“I don’t really think about what needs to happen or why, it’s just a matter of living a completely full and fun life. Not knowing makes it interesting, it keeps me moving forward.” – Jamie Lynn
When Jamie Lynn calls to say it’s time to come out to Jackson Hole and paint a mural inside the new Asymbol gallery, the answer is yes, or more specifically: “Fuck yeah it is, Jamie.” And so it was… Over the course of five days in October of 2014, Jamie painted this mural, with creative input from compatriots Travis Rice, Bryan Iguchi, and the Asymbol team. Each sunrise brought new elements, wrought with cans of paint and inspiration, laid down by Jamie the night before.
He is one of those photos where the edges are blurry with movement and the subject perfectly clear, everyone and everything in constant motion while he holds a strangely still center. Despite what folks think that they know, around him there is a calm. This man, a snowboard legend, an accomplished artist, a musician, doesn’t think about what’s going to happen or what has happened, he just lives. Jamie Lynn is a cat; he comes and goes as he pleases, actions are reflex and instinct. That is why he is still here and why there are, after two decades in this industry, still things to say about him.
Photo: Cam Foster | Asymbol
Lynn’s art forms a large part of the core Asymbol quiver, now and in the beginning. His work makes up a good chunk of the original collection put together by Travis Rice and Mike Parillo in 2009. Inviting him to the new gallery in Jackson to paint a wall was the next step. The result: vibrating color and dreamy visions. Jamie’s art, very much like his board riding and music making, sends it off of the map that he himself has designed. There are nods to his roots and swings towards a fence that only he sees. The rules, whether he knows them or not, don’t really seem to apply. The mural puts all of life’s driving elements: mountains, sun, snow, water, on a linear plane. His simple, harmonious approach to color and subject is a companion to his snowboarding style, visceral and classic. After all of these years Jamie is still true to these basic ingredients.
As he hits the 20-year mark of riding for Lib Tech, the time is ripe for digging into Jamie’s mind a little bit. He is the keeper of snowboarding’s evolution, he has seen and done more in 20 years than some will do in a lifetime. Sitting with him and listening to his stories is like gathering around a campfire with those that came before as they share our collective history. Almost immediately all of the questions I had planned on asking went out the window along with any hope of a traditional interview. Jamie quietly rejects conventional methods, which isn’t to say that he won’t share everything with you; he does. Nestled deep in rambling off topic conversations were nuggets of information that if put together make a strange sort narration.
Jamie travels with a skateboard, a small backpack, and a guitar. And that is all that anyone really needs to know about what matters to him. The first stop for him was a skate session with Bryan Iguchi that didn’t end until blood was drawn. Lynn skates like a demon on fire embracing the burn; pain does not stop him. When he’s not on wheels he has his guitar in hand. There was music for everything, he is constantly strumming.
Photo: Cam Foster | Asymbol
Jamie is like smoke. If you grab at it or try to capture it in any way, it disperses. Every conversation with him, despite any efforts to the contrary, take on a Confucius-like form. One sentence from him on any topic is concise and clear enough to end the entire conversation. We never talked about snowboarding, but by the time he left I understood the sport better than I ever have. I suppose that I understand quite a few things better thanks to him. It all just goes off the rails when Jamie is around. You have to just go with it. If I forgot to ask him about his lifelong career in the industry, it was because it seemed irrelevant in the face of his current existence, his band, his art, traveling, storytelling. When the time came to start the mural, Jamie worked tirelessly, sometimes as late as 3 a.m.
On the way to the airport I told him about a quote I had just heard. “The richest places on the planet are the graveyards. That’s where everybody takes their dreams, their wishes, and they die there, undone.” To this he said, “I am leaving nothing for the grave. I am going to spend every part of myself before I get there.”
Read Jamie’s bio and view his complete collection of art at Asymbol.
A massive thanks to Brainfarm’s Justin Taylor Smith for editing this video. Follow him (@jtaylorsmith) on Insta.
The master at Work. Jamie’s precision with the spray can was truly mind blowing. Photo: Alex Hillinger | Asymbol
Tools of the trade. Photo: Alex Hillinger | Asymbol
The mural comes to life. The moon gives a big exhale. Photo: Alex Hillinger | Asymbol
This photo is virtually impossible to caption. So much awesomeness on one bench. Three of the most down-to-earth, badass soul brothers on the planet. Photo: Alex Hillinger | Asymbol
A version of this article, “Jamie Lynn Timelapse: Painting the Asymbol Mural,” originally appeared on Asymbol.co.
