CANVAS
Satan
Technolog
SAFETY FIRST
TOMY
KEN SIGA FOOS
Story and photos: Adam Wallacavage
THE IMPRINT OF TRUE
NEVER DIES!
Art
Roll McD
destroy
Welcome
was doing fine except for Satan
He's after me all the time to do wrong,
SIGATOOS
The best thing about skateboarding is that it is a
club that connects like minded thinkers together in so
many different realms beyond just rolling around on a
piece of wood with wheels. Skateboarding as a life
experience enables musicians, writers, and artists to
explore the world and experience life in a much fuller
and unique sense than if they never skated at all and
instead had to start out in their endeavors
searching, many times in vain, for peers
who shared the same interests and ideas.
To me, Ken Sigafoos was a legend had
often heard of his "skate hell days trav
elling the country and setting up camp in
places like Tampa, Clearwater Ocean City,
MD Cedar Crest, the Slug ramp and Cheap
Skates in PA. Surviving by selling skate
products given to him by his sponsors or
by drawing custom T-shirts for ramp locals
with a Sharpie pen. Ken left his mark
everywhere, from skate shop/park logos
stickers, shirt and board graphics, hand-
painted decks rines, tattoos and punk
rock album covers, to doodles en ramps,
notebooks cars bedroom walls and any
thing else that met his pen. Like his draw-
ings. Ken skated with the same uniqueness and an
mation with a clean, creative style, with maneuvers
such as strangely contorted eggplants, inverts and
laybacks, loud lien to tails and weird lip tricks, F
met Ken on the tail end of his pro skateboarding
career, which was lucky for me, because it was right
before he stopped going to the skatepark, and I
would never have been able to find him after that
After going pro for a few years. Ken dropped out of
the spotlight and only skated by himself or with his
brother, Jay Sigafonus, another East Coast legend, until
finally diverting all of his attention to painting
Completely self-taught, Ken learned to master painting
with oils and soon it became an obsession. He rarely
left his room or his house and only went into town
to buy paints and canvas or to go thrift shopping
It was around this time that I started visiting Ken at
his house to see his work and document it for him.
Each time I came up. I was even more overwhelmed
than the last by the amazing imagery and huge
amount of paintings he produced. He worked like a
madman, painting over beautiful works simply
because he had run out of fresh canvas.
I wondered about what he was doing I wondered
why he produced such amazing works only to stack it
up in the garage and have it not be seen by anyone. I
thought of him as a "pop folk artist, painting with a
drive from some unknown power in a pop art style.
while ignoring the contemporary art
world and most of popular culture itself.
His main inspirations seemed to come only
from what he found in the house such as
junk mail, old magazines, newspapers and
had cable shows. I sometimes thought he
was being naive of the outside world, stay
ing in and painting all of the time, but
after thinking about all of the things be had
done in his travels, I started to realize
where he was coming from. With all of his
years of skating and being on the road. Ken
was holding in a bank of inspiration and
motivation from his experiences. Painting
was the outlet and now it is only natural
that he paints so much
Nowadays, Ken still lives in Easton and
still paints a lot, but his hermit stage has
passed, and he's become more involved in the Easton
scene, having art shows, painting murals and signs for
clubs and other businesses, as well as drawing T-shirts
for Scum, Gouge, and his own project. Hell
If you would like to write Ken or get some informa
tion on his Hell project, write him at PO Box 376.
Easton, PA, 1804, and don't forget to send stamps
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT
sigaloos
Curious and Ken at home in his bedroom/studio.
Welcome, oil on canvas, 24 X 36", 1994. Ken does not use an airbrush, it is just his way of blending that
makes the paint appear that way
I Was Doing Fine, oil on canvas, 24 X 36 1992. Many of Ken's paintings deal with disturbing news stories
often blended with contrasting or distorted images.
Untitled unfinished), oil on canvas, 18 X 60", 1994 Inspired from Ken's experiences and friends in NYC, it is
a mix of subconscious and intentional symbolism along with his eye candy" style imagery.
In Touch With Tomorrow, acrylic un cansas, 24 X 36, 1995 Part of the blue series Sometimes when Ken has
an overabundance of one color or is broke and can't afford anything else, he will do a whole series in the
same color scheme.
Giant Size, oil on canvas, 24 X 30", 1992. Ken has a strange obsession, disgust, and fascination with guns.
Often used in satirical settings, they appear in about go of his paintings
Untitled oil on canvas, 36 X 24", 1993. Part of the beige and black series, Ken's skills with a clean black line
show through with this painting.
Ken at Cheapskates around go
14
In Touch with Tomorrow
SIGAFOOS
GIANT SIZE
sigaloos
35