Ventana Fin Artist Project

Ventana Fin Artist Project

Applications are closed. Follow us on Instagram @ventanasurfboards to see what the amazing artists create and check out the final pieces here.


Our handplane artist project was a success, so we're doing it again but with fins!

We're selecting twenty, United States-based artists to embellish a Ventana fin on both sides with their art, and we'll be sharing the sales revenue with each artist. At least two of the artists selected will be high school students or younger.

Each fin is 9 inches long and made from Alaskan yellow cedar offcuts from the Western Flyer boat restoration project. Some of the proceeds from the sale of the fins will be donated to the Western Flyer Foundation to help complete the boat. 

If you're interested, please read the rest of this page and apply using the link at the end. We'll be selecting artists based on a combination of:

  • Your art portfolio

  • Your concept and the degree to which it fits with our brand and brand values 

  • Whether we think the price point will work for our customers

  • Your social media following/engagement

Dates

  • Submission deadline is August 24, 2021.
  • We'll let every applicant know of our decision by August 25, 2021.
  • If you are selected, we will send you a fin by September 1 with a return shipping label. We'll also include a piece of matching scrap wood on which you can practice.
  • You’ll have four weeks to complete your artwork and mail the fin back to us. We must receive your fin by October 1.
  • We’ll then spend approximately six weeks glassing the fins with transparent fiberglass and Entropy Resins bio-based epoxy before putting them on our website for sale.
  • We plan to have them ready in mid-November in time for holiday gift sales. 

Payment

  • We'll price the fin with enough mark up to pay you the amount you've requested in the application for your work.
  • Payment for your work will happen when your fin sells...and we'll do whatever we can to sell it.
  • Depending on the amount of the payment to you, we may be required to send you a 1099 for tax purposes. You will retain ownership of the copyright for any art you create.

Promotion

  • We’ll be promoting your progress and your business on all of our social media and email marketing accounts.
  • All fins will remain on our website even after they sell as a showcase of your work with links to your website and social media accounts.
  • As part of your acceptance, we ask that you post on all your social media accounts at least three work-in-progress pictures and/or videos and one set of photos and/or videos of the completed fin.
  • We also ask that you tag @ventanasurfboards and #ventanafins on all posts. We’ll provide more guidance on the content to use for posting when we send you your acceptance email.

Design Requirements

  • Please put your art on both sides of the fin. Consider the pointed end as "up."
  • Feel free to incorporate paint, charcoal, resin, metal, woodburning, or anything else you'd like. Note that oil paints may not work with our fiber glassing resin, and please keep your art flat/flush with the wood. Anything that sticks out or is "3D" is very difficult to fiber glass.
  • Ocean-inspired artwork is the most relevant for our customer base.
  • We ask that you keep the small Ventana logo visible on the fin. 
  • If you would like to add your logo, feel free, and please sign your piece!
  • Here are examples of what the handplane artists created for our last project.

Got questions? Please email david@ventanasurfboards.com.