rid­ing the short bus. It’s day to day.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
Of course I have regrets. I think the list could be very long. How­ever, I believe they all fall into the cat­e­gory of wish­ing I had said or not said things to some peo­ple or had treated some peo­ple bet­ter, includ­ing myself. I also regret car­ing so much about what peo­ple thought early on when I started mak­ing work. Regrets are bet­ter as “forgets”—it’s over.

What are you most proud of?
I’m proud of some of the great things I’ve been able to do because of my work. I have been very for­tu­nate to meet some great peo­ple and make cool things. Because of my work, I have been able to travel and per­haps not live a padded lifestyle by any means; but have been able to do what I wanted. I don’t think many peo­ple can say that and for that I’m proud.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing still is the same as it was the first day I tried it; it’s still the one thing that I don’t feel anx­ious while doing or care about how it looks or how it comes off to other peo­ple. Surf­ing will never change for me, I hope. Surf­ing is my life­jacket in life, I think. It’s there and I know I can turn to it. If I didn’t have that, I don’t know … I’d prob­a­bly be a pretty mis­er­able guy.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
The most hap­pi­ness in the world to me? I would have to say is cre­at­ing some­thing that peo­ple really enjoy, but also cre­at­ing it because you enjoy mak­ing it—whether that be art or music or sand­wiches. And, for me, it’s art. When I make some­thing that I like and peo­ple dig it, it’s win-win and I get jazzed off it.

Surf­ing is also some­thing that has made me more happy than any other thing, minus see­ing my fam­ily suc­ceed or see­ing my nephew grow up stoked on life. Oops, that’s first.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
The peo­ple I really like watch­ing recently are Dane Reynolds and the Malloys—or any of the multi-talented surfers. I think it’s been said a lot that all of those guys have more last­ing power as they have more to them than just surf­ing. It’s a real shame to me when the new surf per­son­al­i­ties get the oppor­tu­nity to say some­thing and have noth­ing to say or just think it’s cool to play brain dead. Surf­ing today isn’t about being a burnout and that whole style should be left in the dust. I like surfers who can speak and have some­thing to say, and I believe surf­ing today is about being more than some hot guy in the sun all day. We have respon­si­bil­i­ties as surfers, so we should step up to the plate.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
I have been rid­ing for a shaper called Grasshop­per for a few years. His boards are unreal. I have a 5’6” quad fish I use a lot; it’s good in big­ger stuff and great for small East Coast mush. I also have a 6’0” sin­gle fin that I used in big­ger stuff. I have a log that I got from Rob Kulisek. I’m not a log­ger, but it’s fun on occasion.

I also have some funky boards that I have acquired over the years—thrift store grabs and dump­ster dives. I also have thrusters that have been col­lect­ing dust that need to get used. I have a Grain fish I built years ago when Grain was start­ing out; it’s more of a wall piece. So I guess I live on my grasshop­per fish!!!

My favorite surf spot is Vilano Beach in Florida or Bin­gin Bali or Man­zanillo, Costa Rica. No, it’s a secret spot in … Maine.

What’s your favorite meal?
It’s a toss-up between bur­ri­tos, mashed pota­toes or Indian food—and sushi if it’s in Japan.

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I can’t empha­size how impor­tant music is to me and my cre­ative process. My iPod has been the best gift, I think. My ex-girlfriend really hooked it up. Any­way, right now, it’s a mix of Talk­ing Heads, Real Estate, Boy With­out God, Ariel Pink, Washed Out, Arthur Rus­sell, Ani­mal Col­lec­tive and old dance­hall reg­gae. I live on music.

What causes/ projects/organizations do you sup­port?
I sup­port causes that do not have hid­den agen­das. That being said, I like the orga­ni­za­tions work­ing with the whale killings (Sea Shep­ard) and the peo­ple at Stoked are doing cool stuff for kids. I enjoyed work­ing with them last year.
Rosa Loves is a cool one I like and was happy to help.

What are you most grate­ful for?
I’m most grate­ful for my friends and fam­ily. That being said, I’m also grate­ful that things can only get better.

What’s next for Ty Williams?
I just wrapped up a children’s book I’ve been work­ing on. I also am help­ing some friends open a store in Japan called Buoys. It should be killer and I’ve been the design­ing side of that. I also recently just got asked to paint a hotel room at Ace Hotel in NYC, which is a mas­sive, mas­sive honor.

Boy, there is a lot com­ing up, but I hope that a vaca­tion is com­ing up soon—that and maybe a date. (Laughs)

For more infor­ma­tion about Ty Williams and his art visit his blog here.