L M ark Rivard is a self-described “urban contemporary” artist. He grew up skateboarding and snow skiing and although exposed to golf at an early age, wasn’t much of a fan. Fate and an unfortunate skateboard crash caused Rivard and his teenage friends to reconsider. “With a more open mind,” he explains, “I was able to see that golf, even though it’s not an extreme action sport, has its own form of artistry and requires certain strategies. Like skateboarding across a cityscape, golf requires us to read the world around us and anticipate how we move. Instead of stairs, fountains and railings, we navigate fairways, sand, wind, rough and slopes.” He caught the golf bug. DO RAD THINGS Rivard has been designing skateboards since 2003 when he first used a Sharpie to illustrate the Minneapolis skyline on the skateboard he was riding. “My life is a great example of the concept of finding opportunities where they find you and taking advantage of those opportunities.” Rivard’s skateboard art enterprise took off. Years later, Rivard would bring skateboards into schools to share his craft and inspire students. “I didn’t love school so I was really excited to be doing something I would have actually benefited from as a student.” “My life is a great example of the concept of finding opportunities where they find you and taking advantage of those opportunities.” “I wasn’t commissioned to paint a golf course or hired to help sell tee times. I was about to create a transcendental collaboration with Perry Maxwell himself.” “As you drive toward Prairie Dunes you’re engulfed by the Kansas sky. Humble homes and rusted relics of farming’s glory days line the roads. Roads that feel more like trails. I looked at the colors of the prairie, the grasses — a mix of rye and bluegrass — the cottonwood trees, and the dunes that started to rise seemingly out of nowhere. I imagined Perry Maxwell getting his first glimpse of the land almost one hundred years ago.” 9
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