Cause The Wave: Justin Hampton Art Print - Lava Foil Variant

Lava Foil Variant Art Print: $100
18 x 24
Signed and numbered in a limited edition of only 30 prints.

Limit one per person.
Each poster sold separately.
Shipping to begin December 19th.

"This new poster for #CauseTheWave Pearl Jam Fan Movement, a division of Wishlist Foundation - a Pearl Jam Fan-Run Nonprofit..., is revisiting of one of my very favorite images I’ve ever drawn; my 2006 poster for Wishlist Foundation’s Crohn's & Colitis Foundation fundraiser celebrating the Pearl Jam concert in Melbourne, Australia.

In approaching the 2006 project, I thought about making the image a geographic poster with some iconic landmark or national symbol. I thought of the Sydney Opera House and skyline, crocodiles, koala bears, kangaroos, deadly snakes or sharks. Although they’re all amazing in their own unique way, I came across an image that I had previously seen before, but this time it really moved me. It was a stunning image of the giant monolith in the Northern Territory of Australia known as Uluru in the original native language. It was later re-named Ayers Rock by surveyor William Gosse in honor of the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. It was a sunset photo and it was breathtaking.

I read how the location was a sacred site for the original Aboriginal people. I then looked further into the first ancestors of the continent and was mystified. My mind was filled with wonder reading about their belief in ‘The Dreamtime,’ which is their spiritual source. I looked at their amazing rituals, dances, body painting and belief in spirit animals and music with their wind instrument called the didgeridoo. I knew I wanted to make a poster about this culture.

In the image I created, I have two native Aboriginal men playing the didgeridoo and performing a song about their spirit animals with an ancestor of theirs looking on. I made an art print version of this poster the following year in 2007 called ‘Dreamtime’ and added more spirit animals coming from the didgeridoo. It’s the only poster of my own that I have in my bedroom. I rise in the morning and go to bed looking at it every day.

I had been thinking about revisiting that theme for some time and then Wishlist Foundation recently reached out and asked if I would like to design another poster for them. With the name of this charitable event being ‘Cause the Wave,’ an image of a surfer ‘shooting the tube’ instantly came to mind. Looking for a potential connection, serendipitously I read that Aboriginals were one of the world’s original surfers. They body surfed and stood upright on a shallow narrow canoe and surfed while fishing and diving. This tradition has endured into the 21 century with modern surfing and gives their riders a connection with the ocean and history of their ancestors. Australia has world class surfers and is a hotspot for any world traveling surfer both professionally and recreationally.

I love how this piece turned out and will make a great companion piece for the ‘Dreamtime’ print as well as my original Pearl Jam inspired poster. It’s wild how full circle this is and how seamlessly it came together. It’s been 13 years since the first incarnation and I’m pleased to announce the new print benefiting EB Research Partnership. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do." ~Justin Hampton