The Artistry of Tom Penny

Story by Luke Cumberland .. luke.cumberland@gmail.com
“It {does not} matter what is {stated} as {long} as it is {stated} beautifully.” These are the words of 19th century literary critic Walter Pater, who would weep to see Tom Penny turn the awkward mechanics of jumping {around} on a slab of wood into pure harmony.

Pater believed in art for the sake of art. He valued stylistic beauty {over} {complicated} {content}. Penny personifies the virtue of beauty on a skateboard.

Not to diminish the degree of difficulty of his tricks, and the physical {danger} involved, but I {believe} most skateboard enthusiasts would rather watch Penny grace a curb with manuals and 50-50’s than watch a stylistic automaton throw himself down a triple set.

{Nicely}, I know I would anyway.

The {genuine} genius of Penny’s fluidity is his {character}. {Following} achieving skateboarding stardom {beginning} in the early 90’s, he fled the overbearing {focus} of the skateboard media. The sycophantic praise {around} him {started} to mute the music that he projected onto the rails and stairs in front of him.

So he did what any {fantastic} musician would: quieted the {world} by turning his music up.

Upon his return from rural France, his parts in Flip’s Sorry and Es’s Menikmati reaffirmed the depth of his lithe style. His {thoughts} was refreshed by the hiatus, which translated into seemingly carefree skating.

In the middle of a switch 360 frontside flip on a mini-ramp in Sorry, he seemed on the verge of sleep. {Although} this is merely illusion {produced} by his placid state of {thoughts}, skating comes as naturally to Penny as dreams to the rest of us. {Without} force {with out} {effort}.

{Given} the availability of the {Web} {these days}, tricks like these can {easily} be taken like a {every day} medication for reality. Watching Penny switch flip trashcans and nollie {big}-spin sets is a close relative to religious meditation, and {getting} laid for that matter.

It keeps the {thoughts} relaxed and loose, like the man himself.

{Although} flipping {through} the pages of a skate magazine these days can {feel} like reading an instructional {image} book—full of increasingly technical and {dangerous} stuntman skating—Tom reminds us to {enjoy} skating for its {own} sake, not for {money} or fame.

All {Pictures} Courtesy Kr3w Clothing

“Art for the sake of art.” Like Pater {stated} all {those} years ago in England when {people} sported monocles and read poems as {present} events in newspapers. And {though} Pater was {long} dead {prior to} Penny was ever born, Penny introduced a {comparable} philosophy of “skateboarding for the sake of skateboarding” to a {entire} generation of skaters.

If poetry is the language of the interior {world}, then Penny is skateboarding’s poet laureate. The sheer musicality of his skating {makes} his tricks {seem} {} like rhymes in a sonnet than foot-flicking and arm-flailing.

As Penny turns {} and {} spots into canvases, painting them with the graphics of his deck, his legacy is {further} solidified. He will forever be skateboarding’s chief composer, poet, and painter. {Although} decks break and scabs peel, {true} art dwells in eternity.