Competition judge Shoe Customizer Marc Ong aka SBTG (left) and MC Rapper Renee Renee

Sports and visual arts are two things at the opposite spectrum. Being a physically competitive endeavor, sports separates itself from the creative and pensive world of visual arts. However, one ground that these two worlds have in common is the emotions that they both draw out.

This commonality between sports and art is particularly evident in the extreme sport of skateboarding. A lifestyle on its own, skateboarding combines the creativity of artistic expression and the physical demands of action sports.

To emphasize this meeting of two cultures, DC brand of skateboarding and lifestyle apparels hosted a skate deck art competition open to all Filipino artists. The competition celebrated the role of collaborations in culture and the connections between skateboarding, street art and design progression.

From about 500 applicants, 20 were selected to participate in the competition where each was given a skateboard deck to design and style to their own liking. The result was a collection of equally innovative ideas that mirrors the individuality of the sport. “Art and skateboarding are two different things but digging deeper, they’re basically the same. Both communicate freedom of expression,” says Dino Gilladoga, DC’s Brand Associate.

For the event, DC invited American MC Rapper Renee Renee and Asia’s top sneaker customizer Marc Ong aka SBTG to judge. “We’re looking for unselfish designs, something that represents not just the self but also the community,” Marc Ong says.

With the idea of national identity riding the theme of the competition, five finalists were chosen among the 20 entries: 1st Place – Kristoffer Lloyd Valera - the piece captured the essence of the diversity of ideas of street art. With the use of acrylic paint and ball point pen as highlight, the level of detail of the images is really what separated his artwork from the rest of the field; 2nd Place – Edu Perares  - One thing that stood out with the work Edu has done on the board is his use of the image of the Madonna and child emerging from a plant. The piece highlighted the Filipinos close affinity with Christianity and faith; 3rd Place – Crist Espiritu - In street slang, there’s one word that would describe Crist’s work – gnarly. Revolving around the image of a hamburger, he mixed things up by adding surreal images of heads and faces sandwiched along the layers; 4th Place – Vicente Bea - Soft and subtle. Those are the words that best describes Vicente’s work. With delicate brush stokes, he portrayed an image of Mother Nature and the changes revolving around her; 5th Place – Ronante Maratas - If skateboarding is a byproduct of the punk and rebel revolution, then this piece by Ronante is a perfect epitome of the idea. Going against the trend of clean cut technique and inspiring concepts, his work was based on the idea of imbalance.

Deck art winners from other countries such as Taiwan, Japan and New Zealand also went on display.

However, Filipino creativity proved a cut above all else. “The deck art here in Manila is hands down the best we’ve done so far. I really can’t believe that some of these artists aren’t world renowned. I was blown away,” MC Rapper Renee Renee expressed.