The monster-fueled madness that comes from The Art of Skinner is the kind of thing that feels right at home on the pages of Heavy Metal or “Tales of Terror.”
In fact, Skinner actually worked on a variant cover for the print return of Heavy Metal magazine earlier this year. This artist — who goes simply by his last name — makes what he self-describes as “psychedelic nightmare artwork” and has been sought out by bands, brands and breweries all over the country, leading to collaborations with Magic: The Gathering, Tim Heidecker, Thee Oh Sees and even the ghost of Jack Kirby.
His work features detailed shading, dynamic color palettes and monsters from legendary tales of science fiction and cryptozoology. Along with creating his own collection of paintings, vinyl toys and apparel, Skinner has been commissioned to design for Cannabis brands like Timeless Vapes and Seattle-based Saints Joints’ artist series packaging. In the Bay Area, where he’s currently based, I’ve watched adults race city blocks to try and score one of his Game of Shrooms pieces.
I spoke with him over the phone while he was working at his home studio. Right now, Skinner says his creative space plays a nonstop mix of dark synth soundtracks, the rock band Red Fang and the Australian metal band Battlesnake. On the screens, a progression of old conspiracy documentaries, anime and cartoons like “Dungeons Dragons” or “Ghostbusters,” noting that he gets a lot of inspiration from the monsters and old folk horror ghosts they featured.
As to why the Cannabis community as a whole has been drawn to his art over the years, Skinner points to stoney being not just an adjective but an aesthetic. “When you see something that’s stoney, you’re like, ‘I totally get this.’ Whether it’s a Japanese cartoon or a doom metal album cover, I think you learn to recognize that quality in things.” It’s a quality that he described as “embracing the weird.”
Skinner says Cannabis helps him come up with these stoney ideas, allowing him to “detach from any kind of rigid thinking.” He points to the exhaustion that comes from the pressure to commoditize one’s own creativity and how Cannabis can act as a release valve. “Society has us constantly focused on the grind, but when I smoke weed and draw or paint, it makes me want to think about stuff that doesn’t necessarily relate to something profitable,” he said.
As an artist, “smoking weed is instrumental in reconnecting me to the part of myself that wants to be creative instead of making money and being a little businessman scumbag,” he joked. “It opens my heart,” he added.
