Mike Smith frontside Smith Grind in Palos Verdes (1985) photographed by Ithaka Darin Pappas

Mike Smith frontside Smith Grind in Palos Verdes swimming pool (1985) photographed by Ithaka Darin Pappas

An exclusive one-week only exhibit entitled "Surf Skate Roots Rock" featuring Dogtown and So Call Legends Street will open Saturday July 8th at 2350 Porter Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. Musical acts will include; His Eyes Have Fangs (Tony Alva, Ray Barbee, Rachel Anne Rainwater), The Rude Z-Boyz (Chuck and Jerry And, Horny Toad Band, DJ Samurasta (Bennet Harada), DJ Dash. Visual artists exhibiting are: CR Stecyk III, Skip Engblom, Steve Olson, Wes Humpston, Greyson Fletcher, Josh "Bagel" Klassman, Ray Flores, Never, Josh Paskowitz, Corky Carroll, Marty Grimes, Lonnie Toft, Ric Clayton aka RXCX, Jayme Burtis, George Wilson, Matt Wesson, Gregg Smith, Grant and Chris Rohloff, Kid Caviar, Tim and Kelly Jackson, Mark "FunCrime" Munski, Steve and Jeff Shelp, Tonan Ruiz, Geri Lewis, Ithaka Darin Pappas, Pat Conlon, Bart Saric, Sean Strain, Aaron Murray, Risk, Susanne Melanie Berry, Rachel Anne Rainwater, Alan Scott. Event produced by: Alan Scott, Josh "Bagel" Klassman, Dan Spillane.

Dogtown & So Call Legends Exhibit "Surf Skate Roots Rock"

An exclusive one-week only exhibit entitled "Surf Skate Roots Rock" featuring Dogtown and So Call Legends Street will open Saturday July 8th at 2350 Porter Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. Musical acts will include; His Eyes Have Fangs (Tony Alva, Ray Barbee, Rachel Anne Rainwater), The Rude Z-Boyz (Chuck and Jerry And, Horny Toad Band, DJ Samurasta (Bennet Harada), DJ Dash. Visual artists exhibiting are: CR Stecyk III, Skip Engblom, Steve Olson, Wes Humpston, Greyson Fletcher, Josh "Bagel" Klassman, Ray Flores, Never, Josh Paskowitz, Corky Carroll, Marty Grimes, Lonnie Toft, Ric Clayton aka RXCX, Jayme Burtis, George Wilson, Matt Wesson, Gregg Smith, Grant and Chris Rohloff, Kid Caviar, Tim and Kelly Jackson, Mark "FunCrime" Munski, Steve and Jeff Shelp, Tonan Ruiz, Geri Lewis, Ithaka Darin Pappas, Pat Conlon, Bart Saric, Sean Strain, Aaron Murray, Risk, Susanne Melanie Berry, Rachel Anne Rainwater, Alan Scott. Event produced by: Alan Scott, Josh "Bagel" Klassman, Dan Spillane.

UMBILICUS (127 Japanese navel portraits) by Ithaka Darin Pappas 1992

"UMBILICUS" (the Tokyo  belly-button project)

by artist, Ithaka Darin Pappas 

______________________________________

"UMBILICUS" by Ithaka Darin Pappas (Japanese belly-button project - 1992) @photographer_ithaka.d.pappas *To schedule this exhibit at a museum or gallery - or for merchandising inquiries, please contact ithaka.official@gmail.com

Although originally conceived in 1988, it wasn’t until the summer of 1992, while briefly living in Japan, that Ithaka Darin Pappas began and completed his photographic project UMBILICUS, a collection of one-hundred and twenty-seven black and white navel portraits. During a period of two months, Ithaka combed the streets of Tokyo is search of willing belly-button subjects.

However, photographing in the light of day, sometimes in the middle of public squares and parks filled with thousands of people, did not prove to be an easy task. Japanese people were quite shy when asked to show their navels in public to a stranger, further complicated by the fact that the photographer was a Gaijin (foreigner).

For this reason some sessions were held in the subjects’ homes or offices after first meeting them in public. Regardless, because of the high rejection rate (10-20 refusals for every one acceptance), sometimes it would take an entire day just to complete the belly-button portrait of only one or two subjects. In addition to the Japanese majority of navels photographed, a percentage of outsiders were also included. These individuals were from Brazil, China, Denmark, England, Germany, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United States. Subject ages ranged from three to ninety-six. In addition to the Japanese majority of navels, a percentage of outsiders were also included. People from Brasil, China, Denmark, England, Germany, Malaysia, Pakistan, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and the United States. Says Ithaka, “I didn’t photograph tourists for the project, but only actual residents of Tokyo.The foreigners who participated, mostly in their 20s-40s, were all living full-time in Tokyo and held a diverse spectrum of jobs from dishwasher to scientist. Among the Japanese subjects - I photographed the navels of children as young as three (as well as those of their parents) and elderly people too, one in his late 90's. The end result of UMBILICUS wasn’t only a study of human anatomy, but in actuality, concluded in becoming an anthropological observation of Tokyo’s population in 1992."

UMBILICUS was published for the first time in January 1993 in the Japanese edition of the world-renowned fine art photography quarterly called Déja-Vu (Issue #11), the same issue that photographic legends Inose Kou, Frederick Sommer and Nobuyoshi Araki appeared. Other international magazine appearances of UMBILICUS soon followed. In 1995, the rock group Flood (signed to the Portuguese label, União Lisboa) chose images from UMBILICUS to appear on the front and back cover of their debut album, Despertar.

In 1996, the San Francisco culture magazine Speak featured Ithaka’s UMBILICUS as their cover-story. The cover itself (designed by world-famous graphic artist Martin Venesky) was considered controversial, causing the magazine to be returned by many of their distributors. It was the worst-selling issue in the magazine’s history.

Also in 1996, UMBLILICUS was exhibited at Lisbon’s Instituto Português do Juventude, with selected images printed as large as two-meters wide and toned with Ithaka’s trademark deep blues. Later in 1998, UMBILICUS was shown at Galeria Zé dos Bois (ZDB) in Lisbon, as part of Ithaka's larger photographic exhibit entitled, Quality Time. #bellybuttons #photography #ithakadarinpappas ________________________________________________________________ Ithaka is represented by WOA-Way Of Arts (Portugal) and Coffin Alley Gallery (US)

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Photo: Ithaka Darin Pappas © 2018

Note: These images are not Public Domain, it is Necessary to acquire authorization

thru my myself ithaka.official@gmail.com or my representatives at the Tack Artist Agency Group in Los Angeles before reproducing in print, online or merchandising ... thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12579280/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1

Inspiring photographers: Shihachi Fujimoto, Bruce Gilden Hisae Imai, Takeji Iwamiya, Akira Komoto, Motoichi Kumagai, Seiji Kurata, Michiko Matsumoto, Aizō Morikawa, Eiichi Moriwaki, Tadayuki Naitoh, Kiyoshi Nishiyama, Yoshino Ōishi, Kōji Satō, Tokihiro Satō, Bukō Shimizu, Mieko Shiomi, Teikō Shiotani, Raghubir Singh, Yutaka Takanashi, Toyoko Tokiwa, Haruo Tomiyama, Kansuke Yamamoto 

ΣΥΝΕΝΤΕΥΞΗ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΟΑΜΕΡΙΚΑΝΟ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΟ ITHAKA DARIN PAPPAS, ΠΟΥ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΣΕ ΠΡΩΤΟΣ ΤΟ 1988 ΤΟ HIP HOP ΣΥΓΚΡΟΤΗΜΑ N.W.A.

ΣΥΝΕΝΤΕΥΞΗ ΜΕ ΤΟΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΟΑΜΕΡΙΚΑΝΟ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΟ ITHAKA DARIN PAPPAS, ΠΟΥ ΦΩΤΟΓΡΑΦΙΣΕ ΠΡΩΤΟΣ ΤΟ 1988 ΤΟ HIP HOP ΣΥΓΚΡΟΤΗΜΑ N.W.A.

https://www.athensvoice.gr/culture/photography/641642_oi-thrylikes-fotografies-ton-nwa-apo-ton-ithaka-darin-pappas

https://imageclublimited.com/ithaka-darin-pappas
https://thehundreds.com/blogs/content/ithaka-interview
Ithaka Darin Pappas began experimenting with his father's 35mm and medium format film cameras as early as age five. He started assisting professional photographers immediately after high school and within a year began publishing much of his own work. Perhaps the most published commercial photographic works by Ithaka Darin Pappas, are his early archival images of the influential Los Angeles Gangsta rap group N.W.A.. Pappas worked for their West Coast record label Priority Records between 1988 and 1991 and documented almost the entire lifespan of the group, from their obscure South Central beginnings to their meteoric rise to controversial super-stardom..

Annenberg photo exhibit Contact High featuring rare Eazy-E Photograph extended until August 25th

Due to popular demand, The Annenberg Space for Photography's exhibit Contact High: A Visual History of Hip Hop which was curated by Vikki Tobak, creator of the best-selling book that the exhibit is based upon. The exhibit has creative direction by Fab 5 Freddy. The museum has received over sixty-thousand visitors in just three months.

Among the one-hundred and forty historical images in the show, are extremely rare photographs of Eazy-E by Ithaka Darin Pappas extended until August 25th, 2019.

______________________________________________________
video:

Watch the documentary: "Eazy E & Venice Locals (A Historic Day in the Brotherhood of Hip Hop and Skateboarding)"

#ithaka #contacthigh #annenberg#IthakaDarinPappas #eazye #skateboarding #Thrasher

A photographer who took a famous photo of rapper Eazy-E 30 years ago sued skateboarding magazine brand Thrasher for allegedly reproducing and selling the photo on shirts without his permission.

Ithaka Darin Pappas is an artist known for photographing the emerging West Coast hip-hop culture of the late 1980s. Pappas said he took an “iconic” picture of Eazy-E of the influential rap group NWA “cavorting with local skateboarders in Venice Beach, California” in 1989.

Pappas said he learned in 2017 that Thrasher was selling t-shirts and sweatshirts that included his photograph without his permission. Pappas said that defendant

Trying to remember Ithaka (from blog: Stories from A Closet of Errors)

Trying to remember Ithaka

M. bought this dress Monday morning (my time zone) and the rest of my day was spent trying to remember what seemed to have been long forgotten.

I can’t remember the last time I wore this dress, but I am sure I wore it during a chilly evening in the summer of 1997 at a concert in Montemor‘s castle. I remember who was with me and the theory that “villages with medieval castles are always cold” but I could not remember who was playing.

Trying to dig up something that you have forgotten to remember from the pre-internet era is not always easy. I tried to google what I did remember. The same artist was also a photographer who, probably in the same year, had an installation called “I could write a book” at Galeria Zé dos Bois in Lisbon.  Inspired by the famous jazz standard, specifically by Dinah Washington’s rendition of it (1955), the installation featured an unmade bed, photos and diary entries and little notes from the time the author lived, in Tokyo because if someone had asked him, he could have written a book.

If they asked me, I could write a book
About the way you walk, and whisper, and look
I could write a preface
On how we met
So the world would never forget

But I did forget and, as the day progressed I felt more and more irritated at not being able to recall the name. Probably C. went with me to Lisbon so I decided to send an email explaining my quasi existential doubt of the day. He thought it was absurd and called me. He had no recollection whatsoever of such installation he most probably did go but couldn’t remember. We also saw this same guy at Labirintho, I said. Remember that? We went with another friend who got drunk and almost in trouble. Remember that? I even remember where we had parked the car and that we drove away and Cake’s Fashion Nugget was playing. He could not remember anything at all. It seems like we have done really interesting stuff together in the 90s, though.

By 8 pm I could recall some Greek connection and my Google search was “Californian musician, Greek ancestry, living in Lisbon in the 90s”. There it was an article about “the greatest Portuguese talents of the 90s”, about the great “unknown”, groundbreaking talent of Portuguese Pop/Rock and the growing popularity of Dance and Hip-Hop scenes. Finally Darin Pappas, aka Ithaka Darin Pappas aka Korvowrong and the album “Stellafly”, the most powerful and consistent national registry edited in 1997. That might help explain why I seemed to have travelled across the country to hear him even if now it doesn’t really make much sense.

But then again, C.P. Cavafy’s IthaKa is the conclusion that it’s never about getting there but always about the search, as long as you understand what the Ithakas mean.

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

I texted the name and sent it to C. “wtf, who remembers that” was the answer. Right.

Now, the material trigger for all this is on its way to another hemisphere and I hope it will continue to inspire random thoughts, impromptu travels, silly theories and becomes someone else’s story.

https://a-closet-of-errors.com/2017/07/26/trying-to-remember-ithaka/

FOLLOW: https://a-closet-of-errors.com

https://www.publico.pt/1999/09/10/jornal/os-maiores-talentos-portugueses-dos-anos-90-123587

So Get Up (beamed down from outer space)

So Get Up (satellite radio). It's surreal, to say the least, to hear my own voice & lyrics being beamed down from outer space via satellite radio (to California the homeland of the writer and vocalist) knowing millions of people who know this song have absolutely NO idea where and who this manifesto originates from. To the multitude of plagiarists who have used my work without credit and pay, who disrespect the presence of a human element on a dance track (primarily created by software generated beats). I beg of you, if you're so great, please PLEASE release So Get Up as an instrumental and see how far it goes [][][] The end of the earth is upon us. Pretty soon it’ll all turn to dust. So get up. Forget the past. Go outside and have a blast. Go a thousand miles in a jet airplane. Go out of your mind go insane. To a place you never been before. Eat ice cream our you’ll lick the floor. 'Cause, the end of the earth is upon us. Pretty soon it’ll all turn to dust. Goodbye my friends. Goodbye world. I’ll see you in the next life [][][][][][][][] Written (& vocalized) by Ithaka Darin Pappas ©1993 [][][] Note: 1200 musical compositions using Ithaka's original vocal poem have been recording during the last two and a half decades recorded by: Cosmic Gate, Jay Dabhi, Armin van Buuren, Armin van Buuren México, Technoboy, Zatox, Tuneboy, Meat Katie, FuturePlays, Maik Ibane, Pagano, Samir Kuliev, Razat, Micromakiиe, Gu'Brian, Trolley Snatcha, DJ & Liveact cab.thomas, Atmozfears, Dani Sbert, Igor Carmo, Koozah, Damien Blaze, Carloshp, Heatbeat, Hardwell, Plusculaar, DJ Mike Steventon, Andrea_Doria, Dino Lenny, Steve Hill, Technikal, Hardstyle Connection, DJ Maziano, Phunk Investigation, Dj Kryst-Off Aka Zornéus, AlexBass, Mowree, MERT YUCEL Miss Kittin, K-TraxX, Fatboy Slim, Derek Marin - Derek M, Mole Listening Pearls [][][] So Get Up 25th Anniversary

https://www.discogs.com/artist/468212-ITHAKA

Rare photos of Eazy E by Ithaka Darin Pappas at 2017 Photoville, Brooklyn

[Contact High: Hip-Hop’s Iconic Photographs and Visual Culture]

Rapper, Eazy E skateboarding in Venice Beach, California Feb. 24th 1989 - photographed by:Ithaka Darin Pappas

Presented by
Contact High with support from Mass Appeal and Invictus Black

Curated by
Vikki Tobak; Associate curator: Syreeta Gates

“Contact High” spotlights the photographers who have played critical roles in bringing hip-hop and music culture imagery onto the global stage. Photographers share their era-defining stories’ iconic images, what legendary street photographer Henri Cartier Bresson called ‘The Decisive Moment’. “Contact High” offers a rare glimpse into the creative process and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the imagery that shaped hip-hop and music visual culture. Getting access to the original and unedited contact sheets, we see the ‘big picture’ visual legacy being created. Contact sheets let you look directly through the photographer’s lens and observe all of the other shots taken during these legendary moments.
Hip-hop and rebel cultures have always been about self-definition, especially when it comes to visuals and style. For artists, that one iconic pose, press shot or album cover would play a major role in shaping them into icons by any means necessary—skills, style, swagger, bravado and visuals. Today, the way we digest and create cultural imagery has radically changed. Today’s visual landscape is haphazardly shaped from every direction. The contact sheets reveal how photographers shaped the evolution of a visual cultural phenomenon.
Let’s get analogue for a minute. Contrary to the iPhone’s dominance, film is not dead. In fact, there’s a whole movement of analogue film photographers hashtag bragging: #FilmIsNotDead #35mm #ishootfilm #analogphotography #analogvibes… the list goes on. In this digital age of Instagram and Photoshop, it’s easy to hide imperfections. Analog film reveals beauty and individuality by exposing imperfection and process. There is individualism and eccentricity in every shot, like the dust and grooves of vinyl records. Photographers typically don’t show their contact sheets. It’s their visual diary. Not every shot worked, in fact, most didn’t. Back when every photo was methodically shot on analog film, the negatives on a roll of film would be contact printed on photographic paper allowing you to see the full range of images that would eventually develop into the ‘money shot’.

ORGANIZATION BIO

“Contact High: Hip-Hop’s Iconic Photographs and Visual Culture” spotlights the photographers who have played critical roles in bringing hip-hop and music culture imagery onto the global stage.
The exhibition encompass more than 40 years of history and celebrates what and how photographers saw as hip-hop evolved into a global force. Coinciding with the publication of “Contact High: Hip-Hop’s Iconic Photographs and Visual Culture” (Clarkson Potter/Penguin Random House) to be published fall 2018.

Source: http://photoville.com/contact-high-hip-hops-iconic-photographs-visual-culture/

Ithaka Exhibit: City Life: Greed, Hunger and Loss

ASAHI EVENING NEWS, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1992

               Fine Arts

City  Life:  Greed,  Hunger and  Loss

By M. Jordan

Special to the Asahi Evening News

   The work now being shown at Galerie YMA in Tokyo, is that of photographer/sculptor, Ithaka.  Although these two mediums seem at first glance to be separate entities, these photos show that the two seem to go hand in hand.  The photographs are a journey into the mysteries of emotions.  When looking at them you cannot help but get caught up into the feelings they conjure; happiness, remorsefulness, confusion unknowingness, mournfulness.

 Ithaka enables the viewer to take a look into the world (perhaps his own hermetic world) of bottled up emotions.  His work is truly personal, his subjects are close friends of his, yet one doesn't feel left out when viewing them.

  Ithaka began assisting photographers at a very young age and shortly thereafter went out on his own.  He has shot photographs for nearly every fashion magazine including, Vogue, Elle and Glamour, and has also shot the record covers for many bands.  The problem for Ithaka was that working specific photograph jobs compromised him from the start.  He began doing sculptures as a way to take a break from the rigors of the job.

   The sculptures used in the photos are cut and restructured surfboards.  All have taken on a new form as well as a new life, displaying the forms of the human body (usually female) as well as Ithaka's own creations.  Before restrictions had been placed on him as to how he could shoot his photos; he had been forced to take a back seat.  Now what he was yearning for was to create his own type of photographs.  He son began to fuse the two mediums, hence coining his own term "sculptography."

   Although Ithaka (Ithaka darin Pappas) was born and raised in Los Angeles, the city proved to have too strong of an impact on his work.  Los Angeles was too overbearing; and he no longer wanted to struggle against the Los Angeles mindset that declares its self to be the center of the globe.  This Los Angeles mindset is perfectly encapsulated in his sculptures shown in this exhibit, entitled "Greed, Hunger, Loss," all representing aspects typical of any metropolis.

   His photos also show the lost feelings that are hard to recover when living in a big city, yet they always remind us of why this loss occurs.  Lying peacefully stretched out in the sand we are mesmerized by the serenity of "Joni by the Sea," yet down below the rocky cliff reality sets in showing what the city is all about--we see a Mercedes and a Lamborghini on the highway below.  Our illusion is shattered and we are immediately pulled back into the present.

 Ithaka 's search for eternal well being has led him to Lisbon, Portugal where he is now based.  Portugal offers him a new outlook on life,.  According to Ithaka, "life here is more simple, when you're in a place like this -- life is about you and the people around you, not the world at large."  One has to wonder where this new exploration will now take him, or us.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Works by Ithaka at Galerie YMA

(03-3562-0007 on Suzurandori in Ginza near Ginza subway station through Oct.7. 

The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

______________________________________________________________________________

"Broken Boards Given New Life As Art" - article in The Orange County Register - 2013

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/art-530385-board-boards.html?page=2

By LAYLAN CONNELLY / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Published: Oct. 9, 2013 Updated: 8:16 p.m.

PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ABOUT ITHAKA

Age: 47

Favorite surf spot: Honolua Bay

Hobbies: Riding bicycles, hiking

Favorite food when in O.C.:Wahoo's Fish Taco

Price of sculptures: $3,000 to $7,000

About making art for a living:"Being an artist for anyone is an uphill battle. Poverty never tasted so sweet, when you're doing what you love to do."

When: 6-9 p.m.

Friday

Where: Hurley headquarters, 1945 Placentia Ave., Costa Mesa

The waves were double overhead, meaty and monstrous.

Darin Pappas started driving down the line of a beautiful right-hander to tuck into the bombing barrel at the Point in Newport Beach near 18th Street, when he took a gnarly wipeout.

“It completely destroyed me and destroyed the board,” he said on a recent day, remembering that fateful surf session in the mid-'80s.

He hobbled from the beach beaten, his board demolished and no longer able to ride.

The surfer had just picked up painting, and as he looked at the trashed board sitting in the corner of his apartment, he had an idea. He picked up his paintbrush and started to transform the surfboard – recycling it from something destined for the dump and turning it into a work of art.

It was just the start for the surfer turned artist – who now goes by the name Ithaka – a three-decade journey that would lead him to live near waves at exotic places around the world, scouring surf breaks for demolished boards to breathe new life into them. Now, the Anaheim native has returned home to Orange County to showcase his art at a show, “Reincarnation of a Surfboard,” on Friday at the Hurley headquarters in Costa Mesa.

“I think it's kind of like returning to my roots in a way,” he said. “It's like a homecoming.”

Like many surfers, it was love at first sight. The then-12-year-old was on a vacation in Hawaii with a friend when he first got a glimpse of surfers taking on Honolua Bay, where guys were getting barreled under 6-foot waves.

“I was like, ‘That's the life for me,'” he remembered thinking.

He immediately sold his drum set and bought his first surfboard, hitting the waves in Newport as much as possible.

As he reached adulthood, he moved to Hollywood, where he was breaking into the art scene as a photographer. Still, he found himself frequently making the long trek to Orange County to surf his favorite waves in Orange County.

After his first recreation of that broken board from his fateful Newport surf session, friends started bringing him their broken boards. He set up a booth at the Venice Art Walk in 1990 to showcase his work.

But he started itching for inspiration elsewhere.

“I found myself in a place where I was not surfing enough. I just wanted to begin exploring the world a bit,” he said.

He lived in Japan for a year, then bought a one-way ticket to Portugal.

“I just made a promise to myself. No matter what the economic level, I was always going to have an interesting life,” he said. “I just went for it. It led to so many things.”

New friends he made along the way knew he was the man to hand off their broken boards to.

“I would have too many boards at times, for sure,” he said.

He had one criterion – they couldn't still be usable as a surfboard.

“I'd rather have some kid ride it,” he said.

He likes boards from the '80s because they are light but thick, and he doesn't feel bad about cutting them up. But earlier models from the '70s basically have to be trashed for him to transform them into art.

“It's potentially a collector's item, anything before that period,” he said. “I think about that really seriously.”

Five years ago, he moved to Brazil and now bounces between there and Orange County. About three years ago he made a radical move about nine hours south of Rio de Janeiro to live out of a studio set in the middle of the jungle.

The nearest surf break is about two miles away and is similar to Huntington, but with “70 percent fewer people and 100 percent more jellyfish.” His neighbors about a mile away are an indigenous tribe who live on the Guarani reservation. There's no Internet, not even a street address.

Being away from civilization helps keep him focused.

“It's very therapeutic,” he said. “I put it on autopilot. It takes concentration, but I'm letting it create itself.”

His friends in the jungle are the sloths, exotic birds and insects, many of which he draws inspiration from for his art.

“It's a totally different experience,” he said. “I'm obsessed with insects right now.”

His obsession can be seen in a sculpture he brought to the Hurley headquarters on a recent day, a big shiny bug with a head, legs and antennae – hardly recognizable as a surfboard in its previous life.

Then there's the blue piece dotted with glistening acrylic jewels called “Amaris,” the name of a star. He got the board from a friend's little brother, and it was so delaminated that it was waterlogged and weighed about 20 pounds. That board was once a popular Al Merrick Fred Rubble model. Then, there's the surfboard that was transformed into a bass guitar.

Each piece takes about six weeks to make, and Ithaka has been able to garner thousands of dollars for his sculptures. He's also drawing attention from the surfing community, recently appearing in the Brazilian edition of the prestigious magazine Surfer's Journal.

He said there's a connection between art and surfing.

“I think surfing in general is helpful creatively. It's always different,” he said. “It's one of the only sporting activities you can do that is especially a different experience every time you do it.”

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com

These are some of the surfboards from artist Ithaka that wil be on display at Hurley headquarters in Costa Mesa Oct. 11 at Hurley in Costa Mesa.

PAUL BERSEBACH, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER