Pedro Oyarbide

Illustrator Pedro Oyarbide left his home in sun-bleached Madrid for the more temperate climes of England’s south coast to work for creative agency Ilovedust, with clients like Nike, Red Bull and Beats by Dre.

He defines himself as a ‘hand-drawn’ or ‘traditional’ illustrator, but draws strong influences from tattoo culture, comic books, skateboard graphics, ornamental drawings, and anything that’s odd, unexpected and beautiful.

Pedro is one of three emerging artists taking their illustration skills to work on a series of limited edition prints, t-shirts and one-off longboards to celebrate the bonds between art and skate culture in It’s Just A Ride, a collaboration between A Public Nuisance and Gather.ly.

Sign up here for the It’s Just A Ride exhibition and premiere event in Shoreditch on Thursday, August 21, where you can catch Pedro’s work alongside Harry Tennant and MysteryMeat.

Ornaments

A medieval Codex, the gate of a Thai temple, a piece of a gothic cathedral, Native American patterns, psyschedelic shapes on the poster of a 1970s gig. I’m constantly checking that sort of references when I’m working. I love to mix ideas from different eras and translate them into my style. To be honest, I am and will be forever interested in anything, whether simple or intricate, which has been conceived with the ultimate purpose of filling up a space that has a decorative appeal.

Artists’ Instagram accounts

I find the whole share-your-meal vibe overly uninteresting. Sure it is valid. What I love most about Instagram is that I can easily share my work, follow and discover new artists. I love to see pictures of other artists’ creative processes and what they are working on. Top 3? Tough one. I’m constantly reordering and redefining the list, but right now I love Jean Andre, Malika Favre and Telegramme.

Los Angeles, Melbourne and Hong Kong

They are not necessarily my favourite cities. But with a doubt, they are all pretty inspiring places. I went to Los Angeles for the first time a couple of months ago. Somehow I found everything absolutely attractive. The streets, the murals, the signals, the decadence among the bling bling subculture. One thing that inspired me in LA was the Woodkid mural, by the Cyrcle guys.

Melbourne. I spent about a year there. It’s absolutely filled up with lots of creative specimens who make the city a constantly evolving place with amazing little businesses exhibiting an exquisite taste for decoration. From all of those shops my favourite is Tarlo and Graham, an antiques shop specialised in industrial stuff.

Hong Kong. I spent a summer travelling around South East Asia by myself with HK as my hub. Its still one of those places that constantly comes back to my mind rather often. It is full of extraordinary, gigantic futuristic buildings mixed with traditional little spots. I mean, it is pretty impressive to wake up on the 65th floor of a state-of-the-art building in the morning and visit a traditional Buddhist temple in the middle of a fishing village in the afternoon.

I love to travel, but especially when I don’t feel like a tourist. Is that a cliche? Well, it’s the truth.

Carboots and fleamarkets

This is by far one of my favourite things in life. Whenever I’m planning a trip I check if there is any flea market, car boot sale, or trash-and-treasures shop in the city. That will be my first stop. I love to see how different antiques and crap are display in each place I visit, they always have these common but fascinating characters. Even when they are pure crap. I seldom find that thing that makes me feel happy and one-in-seven-billion but always love the bizarre spectacle of it all, old ladies selling used underwear next to a broken Dreamcast, for example. Wonderful and strange.

Wheels

Ok. I’m not quite a passionate fan of motorsports but consider myself an addict of cars – as objects. The evolution in design, the changing focus of forms… They reflect the cultural shift in consumer society. I love to see the evolution of  lines and styles in classic and modern cars.

I love this documentary about Magnus Walker and his obsession for the Porsche 911. One car I feel a special fascination about is the Buick Riviera Boattail, for its massive robust shape combined with its futuristic vibes from earlier decades. To drive in the English countryside with my shitty car and spot an old fella driving his reluctant Triumph Spitfire inspires me. In some way… to be defined.

The same thing happens to me with other wheeled objects. For example, I have no skills at skateboarding at all, I have thoroughly tried. I’ve loved the skateboard as an object and the attached graphics ever since I was a little kid. Vernon Courtlandt Johnson who did the iconic graphics for Powell-Peralta would have to be the name on the top of my list.

Find out more about Pedro’s work and sign up for the It’s Just a Ride exhibition and premiere event in Shoreditch on Thursday, August 21 at 6pm.

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