Relive your childhood. Still drink beer.
By Brian Crawford
“Yes I do [skateboard] but it is important for me to say that I am not good” artist Bob Freyer told me when I asked him if he was a skater after a skate deck show at .5 gallery. That’s okay that he’s not a particularly good skater because he’s really good at making bad ass skate deck designs.
Last Saturday .5 featured skate decks from a variety of artists. For the noobs of us out there, like me, a skate deck is the piece of the skateboard you stand.. Skate deck shows are a tradition at the Etna gallery which is a cool slice of culture snuggled between two store fronts, long and rectangular, giving you a view of everything inside while passing by along the street. Allegedly, before it was a gallery, it was a baseball card shop, a shoe shine spot, and before that, an alleyway.
“Someone put a roof on it and made a space,” Freyer tells me, “To me it just screams local. Our whole style of being DYI and stuff like that.” .5’s website describes itself as founded around the idea of giving local artists a place to exhibit their work in an interestingly small space.’
Freyer had his first show there in 2017 or 2018. Now he runs the place. Owner James Olson reached out to him to curate the space and he started in 2021. .5 is currently hosting a lot of group shows but plan to move toward an open studio featuring a variety of artists. The concept will give artists the opportunity to find hidden gems in their studios sell allowing them clear their studios out for new work.
From skate decks to t-shirts, and now beer cans, Freyer continues to find unique ways to get his art in front of people. Saturday September 10th, at Ketchup City Creative in Sharpsburg, Freyer will release an Indian Pale Ale (IPA) with Spring House Brewing Company, a brewing company based out of Conestoga PA, called ‘Youth Gone Wild’. The beer’s release will also feature the opening of an exhibit by the same name.
Spring House knew of Freyer’s work with one of their owners having previously purchased an anti-racism shirt which Freyer released in July of 2020. They reached out to him about using his art on the beer. This opportunity was especially fulfilling to Freyer who, as a beer drinker himself, often experiments with trying new beer based purely on the art design on the can.
Feyer hopes the design invokes memories of a childhood lost to time. “I’m real excited for this because its kind of like, you’ve gone wild. A lot of my art takes me back to my childhood as I see my kids grow up. This is kinda like my take on how it was growing up in the 80s and 90s without social media and stuff like that,” he explains to me. “You never heard what was going on and if we would have had it back then, wow. I just think it would have been a crazier time compared to now. Just like with all of the different fun that had back then. Anywhere from playing basketball to some cases doing drugs and stuff like that. Now you see the damages that fun has because no one will leave it off social media. Someone is going to post it.”
From beer can art to skate deck art, Freyer’s work reminds him of his childhood. Freyer grew up skating. He would spend hours with friends at a skatepark called triple play where he’d ride ramps, “fall, try again, and keep falling” but had fun doing it. Despite the changing world, Freyer draws on his experiences from his youth, which inspires much of his art, into raising his kids. Having fun, outside, and away from the computer. That includes heading back to the skate park.
“I like to do it with my daughter. Sometimes I skate on my lunch break but I am not good. I do it strictly for fun, not seriousness, but I love it. What I love most about it is I get to do it with my kids and its something that they’re genuinely into.”
Relive your childhood, but still drink beer, September 10th, 6 PM at Ketchup City Creative, with ‘Youth Gone Wild’.
To learn more about Bob Freyer, follow him on instagram @bobfreyer or check out his website at www.bfreyerart.com
Brian has spent years working in new media throughout the Southwestern Pennsylvania including podcasting, videography, and blogging. Brian the founder of PGH Museums.
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