Nick Myerhoff's Blog

Painting Hats Again...

A week or two ago my buddy Mythos came over to paint Girlrider hats with me. Check out his artwork, its raw and down right ghetto, even though he is a bonafide white boy. But anyway, he came over to paint with me and gave me a ton of new ideas. In fact that is how I ended up doing the canvass paintings which I'll write about and post later. Here are some photos of my newest Girlrider custom trucker hats. I think I have painted like 300 hats so far. This has been one of the most fun projects I have ever undertaken. The layering and depth in these pieces is fantastic. Recently I have had some luck selling these in 5 packs so the response has been excellent.  Email me if you want  to order one.

Girl Rider Models in Golden Gate Park

Most of you know Michelle Hohensee, she is our first Girl Rider model and one of the absolute best subjects a designer could ever ask for. A week or two ago she brought her friend Emily to join us modeling the newest Girl Rider shirts and hats. Here are some photos of the shoot. It was great to see these amazing girls wearing my stuff. They are smart, hard working and throwing themselves into fields that help the world. Emily is a true SF city biker and works for the Ocean Conservancy. Krista another one of Michelle's friends is a 2nd grade teacher. THANK YOU for inspiring me to make cool clothes for energetic women like yourselves! There will be more from these three, including a full spread in the gallery with all the pix.

Skiing with mathilda

We took our amazing 2 1/2 year old daughter skiing a week or so ago. It was awesome. The sun was shining and she wasn't whining thank god. The snow was great at Squaw Valley and we dragged Mathilda around by the poles until she fell apart. It only lasted a few minutes but there were some classic moments with her carrying equipment around and stealing peoples poles to play with.

Girl Rider at Squaw Valley Snow Fest

We made it up to Squaw Valley SnowFest this past weekend with a fistfull of Girl Rider hats and something to proove. I specifically stenciled some rad new artwork to show at Squaw Valley and everyone seemed to like the new garb. We got to jam with the Unimog from Space Cowboys, wicket beats, dance with our friends and promote the company. The sun was shining and we could not have asked for a better weekend. DJ Shooey was sportin her GR hat, thanks Shooster.

Nick Myerhoff's Ceramic Art

As some of you know my background is in Ceramic art and fine art. My undergrad degree is actually in Ceramic arts from Sierra Nevada College. I have posted an entire gallery of my work which spanned about 10 years (more photos to come). Much of my ceramic art is wood fired and saggar fired. Since ceramic arts were are a large part of my background, this will be an ongoing post.

I have worked with some phenomenal and famous artist. like Otto and Vivika Heino. I helped them build a kiln in their studio in Ohai which is the former house of Beatrice Woods. Otto and Vivika were my mentors and I spent a lot of time with them.

Another artist and mentor was Rodney Mott who was taught by Paul Soldner at Scripps college. Rodney had a huge effect on me. Although he was at times abusive and neurotically deranged (a quality many of the most talented artists seem to share) he was a fantastic visual artist with absolute mastery of the clay media.

My skills as an artist vary with the amount of focus in a specific media at any given time in my career. At some points my 3D computer modeling skills are at a hight point, at other times my wheel throwing skills were quite impeccable.

As an artist, you are supposed to focus on one media and master that media. This was told to me by galleries that turned down my submissions. I think I understand the meaning of this now. But looking back, my strong skill was wheel throwing and I did manage to master that. Often times I wish I would have focused on illustration as that skill seems to solidify an artist more than most other skills. Anyone can say they are a photographer, but to be an illustrator you have to prove yourself. I suppose I proved myself to myself a good potter. Whats next....digital art. I write more later. But for now take a look at the photo album of ceramic art.

New Girl Rider Artwork and Music

Hello all, today I made some new artwork for Girl Rider. I was out yesterday with my new NorCal rep and saw some amazing designs and new processes. It made me depressed at first cuz I am very critical of my work. Then it inspired me to get better. So peeled myself away from the computer and did some illustration. Hopefully this design will make it into my next line after some cleanup. Let me know what you think.

Also, getting started with my friend Aaron Pope on a Girl Rider CD. I am going through about 30 gigs of music for reference. Then we are going to mix our own CD, put some cool graphics and artwork on it, and give it away to retailers and customers.

Urbanda is this super cool Rap/ street music we saw live in Buenos Aires a couple years ago, it rocks! I can't find the music at i-tunes, but I'll post a few tunes when I can convert to mp3. For now, here are a few other sample tunes 1, sample tunes 2.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today my wife instructed me to give out like 50 cards to each and every kid at daycare. What a pain. Its mandatory to do this. I think there is a Vday police on staff. But anyway, I plan to surprise my wife at work today with some flowers.

As most of you know I spent a long time as a bike designer and still do it as a freelancer for my old boss. Here is a design (great for valentines day) that I just completed for a 24" BMX girls bike.

 

Here are a couple photos of me at my daughter's valentine's day party.

 

 

 

New Girl Rider Summer 07 Preview

Here are a couple images of my latest design work and new shirts. There are more images on the gallery. This is a work in progress, but you can get an idea of what I'm going to offer in 07. Long and layered is still the trend. While cotton/ poly burnout shirts are still quite popular. If your an individual and want to purchase any of these Girl Rider items, just shoot me an email and I'll point you to the nearest retailer.

Building a socially conscious company one hour at a time

As you may know from reading the Girl Rider Story , I decided from the beginning that if my company succeeded it would be making a positive difference in the world from day one. For me this means I find relevant ways of giving back to the environment and to people.

I have found it challenging to be profitable and green at the same time, but I am working on it every day.  My commitment to you is that as owner of Girl Rider, I am always thinking about conservation and giving to the community. I have so far built a relationship with the Women's Clinic in SF to donate my samples each year. I have given them 3 huge bags of clothes so far. This past week I donated 2 large bags full of change to World Wildlife Fund through the change machine at Cala Foods. My hands were so grubby by the end, it took a full 1hr to get all my coins through the machine.

We (entire family) have also participated in the California Coastal Commissions beach clean up at Ocean Beach 2006. This was an amazing experience. We urge any local friends or family to join us for the next one.

Cassie's house

Last night I went to Cassie's house for a housewarming party. I brought a couple new Girl Rider shirts. She was actually wearing a Girl Rider thermal I gave her for her birthday. Anyway she loved the new Tree of Life design on the green thermal. She broke out her wallet on the spot and tried to buy it from me. I'm like wait a minute, I can't sell this its just a sample and I only have 2 of them. Its always nice to get that kind of response from people, it makes the whole thing worth while.