Forest Bailey, Millenial Savant, capable of creating beauty and community through culture. Coming up when we all still gathered on friend’s couches, shop floors and theaters to watch a year’s worth of work come to life in 45 minutes, shouting the names of friends and favorites as their names rolled across the screen, Forest Bailey was always the one that got the loudest cheers. Givin’, Transworld all must-see and rewatch-able Forest Bailey parts.
As the world shifts to admire creations that last just for the moment, Forest has always had the staying power. He has the ability to captivate the snowboard community, and over the last few years Forest has found himself in his art. With a comparable dedication to paint as to what he puts to his board, he has honed in on a unique style with a wide appeal.
Sitting out a winter with injury put no pause on his productivity. Forest continued to contribute to the culture with new creations, influence, and ideas. Now he’s back on board painting, skating and creating. This season his ideas come to life in his Gnu snowboard line and on the brand new BMBW Transfer.
1617 GNU Headspace
1718 GNU Headspace
1718 GNU Spacecase
We sat down with Forest to discuss where he derives the inspirations for his creations, painting, skating, and stuff:
Skateboarding… You got good, I mean you always have been but… c’mon what happened? Who/ How/ Where?
Haha, I don’t know… I guess living in Portland there’s a great scene and there’s tons of diverse skateboarders and parks/spots to skate. So living here probably helps a lot and skating with friends who rip. Skateboarding is fun, I enjoy it a lot. thats why I do it a lot.
Frontside Backside. Shoot. What is it? Whats good with it?
FSBS isn’t really much besides me getting some t-shirts made, it’s always very slow moving because I run/ manage it all myself. But really it’s just a fun side project and a good way to stay busy and keep creating. I make small batches so they are more limited, more rare, and more special. Keep and eye out for them.
When and why did art start to flow through you?
Think I maybe inherited it from all the creators that came before me. Parents and beyond.
Any art shows coming up?
Heading to London next week for a show called “Human Nature”. It’s a group show with some other rad artists! should be a great time. If you’re in London come check it out!
With the injury, snowboarding was kind of forced to take a backseat, what did that do for your art? For your life?
It definitely forced me to live a bit differently, take more time to reflect and work on other projects that don’t involve using my body as aggressively. But all in all I think it was super positive for me and I think I grew a lot from it. It also was a great reminder to not take anything for granted. Wanna skateboard and snowboard for a very long time to come, So I’ve got to stay healthy.
Pertaining to the art you create Who do you draw your biggest inspirations from?
I don’t think it’s really a who. I do love looking at all types of art and I have lots of favorite artists. but I think most of my inspiration comes from feelings/ ideas that I have.
Is there a primary theme you that your art follows? I see a lot of community…
Yeah, community for sure. but also equality, humanity, society, infinity, balance, love. all things that I think about regularly.
Your addition to culture inside of snowboarding is large, Do you see any holes in the industry to filled making snowboarding even more culturally rich?
Snowboarding needs to be more accessible, cheaper lift tickets, less ritzy. Give snowboarding back to the people.
A bit broad but… what’s next?
Just trying to keep it all flowing! Excited to get back to filming snowboarding this winter! Insanely hyped to make a movie with my buddy Seamus! I want to film more skating as well and take more photos and make a lot of art. Just keep living my life and working hard on the things that I love. Stoked to have a project to put all my physical and creative energy into.
Why did you settle in Portland?
Had to settle somewhere on the west coast and seems like here has all the things I need.
You have a number of signature pieces with the brands that you are aligned with, is there a story to be told with each piece? One cohesive story? Just fun, what you’re feeling at the time?
They all have similarities year to year that tie them all together, but I guess the main theme is the artwork and as it changes and grows so do the products. It’s fun few extra art projects every year but can actually take lots of time and be a lot of work. but I love designing stuff and having free reigns to do what I want. It’s always exciting thinking about what to make next.
Your BMBW Transfer is an EYE catcher with your art big on the Drive Plate… You liking looking down at your art on the board and now on your binding too? Any story with art/ color way you chose for your binding this season?
Loving the bindings and excited to make some new funky color ways soon! This years was designed to go with the Head Space or Space Case and is a perfect match.
