Ed Hardy

Deeper Than Skin at San Francisco’s de Young Museum

- Gwynned Vitello

2000 colorful dragons cavort along the 500-foot long scroll painting that ripples through the Deeper Than Skin exhibit of Ed Hardy’s work at the de Young Museum. Suspended from the ceiling, they really do ripple, and yes, in the fullest meaning, they are swell. So is this retrospective of an artist who dreamed beyond horizons as a kid growing up on the beaches of Southern California, later discovering ancient Eastern culture when he studied in Japan. We sat down to talk in the offices of the Achenbach Foundation where, as a young man, he studied printmaking, and where I learn about the women who mentored him, the books he has always treasured, and the giant waves he still seeks in a life guided by the joy of discovery.

Gwynned Vitello: It all started with drawing, didn’t it? The documentary, Tattoo the World, describes a kid with lots of freedom and energy, and I wonder what you were sketching at that young age?

Ed Hardy: When I was a kid, I drew a lot of ships. I was raised in Corona del Mar, and with the bay, the shipping, the sailboats, I was completely entranced with pirates and old clipper ships, that kind of thing. I still have a copy of a book called Pirate Ships and Sailors that was put out in the early ’50s when I was six, seven or eight. It really showcased the massive ships and pirates with tattoos and all that stuff.

Of course, pirates would have tattoos!

Yeah, it all kind of fit together, and it was great being raised that way, because it was really idyllic in those days, very small and low key. I was about five blocks from the beach, so I grew up in the water.

Not monsters or cars? I thought maybe some hot rodding had snuck in.