Pearce had just returned from Hawaii where she was studying art and says the vistas of oceans, mountains and tropical forests predominated her board art for America Surfboards. “I had done some painting there so I had this tropical pal-ette in my mind,” Pearce says. The board company’s resi-dent artist, her artwork graced almost 99 percent of the boards made. Acrylic paint and pen and ink were the primary mediums Pearce used to paint dragons and Yes album covers, perfectly barreling waves, palm tress and the occasional allur-ing woman. “I would use acrylic paint right on the lamination coat. Using it like a canvas, it adhered pretty well to the fiber-glass,” she says. “Then the sand coat would go over that and I would draw the pen and ink on it so it added a dimension to it.” In the mid-1970s a local economic slump led Pearce to California where she also drew board art for Infinity Surfboards and Jacobs Surfboards. Locally, Pearce says she is always thrilled to see the few America Surfboards that remain as wall hangers. “I am amazed about how good of shape their owners kept them in for so long and I just think it is awesome that they have kept the board primarily because of the art,” she says. Like the blanks produced at America Surfboards, Will Allison’s hand-shaped boards are the canvas for Southport native Thomas Hughes Jr. and Clark Hipolito of Raleigh. june 2014 Southport native Thomas Hughes Jr. with one of his favorite board art pieces, a triptych depicting underwater and terrestrial life in the Hawaiin islands. 40 WBM
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