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Artist Interview : John Keester (cont.)

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What it was like working for Powell? What was the work environment like?
I signed up just after they moved from downtown to totally remodeled lemon packing plant. (don't you love that?) A really cool facility. The art area was upstairs with big skylights and offices that had the classic northern light for the artists. Fantastic. Tons of room to run around, big area to put the art up and stand back. Once the indoor skate park went in, it was perfect. Towards the end of my tour of duty, things hit a downward spiral so we kept moving to less and less desirable quarters. By the time I left, the art room was half underground in the old screen-printing prep room. Kind of depressing and smelly in comparison to where it started. In short, a great venue but I was there when Powell was doing the downward spiral thing.
What is George like?
Well he can't be all bad; he introduced me to my first Cajun martini, or four, or six. Last thing I remember about that night was how stylin' George looked wearing that martini strainer for a hat. Whew. What a goof. But George always aimed for quality, sometimes to a fault.

What was it like to be around just as Stacy was leaving?

Kind of a drag. I would have liked to work with Stacy more.

Do you skate?

Shit... not seriously anymore. Game art is my life now. I make art for video/computer games. Trapped in front of a computer - send help.

Why the skateboard industry?

Why not? I was skating at every free moment back then. I couldn't get enough. I also had been going back to school to study graphic art and illustraton. I was working as a groundskeeper full time and doing lots of freelance work on the side at the time. Skate Artist? My dream job. Oh yeah, sign me up.