{"id":559,"date":"2018-05-27T09:29:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-27T14:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/?p=559"},"modified":"2018-05-27T10:11:27","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T15:11:27","slug":"lucas-beaufort-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mtlmediagroup.com\/loveskatemag\/www\/?p=559","title":{"rendered":"Lucas Beaufort Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucas Beaufort is not the kind of guy who listen to the others to pursuit is own dream. It’s probably the secret potion for his positive energy.
\nI spent an afternoon with Lucas talking about his beginning in art, his last years of work, his painting and what he loves in Montreal.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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You started selling ads in a French skate magazine, how did you experience this?
\n<\/b><\/span>Basically, I went to school for marketing and my high school friend, Sebastien Zanella, asked me to come work with him to develop a magazine. In the very beginning, I did not sell ads. He put me in something called \u00abCapsule Creation\u00bb, and I sold advertising tools like banners, stickers, etc. We made big boards of stickers, with a quarter for the mag and the rest for the customers who paid for our stickers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The guy who was selling ads, I saw him doing it, and he wanked a lot. I saw him all day on the excel chart, and I did not see too much on the phone. For me it seemed to be a difficult job, because each time he came back like; “It doesn\u2019t work, it’s difficult.”<\/span><\/p>\n

For me it was the next step, I sell stickers, and then they will put me in ad selling.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mag was called “Desillusion Mag” which means “disillusion in English, did you have any during this period?
\n<\/b><\/span>Completely! I had some, especially in the early days, because at the beginning it was trash.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I brought home the magazine, and I said to my mum “look I have an interview”. I showed my mother the dirty pornstar interviews, I’m crazy.”<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

There was a kind of playmate
\n<\/b><\/span>It was me who was doing the interviews, he offered me that, it was funny. I had a column in the mag, it was me who was interviewing pornstars. When I brought home the magazine, and I said to my mum “look I have an interview”. I showed my mother the dirty pornstar interviews, I’m crazy. And my mother, who like all mothers accept what their son does, and said to me, “It’s quite good, frankly, but there are still some spelling errors”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The disillusions, I had them at the beginning because the magazine was really badly perceived, and nobody understood us.<\/span><\/p>\n

When people paid for Desillusion Mag, it was really a disillusion, a real shit! I had it in the beginning, but after that it was blurred because after we went from the stage of “we do not want you” to “we want to work with you”.<\/span><\/p>\n

No skate brands wanted to talk to us, but I had to make cash, so I sold the ad to the local tattoo artist, the butcher from below. The development was crazy.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not like this, it’s been 10 years that we work with DC, you call them and you take care of that, no I beat the thing. I had the disillusion at the beginning because no one loved us.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How did you start creating your characters?
\n<\/b><\/span>These characters heave always been with me. I live with them since I was little. They tickled my feet, they scared me, I did not know, I had nightmares scouring. And at 26 years old, I started to painted randomly. I was still working at Desillusion Mag and took care of advertising. One day I drew something and I posted it on Facebook, and the guys in the mag said “damn, you draw? “. People put you in a box, you sell advertising, you can\u2019t be an artist.<\/span><\/p>\n

You don\u2019t step out of frame!
\n<\/b><\/span>Exactly. Initially the guys in the industry told me “what are you doing? It’s not for you.\u2019\u2019 It takes time to change mentality, and now everyone sees me as an artist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not as an ad seller.
\n<\/b><\/span>Voila! I started very late at 26, and when I made my first shots, all the nightmares I had disappeared slowly. These monsters that I had in mind, they spent 26 years telling me “you have to draw”.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a very beautiful image! You started this “redo” trend on skateboard mag covers, how did it start?
\n<\/b><\/span>It was an accident, I am from the generation of the paper magazine. I bought thousands, I spent all my cash in it. I had tons and tons of mags at home. The first time I painted on a cover was because I was bored. I was on my desk, I sent emails to Quicksilver. There was this cover of Vice Magazine.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Who comes originally from Montreal.
\n<\/b><\/span>Exactly! There was this cover with a big open mouth, only the mouth. I started drawing on it and I loved it. I took the Vice email inside the mag and sent them to me. I received an email 2 days later saying “dude it’s really cool, can I share it? Do you want a subscription? “. I answer him yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I turn around, and I say “oh shit”, there are piles and piles of skate mags. That gave me the idea to do it on skate mags, which I did one by one. I was completely unknown, I started drawing before having Instagram. When I started drawing on the skate covers, I had like 300 followers.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day I got lucky, I always kept sending the redo covers to Transworld, they decided to make me a “shout out”. I’ll always remember, I was in Utah, and it’s like I hit the jackpot, with the cover of Ryan Gallant on the clipper ledge backside kickflip noseblunt. I didn’t know that they posted the cover, so I updated and I had 50 more followers, I updated again, 80, I update again, 100. In the evening I had like 4000 followers. Something that no longer exists, even if a 3 million account shouts you out.<\/span><\/p>\n

“These monsters that I had in mind, they spent 26 years telling me “you have to draw”.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

You have to be called Will Smith to have 15 million followers in one day.
\n<\/b><\/span>It did a good job, the other medias saw Transworld do it, so they did the same. This “redo” cover project quickly changed me from a nobody to 20,000 followers, and after, the idea was launched.<\/span><\/p>\n

That’s how I rediscovered that the guy from Desillusion Mag was the one who made the redo covers, I saw the covers pass but I did not make the connection at first.
\n<\/b><\/span>I had to paint more than 1500.<\/span><\/p>\n

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When you painted your covers, did you wait a moment before posting on Instagram?
\n<\/b><\/span>No, I posted them directly, and I did not earn followers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I posted them on Facebook, and one day a friend asked me if I did not have Instagram, and I told him, it’s boring I have to start all over again. I had my facebook with 5000 Followers. And he said yes but it’s cool, I told him but I do not want to start again as soon as there is a new social network. It’s annoying to start all over again.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I do it anyway. And today my Facebook around 7000 followers, and Instagram I have 65000 followers. I thank him a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n

You’re a real fan of skate mags, what’s your favorite cover?
\n<\/b><\/span>My favorite cover I painted it, but I think my work did not serve the photo. This is the cover of Blabac, with Eric Koston in backside noseblunt on Hubba Hideout in San Francisco. Which was the cover of the year of all the magazines, by Transworld. It was a special photo issue. I do not remember what I did, but I was not satisfied.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are you going to do a “redo” of your “redo” cover?
\n<\/b><\/span>Yes it would be good. It’s not my favorite redo cover, but it’s my favorite cover.<\/span><\/p>\n

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You’ve produced your excellent skate magazine documentary, approaching some of the most influential people in the industry. How long does the shoot last?
\n<\/b><\/span>Before talking about how long it took, I received big love for filming. People who write me emails of at least 75 lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

People understood me, I did it for the love of paper and skateboarding in general. For me it was dream project to meet these people.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a bit of an excuse to meet these people, finally.
\n<\/b><\/span>That was the excuse, I wanted to sit down with Muska, or meet Marc Johnson. I grew up with them, I had Marc Johnson’s A-Team when I was little, and I told myself that I would never meet him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The day I met him, something extraordinary happened with the emotion in the interview, the whole interview was like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

You never thought these people would accept to do that documentary.
\n<\/b><\/span>Never, no! But it was too intense. It took me, 2 years, start to end. The idea, the filming and editing. It was a lot of tears.<\/span><\/p>\n

From you?
\n<\/b><\/span>Yes from me too, the emotion that I have when I present the film in Los Angeles. I did not make any money to make this movie. I had some money for hotel, and travel, etc. But the wealth that I had on this film, I never had a thing like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

What I lived, with Giovanni Reda on the back of a rotten truck during Tampa Pro, and with Skin Phillips in Florida, the emotion I had with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do not want to live in the past because I want to make new movies. I started a new movie, it’s on stand-by for now, because after Devoted. When you feel that you are light years from what I did, fuck it.<\/span><\/p>\n