Naples artist gives surfboards a colorful second life

Artist Brandon Bowe’s life has been shaped by creativity and water. After spending nearly a decade as a professional kitesurfer, traveling on wind and waves around the world, it’s no surprise his artistic bent turned toward surfboards as a medium.

The Naples native gives a second life to retired boards, adding to their memories, history and sentiment. He also works with a lighter, flatter version that is easier to use as an art piece. His latest project involves wrapping surfboards with rare rugs from the Middle East and Asia, or with high-resolution images of their intricate woven patterns; a fusion of timeless global textile traditions and contemporary coastal design.

Transforming old surfboards that otherwise would be destined for landfills is a sustainable design trend that has inspired a Surfboard Artists Facebook page. But Bowe takes the concept a step further through a partnership with Authenticity Home, a luxury rug and flooring store owned by Tim Bowers on Lee Ann Lane in the Naples Art District.

“Some of them are originals, and some of them are too big because the pattern design won’t fit on a surfboard,” Bowe says, lifting rugs one by one from a pile. “Some of the patterns fit really well on the surfboards. Others look much better when we capture the whole thing and digitally adjust them.”

When an expensive hand-knotted rug needs to be cut to size for a customer, Bowe takes the leftover portion, shapes it and wraps it around a board, creating a colorful, textured, three-dimensional look.

“This is a rare one because this rug was made before airplanes were invented,” Bowe says of a colorful surfboard covered with part of a 150-year-old antique Turkish rug valued at $250,000.

Most designs, however, are created in Photoshop, allowing Bowe to reproduce intricate woven rugs as high-resolution images. A photo booth at Authenticity Home uses specialized lighting to capture detailed images of the rugs. The image is then printed on canvas and applied to the board.

“If people have rugs they like, we can take their rug into the photo booth and create a custom piece for them,” he says. “We still need to tap more into the surf market.”

Most customers, he added, are beachgoers rather than surfers.

The surfboards are just one aspect of Bowe’s varied arts career, which also includes commercial photography, videography, filmmaking and acrylic and epoxy resin painting, sometimes incorporating textured rocks to mimic coral. He also creates wood-grain-painted surfboards with his father, Gordon, an artist and professional faux finisher whose realistic faux-wood boards are displayed at Naples Art Factory in Mercato.

“We were spending 60 hours or more fixing the boards,” Bowe says. “We needed to start doing more designs, spend less of our time fixing and focus on the actual creative artwork.”

For this project, Bowe’s original surfboard came from SurfCycled, a Costa Rican company that upcycles old surfboards by stripping them down, reusing the foam and shaping new boards.

“We took a template from one of his boards as an outline and then got a couple of well-known surfboard shapers to shape boards by hand for us, so we have a template,” he explains. “People don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a surfboard that might get tossed around and broken. We’re trying to stay more in the gallery art market than the surf market.”

The creations can serve as statement pieces or enhance beach-themed spaces. In addition to wall hangings, a board can transform a coffee table into a one-of-a-kind conversation piece or be hung above a bed as a headboard, as Bowe has done in his own bedroom. He has even considered transforming them into matching lighted nightstands. They also can be paired with beach-inspired accessories, such as shells and starfish.

The boards feature muted antique Persian motifs, bold Indian block prints and colorful Asian-inspired textiles, each with its own cultural story. Every board is hand-shaped, sanded and wrapped to create a unique work of art.

Some clients, however, ask for a board with its own history. Bowe points to the last board he rode professionally.

“That board went to Australia, Ecuador, Peru and the Cayman Islands. It’s been all over. I have videos of me riding it all over the world,” he says. “So, that one’s got a history that matches that rug.”

Each board carries its own story, memories and energy. Prices range from $2,500 to $4,500, while boards with documented surfing histories command higher prices.

To learn more about Bowe and his surfboard creations, visit Authenticity Home or boweartistry.com/shop.