skateboarder

Ainara Garcia @queenofthevandals
Interview by Jonathan Hay

Who are you? Where do you live and where are you from?

Hi!! I’m from San Sebastian, Basque Country, I live here at the moment but spent 9 years in Barcelona.

How did you get into this style of drawing?

I was influenced by a friend who draws in digital, I always liked the world of fine arts and consumed other people’s art, so I signed up for drawing classes a few months ago. At the moment I am investigating digital, with acrylics, pilots, watercolors, tattoos, I’m always doing things, I’m like a little girl who loves everything and is curious about everything.

Lifeguard tower. Zarautz, Basque Country

Ainara Garcia art exhibit in San Sebastian

La Kantera

Alexis. Backside grind. Sonidka bowl.

What is your method, or is it a secret?

My method… I don’t have one, I choose known spots in my city and I try to take them to my style, putting them in flat colors and fitting them with something symbolic of the city. With the girls it|s simply taking the silhouette and fill and draw as you would do with a sheet of paper, the good thing is that you can do and undo mistakes easily. I also like drawing portraits using various colors.

What inspires your art?

I really don’t know what should inspire others, but my skating friends inspire me and give me power, courage and self-improvement. That|s where the idea of GIRLS TO THE FRONT illustrations came from.

Soraia. Kickflip

What do you think about girl’s involvement in skateboarding and how it went from unusal to see a girl skateboarding, to becoming a lot more common over the last ten years?

When I was only nine years old I used to skate in my neighborhood alone. Little by little more people started joining who were older than me and kids. We rode bikes, skateboards and rollers, there wasn’t a big enough skateboarding community to form a group of only skaters and much less only girls so we all enjoyed ourselves together. I’ve seen phases of skateboarding along the years like, when no one skated, others when everyone thought it was cool to go with a skateboard under their arm… And now it’s incredible, the social networks made a very positive impact, now we can have contact with people from other cities and countries and that’s when I met girls who skated in my time and organized the first female skate tour in Spain, the Skate Girls Invaders in 2008. From there everything has been GIRLS POWER to the fullest. I have evolved as a woman, my views began to change on the macho thoughts that were implanted by society… until today there is a boom of girl skaters in the world which is spectacular… I have always had good treatment with the boys and in general they have supported us a lot, we have also have many assholes but there are sons of bitches everywhere…