Image: BERT
The original piece titled The Creation of a Teahupoo Champ was originally put up on the wall under the I-5 at Trestles in celebration of Gabriel Medina’s win at Teahupoo back in September 2014. I knew I had to go big to truly represent his win in the the massive surf. The piece was inspired by a conversation he and his mother had prior to the final with Kelly Slater. His mother told him “there is no one bigger than God.” The artwork is based off Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. A new take on the original piece was recently released to the public and is titled Gabby’s 2014 Championship, altered to hold the ASP championship trophy.
Back to the original piece: it was installed late one night with surf photo journalist Steve Sherman, one of the very few who have been involved in my installations over the past two years. The piece was put up almost in complete darkness. The only light was was from Steve’s phone.
Photo: Steve Sherman
The only way to get the piece as high as I wanted was to use a 15-foot ladder. It was super sketchy since all the ground at the base of the wall is covered with giant rocks. It was dark and paste was dripping everywhere making everything slippery and sketchy. We had a few pretty sketchy moments with the ladder, but after 1.5 hours, the piece was up.
Photo: Steve Sherman
Medina even visited the piece the next morning and posted a shot on Instagram…
Photo: Instagram
To purchase, head on over to Steve Sherman’s T-Sherms.com. The one-time release of 72 prints comes in a nine-color screen print on 100% cotton, 250-gsm archival art stock paper, sized 20 inches by 16 inches. Each print is individually signed, dated, and numbered.
And for more from BERT, be sure to check out his personal site.
