NEW FAVORITE PERSON %E>PB*>II]P'KAIBPP0Rb@B Portrait of a Cowboy , 30” x 24”, acrylic and coffee on cotton canvas. Between the Face and the Lip , 108” x 60”, acrylic and coffee on cotton canvas. Chase developed a method of intentionality that evolved into his art practice. He mentions a saying by his grandfather: “He’d rather have four quarters than a hundred pennies.” “I’ve just been trying to distill a little bit,” he says. “My weird, goofy, intricate, analytical self has been able to find a language for people to see what goes on in my head. And that, to me, is a language and a space where you start to recognize what style is and who you are. I think when you start to delineate your kind of individuality through your own expression, the medium can be whatever.” In 2023, Chase got an opportunity he’d dreamt about since childhood. Selema asked him to collaborate on a snowboard for Burton called the Alekesam (yes, that’s Masekela backward). They decided on a painting titled Portrait of a Cowboy . The board, and the story around the collab, became an expression of their shared commitment to show Black faces in less familiar places. Chase described it as an opportunity to celebrate what he refers to as “Black Adventurism,” and the necessity of endless nuance. “There’s this beautiful exploration and courage that it takes to be in nature,” Chase says. “In Black Adventurism, oftentimes our experience stereotypically is shared through people telling you how swimming isn’t very common for Black people, or how I’m not going to get on a mountain, or we don’t snowboard, or Black people don’t surf. “Leisure is something that’s often not allowed in Black culture due to marginalization, overworking and the grips of systems at hand. Being by the beach, going to the mountain, going hiking, scuba diving, boating, fishing—these are spaces where you need to have enough money to not be grinding, to not be in fight-or-flight mode. You don’t get to go do fun shit when you’re in a po-sition of having to put food on the table and keep the lights on day-by-day. “When you experience that, and you’re able to then come out of it… I think about the program Hoods to Woods or the Chill Foundation. These are experiences that change how people experience life and each other and what they stand for. It’s this opportunity to be believed in, to be told that your experience is however you want to spend it. It’s not predisposed. “Black Adventurism is this idea of not letting any of the param-eters that are set on you socially stop you from adventuring, because it’s such an important part of our experience. No matter your job, no matter what you do, where you’re from, once you try and wake up and be the best you can be, and leave that day better, and then do it again… There’s no excuses. By any means. You really want it? Okay, then you’ll do it. You’ll figure it out. You’ll try.” 034 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 22.1: Page 34
