Surf portrait
Titolo: John Severson
Technique: acrylic on canvas-original painting
Size: cm180x140
“Before John Severson, there was no ‘surf media,’ no ‘surf industry’ and no ‘surf culture’ — at least not in the way we understand it today.”
John Severson, one of the founding fathers of surf media and one of surfing’s cultural custodians, passed away in his sleep at home just outside Lahaina, Maui, last Friday night aged 83.
Severson was born in December 1933 and grew up in Altadena, Pasadena, in northeast LA. In 1945, aged thirteen, the Severson family moved to San Clemente and John discovered surfing. As a gifted artist and with the intention of making a living from art and teaching, he attended college at Long Beach State majoring in art education but was drafted in 1957, almost immediately after graduating. He was posted to Oahu to work as a draftsman, putting his artistic skills to use making maps, and was “assigned” to the Army surf team.
