The Lardner Report

Unleash your creative superpowers!

An Unexpected Collaboration With Nature

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(Pic #1) “Skeeter” – My modern day cave painting, formed by poured water on rock. Wildwood Regional Park, Thousand Oaks. Photo by Josh Kaplan.

I always carry a bottle of water on my hikes. But until yesterday, I never used it to make art. While walking up a tough trail, and just back from visiting a sweet waterfall, I spotted a blue streak smack in the middle of the parched, rocky path. There was dust over it — obfuscating its richness — so I decided to pour my Fiji over it to see the streak’s true colors. I splashed out the rest of my H2O supply and saw this creature emerge from the dusty rock.

Meet “Skeeter” (Pic #1)  I see him as sort of a spontaneous, creative collaboration between me and earth — a kind of ephemeral piece of performance art that vanishes before it’s complete.

Age Before Beauty — Duh!

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(Pic #1) Side panel of 1941 Mack Fire truck. Saticoy, California

Confession: I’m kind of a junkyard junkie.

Not sure that’s a thing — but I love the mix of rusting old metal, peeling paint, and layers of decay. I know, you really want to say, “Lon, get a life.”

Well, check out this formerly red, classic 1941 Mack pumper truck I found in Saticoy, California. It sits in a salvage yard I like to visit for artistic inspiration. (And often, I incorporate these discoveries into my creativity workshops for Fortune 500 executives.) Art is in fact everywhere, if you are willing to look beyond.

These colorful, textured images — with their own preordained compositions — represent 80 years of extreme Southern California heat, and perhaps unintended neglect. But weathering brings new life — in the form of unpredictable art. These abstractions are just as exciting to me as a Rothko or Rousseau — just as visually stimulating, and way more accessible.

Why Urban Decay Is My Jam

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Confession: I slam on the brakes and jump out of the car to capture the detritus of life.

It’s the dirty, weather-beaten, peeling surfaces of walls and structures in any large city. You typically won’t find these textures in the fancy parts of town, so that’s why I like to take detours and longer ways home. Some of these moments end up on canvas, some find their way onto the hand-painted jackets in our new “Urban Artwear” collection.

It might just be a simple combination of colors…sometimes it’s just erosion, but most of the time it inspires an idea — or series of ideas — for some funk-ass abstract art.

(Pic #2) Ventura, Cal.

(Pic #3) San Pedro, Cal.

(Pic #4) Los Angeles, Cal.

(Pic #5) Oxnard, Cal.