TEDDY KELLY Teddy Kelly, 27, from Mazatlan, Mexico, now lives and creates in Southern California. Presently calling Costa Mesa home, he has immersed himself in the heart of the action sports industry and a globally-dominant-creative-region. As a young boy, Teddy's early influences were cartoons and animation, especially Disney's early black and whites. With his growing interest to create, he then started making his own storylines and comics of popular cartoon characters for his own fulfillment and enrichment. As he and his friends grew, so did there interests; as a teenager he found himself being influenced by what were then America's action sport lifestyles: surfing and skateboarding. It was at this point that street/urban Art became apparent to him, the illustrative qualities comparable to that of the cartoons he has been so fond were now being combined with styles similar to that of the graffiti he was seeing on the streets. It was something new, something expressive, and now it was on the products and advertisements that were associated with action sports. Although, he enjoyed surfing and skating, he continued to dream about Art constantly. Realizing early on that he was interested in Art, he would dream about one day becoming an artist. He was and is a "Magico”: a man with a dream. He has had the right dream. Over the last few years his hopes of becoming an Artist started to become a reality for Teddy. He went on to college in the States for Fine Art, and took an internship at Disney in Orlando, while working part time. It was at the Disney studios that he saw the "process” that he would become so very attracted to: the sketches, color schemes, painting, editing, and revisions. It is this level of discipline that Teddy feels differentiates art from Fine Art. He feels that Fine Art must be a process, a thought or an idea one develops. Returning to San Diego to finish school, he met Charles Glaubitz, a professor at the time who served as mentor and helped Teddy become the artist he so desired to be. Inviting him to assist on an instillation in Madrid the two began working together, and there has been no looking back for Teddy since then. Furthermore, Teddy has recently gained a lot of momentum with his career. Clearly sharing aspirations and affections of Art and sport, as well desires to change consciousness, Teddy has recently signed with Volcom Clothing to represent as a featured Artist. In addition, he participated in creating Featured Artist edition New Balances for the 2006 X Games, as well producing a limited series of skate decks for Puro Gallo Skateboard Co. and most notably, the Mexican Government has recently asked Teddy to be a representative of the Arts and Culture in Mexico. With that said, one should continue to pay attention to what he is involved with, as there are some big things developing in the Art world in which Teddy will be playing a very significant roll in. -Justin Ruiz