SURF ARTIST | DIGGY SMERDON [08.09.2010]Surfers

ARTIST PROFILE | DIGGY SMERDON

NAME: Diggy Smerdon
LOCATION: Cornwall, UK
CONTACT: hello@diggysmerdon.com
WEB: www.diggysmerdon.com


Diggy is a young artist & illustrator with a studio near the sea in South Devon, her expressive raw lines and distinct forms makes her work unique and mysteriously alluring. Her talent also extent into further realms as she has unleashed her weird & wonderful creations on to everything from album covers, to apparel and surfboards.


Diggy's own words........

I grew up with my dad believing I’d becoming a blues singer named 'Diggy Malone'. I am called Diggy, but I don't sing; I ended up listening to the blues and drawing instead.  My dad is an artist and the house was always surrounded with paintings and African inspired wooden-head carvings. Without realizing these slipped into my mind and I can see them come out in my work from time to time. I was also lucky to have my ears filled with an amazing collection of music and found myself doodling to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan.

It wasn't till I moved to Cornwall that I found the sea and nowadays I can’t seem to get too far inland, apart from when I need more Posca Pens. Posca Pens are my new love; they’re responsible for recent work such the surfboard I did with UK shaper Luke Young for an exhibition at Driftwood Gallery in Cornwall. It was a retro style twin-fin fish that I baked in Posca pens and light acrylic. I’m hoping to get more and more board commissions, however I need to get over the fact that the wax inevitably makes them shitty and dirty, plus boards often get snapped.

The people around me, most of which seem to live and breath the sea, inspire my work. You probably have noticed a lot of my work is figurative, I’m not trying to draw anybody, I’m simply letting out what I see. I guess I’m just showing what I see in people and a lot of my work is about the creatures in everybody. Like when you watch someone surf, you can’t hear them you can only see them, everyone has a different stance and style. When I see someone on a board I always seem to match them to an animal.

- Diggy xx

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