JO WATERHOUSE

When you meet Jo, or even read her book, you realise that she's devoted her whole life to art, skateboarding and those who do both. A few years ago she developed Crohn's disease, and had to give up her day job and unfortunately her boarding. Determined to stay mentally and creatively active, she set about establishing a website that combined the two passions.

"I basically did all the content for it - tracked down artists, did interviews, reviews and what-not on those two subjects, skateboarding and art," Jo recalls. The next logical progression was to publish a book showcasing and celebrating skater-artists. "I had a contact at Laurence King, whose books I was reviewing anyway," she goes on. With her online work already bearing testament to her knowledge and interest in the area, the publisher duly asked for a synopsis and some sample spreads.

Impressed, they gave the green light and From Concrete to Canvas: Skateboarders' Art soon rolled off the presses. Reviews from the skate industry were somewhat muted but, conversely, it had a sensational reaction from the public at large: "The majority who've picked up the book have liked what they've seen," is Jo's simple summation. "It was in Amazon's 1000 best sellers list at Christmas, which was amazing."

It's gone so well, in fact, that Laurence King are falling over themselves to get Jo to write other books. She's stuck to what she knows, and next Autumn Concrete to Canvas 2 hits the streets. "They asked if I wanted a bigger format or more expensive paper, but I want to keep it the same," she reflects. "The book was aimed at a really wide audience, which included students and artists. Design books can be as much as £25-30 - it was just £12.95."

Once the writing deadline is out of the way this December, Jo and her boyfriend Chris Bourke from the Outcrowd Collective plan to launch their own product range, Ours, housed within Spine - Chris's skate-shop in Worcester. "It's a nice way of getting my doodles and designs out there," she says. "We'll do t-shirts, badges, stickers, little bags - whatever we think of, really."

"The tagline - 'It's not much, but it's Ours' - is about carving out something for ourselves. We also want to do the catalogue as a zine, and include artists. Coupled with that, we're turning a wall of Chris's shop into probably the world's smallest independent gallery."

Wander around Spine and you'll soon notice that everything from the PIN machine to the holes in the walls has wobbly eyes above them. I put this to Jo, and her own eyes light up. "I've got into the habit of sticking eyes above holes for my own amusement," she grins. "Loads of people were telling me it was funny, and then some artist friends suggested I do something with it."

"I've sent an e-mail to artists across the world, and I'm getting them to send in photographs. I was thinking of doing an exhibition called 'Objects are people too'. I mentioned it to Laurence King and they just went 'What…?' I'm just going to collect the photos and see what happens."

Jo Waterhouse is a true artist of modern times: promoting and pushing other artists, but also living as an artist herself. As I leave, she hands me some wobbly eyes. I take them, and as I'm writing this, put them on my jukebox in my lounge. I hope she uses it in her exhibition.

CONTACTS

www.concretetocanvas.co.uk
jo@concretetocanvas.co.uk

Text: Dan Davies
Studio Photography: Dave Remes