Quirky Artist Villagrana And Skateboards Make A Good Mix

In buying athletic goods from Nike shoes to K2 snowboards, two features help the sports-minded customer make a decision. One is athletic function: Does the sports tool really deliver? The other is more elusive - a tool's visual style and "attitude."

No one knows it better than the year-old Bellevue-based Compression Skateboard company. Distinctive visuals have helped it break into the marketplace. In an inspired choice for a sport like skateboarding, the firm recruited local artist Roman Villagrana. Villagrana, whose art is both well-liked and striking, has the perfect mix of quirkiness and personal style. Many Compression customers even know the artist by sight; with his bulging sketchbook, he haunts local clubs and coffee shops.

Willing to chat with anyone who approaches him, Villagrana fills page after page with warmly rounded drawings - funky mythological characters and cartoon aliens. Even those who don't recognize the artist may know his work - via murals in stores such as Hyperspace Records, hangouts like the lounge at Sit & Spin, eateries such as the Rainbow Bar & Grill.

They also might have attended one of his raves or "gatherings," where Villagrana murals wave on sheets and banners while turntables spin.

His little gallery of puckishly mystical figures has built the artist a solid street reputation. Villagrana was born in Mexico but "doesn't remember much - just some random feelings and colors." He had a very rural childhood in the Northwest: small towns, farming, caring for animals. Villagrana came here from Oregon to study art, but he defected when he started learning about computers.

"For me, computers are a very human thing. I see all of us as the World Wide Web and our energies as that kind of circuitry." Far from becoming a digital artist, however, Villagrana fell back in love with the pencil and airbrush.

The graphics he has done for Compression - five skateboards, T-shirts and the company's catalog - demonstrate his most public and cartoonish side. But where they spring from might intrigue the skater-customer; Villagrana is a fan of religious art. His apartment is filled with complex, ancient images: Mayan glyphs, Tibetan thangkas and Latin saints. He likes the fact that such images already come with iconographies.

"They have these strict codes you reinterpret from your experience. And having that experience is what I'm after. I look at both the Bible and Tibetan art as reality - as interpretations of the literal truth."

For Compression, Villagrana's work means a clear identity. And that's something the sports start-up company coveted. Friends Dax Colwell and Mike Western started their firm on a hunch: They believed that snowboard "technology" could improve skateboards. With both sports hugely popular across America, Colwell and Western knew the potential market.

But they wanted to invent a wholly "new" skateboard, one that used a wooden core for the actual deck, wrapped in fiberglass resin, then compression-molded. Hence the name of their fledgling enterprise.

Now, after a year of research and development, Compression wares are making waves at athletic trade shows - and they've expanded to a manufacturing plant in Woodinville. The company has also made boards with designer Ryan Hodson. (Hodson designed another experiment in materials: a skateboard actually made out of hemp.)

"But," says Colwell, "Roman's work is incredibly popular. I didn't really know the work before; I saw a mural."

"They really tracked me down," Villagrana says with a laugh. "But when we had a few meetings, they liked my thinking. I like the whole technology thing they're using, where the graphics are inside, compressed like a lamination."

Villagrana plans to keep mixing myth and technology. He's just become the father of a baby daughter, and he's balancing the child care with other changes. One is a new gallery where he will have a studio - shared with five glassblowers and two visual artists. This will be a part of the EGO Gallery, which opens in midsummer. EGO is on Eastlake Avenue overlooking Dale Chihuly's Boathouse studio. Its vaulted ceilings, exposed brick and triple skylights are being developed by Michael Dean. Dean, who has known Villagrana for eight years, hopes to win his friend's work wider attention.

Says he, "I've worked in a lot of Seattle galleries. But they've always sort of had a stuffy feel. I like visions like Roman's, I like the truly funky. I really want to promote artists on the fringe."

So far, EGO has recruited five glassblowers (Aaron Tate and Darin Dennison from the Boathouse, as well as Daryl Smith, Nathan Lesnet and Steve Cornet), plus three other local artists: Joey Masciotra, Jesse Higman and Greg Kalamar.

They join names from New York and Chicago - in a gallery roster rife with variety.

On May 15, Villagrana moves into his studio, shifting from his coffee-house chairs to a 5,500-square-foot home. He and Dean have christened it "The Playground"; Dean says he hopes the move "will make things less intense for Roman. With a new baby, and the graphics - he's got a lot on his mind."

But despite the lack of sleep, Villagrana's eyes are twinkling. He's just finished the designs on two wakeboards (the water skier's equivalent of a snowboard). But he's already making plans for two more projects. "Now, I'm finally able to start a book for children. That - and a Kama Sutra with my parody aliens."

The EGO Gallery is at 3241 Eastlake Ave. E, Seattle. Phone: 206-346-0333.