We don’t often have the chance to see into pro skaters’ family lives. Besides the familiar story of pros leaving home in their teens or growing up in rough situations, disconnected from their families, a lot of pros just don’t want to publicly share their families. (Trust us, we’ve tried.)
So we were excited when Eli offered to let us tag along with him and his mom for a day and ask them questions about their mother-son dynamic (including her reaction to Eli skating the Playboy mansion).
Eli’s mom, Joan Ryan, is an accomplished artist and teacher at the Art Institute of Boston. She’s made graphics for Eli’s former clothing brand and his current board brand Becky, and they’ve collaborated on legit paintings and artwork as well.
We stopped by Eli’s place in Manhattan and then to see some of Joan’s artwork at the Townley Gallery in Tribeca. It’s one thing to see a pro produce boards with scantily clad women on them, but finding out that his mom paints some of those pin-up graphics is way more interesting.
Related Posts
Comments
Popular
-
A CHAT WITH LUDVIG HAKANSSON, THE OLDEST SOUL IN SKATEBOARDING
The man loves to read Nietzche, skates in some expensive vintage gear, and paints in his own neoclassical-meets-abstract-expressionist style.
-
WE TOOK PROFESSIONAL POGO STICKERS TO FAMOUS NYC SKATE SPOTS
Enjoy, write a scathing review, laugh, cry, feel something!
-
JENKEM PRESENTS: THE 8TH ANNUAL SKATEBOARDING SUPERLATIVES
To properly highlight the good and bad of 2024 we sat down for like 30 minutes and decided to come up with this list.
-
LOUIE BARLETTA ON LEAVING ENJOI AND WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
"When I quit last week, my thought was that I was gonna just chill and not do anything."
-
PREMIERE: STEVEN CUSTOZZO AND MICHAEL FALLER IN “HEIRLOOM”
Unconventional tricks at classic NYC spots.
October 27, 2019 6:39 pm
I went to AIB and had Joan as a drawing teacher! She gave me 2 of his first zoo york decks. Such a cool lady.
Leave a reply
March 19, 2022 5:20 pm
anyway tom you got it right like https://skateboardwarriors.com/best-clear-coat-for-skateboards/
Leave a reply
October 31, 2019 6:32 pm
Eli’s mom is a Tom Kacere fan, eh?
Leave a reply