Interview by Colton Webster

Shawn Connolly, and his wife Thuy Nguyen, provided endless inspiration, guidance, and wisdom on what it meant to work with kids in the city when I ran after school skate programming in San Francisco. They were always so welcoming, open, and honest in their advice and I will be forever grateful. They began running clubs around 2006 and since then, SF Skate Club has become a staple of their community, with fundraisers, summer camps, and a welcoming shop space for the kids to come hang year round on Divisadero st. Shawn has been through so much over the last few years, it is beyond admirable to see him carry on and continue to inspire. Colton Webster caught up with Shawn for a quick chat about using art as therapy, living and skating with Parkinsons disease, and more. I (heart) SF Skate Club. – Larry Davis

How’ve you been lately?

I’ve been good, just finished nine weeks of summer skate camp. No injuries for myself or the kids so that’s always good. This was actually my 16th summer doing it. Someone tried to break into the Skate Club van, and somebody stole my car, but no physical injuries, just some hurt feelings.

Wait, someone stole your car?

Yeah it was gone for three weeks, it’s all good, it just made it so I didn’t have to work around the street cleaning schedule. But I got it back. It was all intact so that was good. Honestly I don’t know how they got into it. It was crazy.

Glad to hear it, you said no injuries, so you’ve been skating with the kids right?

Yeah I’ve been easing back into it pretty slowly. I had brain surgery on March 23rd so the skating I’ve been doing is pretty much stuff I know I’m not gonna eat shit on. I kind of push it where I can but I’m not trying to make a situation worse right now. I feel like we’re all in that position, trying to see what we can get away with, you know? That aspect hasn’t changed at all.

So mostly just curbs and flat, keeping it small?

Exactly! Actually I’ve been enjoying skating at skateparks because the skatepark does all the work for you. You just drop in and pump.

What parks are you skating?

I’ve been going up to Hilltop and a little bit of Treasure Island. They’ve done a really great job out there.

When did the Parkinson’s get to the point where it affected your skating?

On my 42nd birthday I did 42 tricks on flat and that was when I kind of got the feeling it was closing in on me. I had to start saying goodbye to some stuff. Some of the stuff that I’d always had was a lot more work than I remembered, but not for any real reason. Physically I was fine but my timing was off, like an inner balance thing. That’s probably the most frustrating part about having this. In my mind I can see one hundred percent clear how to do every trick, but I just can’t do it physically you know?

Did you use painting as an outlet for when you weren’t able to skate at the level you were at before?

Well I never really painted until shortly after my wife’s passing, I think that’s really when I started to paint using canvases. I used to write a lot and used to not really understand what Instagram was for. I used to make these posts that were really long, and I’d edit the thing to make sure it was perfect. I totally lost my ability to express myself through writing around that time. I just gravitated towards the artwork because depending on my movement at the time, I could kind of make it work for me either way. I utilized dyskinesia, which is when you have too much motion that you can’t control it. I would channel that motion to work for me even though my shit would be kind of messy. I go from extremes: too much movement to not enough. It’s very frustrating, but if I wasn’t moving enough I could hone in on details, and when I was what I call, “ape shit” I could paint with more broad movements. My work definitely fluctuates between detailed to super splashy. Sometimes it’ll happen when I work on a single piece, I might go through all those stages.

Do you have a piece in mind that’s an example of that?

I did a picture of Muhammad Ali. One of my coworkers gave me this really big canvas, and I was like, fuck I’ve gotta make something good. I had to make something motivating for me to put on my wall. I was definitely going through a tough time and it took me five days.

Any exhibits coming up?

Yeah I have an art show in November at Lowkey Skateshop so I’m excited about that. It’s gonna be all Tenderloin influenced because I lived on Geary and Hyde for 10 years. That’s more my neighborhood than anywhere. Might do something like a cracked out Sesame Street or something, not sure yet. The shop’s really small so I’m gonna challenge myself to cover all their walls. I think I can do it.