I met Reggie Smart through Adam “Wipeout” James.  He’s a tattoo artist, among other things, and (and this is a definite beach cred bonus around the Strait) once worked for LibTech.  I kind of assumed Adam had given Reggie some sort of background information on me, other than that I’m a painting contractor, but several days into working together on a non-artistic project, he asked, “So, you do…painting?”

“Yeah,” I said, twirling my brush. “You mean, art-wise? Mostly I do pen and ink. Lots of examples at realsurfers.net.”  Blank look. “You’ve never checked it out? You’re fired.”

Reggie looked a moment to make sure I was kidding. “Oh,” he said. He pulled out his phone, showed me some of his work. Several very intricate drawings featured the classic Northwest Native style, the stylized swoops and inserts.

“Oh,” I thought, somewhat later in the day, “I live in the Northwest; I wonder how that style could be used to…”

Here’s my first attempt. Thanks, Reggie.