ARTicle With Los Lohbros

Los Lohbros are two brothers, Andy and Tom Lohner, full of passion for snowboarding along with the graphics that go on the actual boards. Austrian-born and Florida-grown, their background has made for some unique individuals that create some rather titilating visuals. Their prefered canvas is a board and you can often cross their paths doing live paintings at events like Metro, Ispo, and Freeze. We had a good ol' sit down with them to see what makes these dudes create, skate, and visually communicate.

Any formal schooling? If so, did it affect your style or direction?
Andy: Formal schooling, yes. For the rest, yes and no, your handwriting is in your blood. It's in everything you do, the way you move, the way you talk, your sprit. The more you practice, the more your personality shines through. Art school is good for learning the technical aspects & history and well worth it!

Tom: I had a really wonderful and inspiring art teacher when I spent half a year as an exchange student in Monterrey, California. She really put a lot of effort in developing my skills and taught me rules of proportion. I think it was necessary to learn that in order to make things appear correct, although they might be far from reality. Other than that, artists like Nicolas Thomas, Vince and Lori Earley are artists who have always inspired me in developing my own style.

Tom transfering the magic from the palette to the canvas.

Do you think there is anything paticurlarly Austrian about your art? How is the Austrian art scene?
Andy: Every place you live in is in your work, I guess. The Austrian art scene, maybe there is one, but I never really got to know it...so maybe there is none. We miss having the specialized media and the exhibit spaces. but it's getting better!

Tom: Anything particularly Austrian about my art, hmmm... Not that I can think of in particular. I think I've always lived and sometimes still live in my own crazy little world. Some Austrian traits you might find in my work is in the courage I have, which was given to me by my parents,. As for the Austrian art scene, there really is a lot of potential out there. I have some friends who astound me with what they do and the funny ideas they come up with every day. The dumb thing about our art scene is that we don't get too much support. I personally think that Austria is a very old-fashioned country which sticks to its worn-out patterns for way too long.


Los Lohbros showing their work in Shoreditch, UK.

Do you turn thoughts into images or do you use images to create thoughts?
Andy: Which came first: the chicken or the egg? Wait, I'm gonna call my mom to help me with that one.

Tom: Super question! Both, I would say! Sometimes things I experience create extreme visuals, so I have to put them down into my sketchbook. It happened to me again just yesterday, when I went into a pub. I saw a local band performing "Rebel Yell" by Billy Idol. In front of me there was a girl with a pink balloon and there it was: a vision in my head. I saw a young woman dressed in black, sitting in a corner writing a letter. The wall was decorated with torn up pink balloons, all in all a very cool and dramatic scene which would be hard to describe in words. So I guess that's the point of why I have to put my thoughts onto paper or onto any other medium. And of course sometimes you see things that absolutely make you think! The same with music!

Do you ever feel your brother has a bit more of a certain skill or characteristic than you? Do you ever feel you got the short end of the stick?

Andy: He definitely passed me skill-wise, his motivation is 24/7. I am only staring at his tail lights, hahaha. It pushes me big time!  It was great growing up with a brother like Tom. He would never bully me and would bring me along when he went to hang around with his friends.

Tom: Andy is wonderful when it comes to typography! I always admire his way of composing letters, words and phrases! Also, ask him to draw or paint anything, and he will get it right! I think he just has a natural sense of understanding function. He is also the one I direct my questions to when I don't understand things in print or web design. But I never felt like I got the short end of the stick in any way. Maybe because our parents taught us to respect each other. This might sound funny or pathetic to some people out there, but my brother was and still is my best friend.

Bros in every sense of the word.

How is that being so close to your sibling at such an old age? From experience I find that very Austrian.
Andy: It's even more Floridian, spending a few years there when we were young the only people we had to play with at first was each other. And yes, we kind of come from a one-horse town, so we had no other choice. No, honestly, it's great. Some people don't get to hang out with their siblings but we get to do that all the time and when it gets too be too much we just do our own thing!

Tom: Of course it can get too much sometimes, but then again we always know when we need a break from each other. Maybe that it is also one of the reasons why I moved to a different place some years ago. But yes, we still get along very well. I would call it very Floridian.

What came first: art or snowboarding/skateboarding? How do they feed of each other?
Andy: Boogie boarding and bodysurfing came first (Florida, 1990, age 5). Snowboarding happened sometime in the late 90's, maybe 96 or 97. It was what I thought came the closest to surfing. Since we couldn't go snowboarding in the summer, skateboarding was the thing to do! When I went to Florida in 2000 I gave surfing a try on an old 70's swallowtail single fin. My dad and I went into the water after a big thunderstrom, he pushed me into the waves. I took off and stood on the second wave, that's when it hit me, I will never forget that moment.

Andy bonking at Loser
River surfing with Andy

Tom: I started skiing and drawing around the same time. Then Andy introduced me to snowboarding many years ago. Skating was something I also adored, but I just didn't have the skills, so I mostly use it as a way to get from point A to point B. I need to work on my skills, all I can do are ollies and some really old-school tricks.

Do you like painting on blank decks and how does that create something different than just a square canvas?
Both: Boards are the best things to paint on since it combines two things that we love, plus it pops a bit more than a regular canvas does. The hard part is deciding what to paint. From a graphical point of view there are endless directions you can take but you need to adapt it to the shape for it to pop. Plus board graphics always stay in your head since they are always under your feet.

Fresh canvases

Tom: I was so terribly fed up with painting on canvases that I was aching to paint on something different. Then Andy got invited to participate in a skateboard art exhibit where he had to decorate or transform a deck into art. That really impressed me, using something that has a purpose attatched to it. The story it tells is so much more than just a plain canvas. After painting on trashed skate decks we collected a bunch of trashed snowboards, which we then turned into the "Wild Painting".

Tell us about the "Wild Painting" massive board series that you have been touring around with recently. Can I buy just one or do I need to buy them all?

Both: Alright, I'm going to try make it short because we could write a whole article on that question: 211 colors, 19 wrecked snowboards, 2 brothers, one adventure! The name of the project is  "Wild painting". We took all the boards, set them up next to each other and painted one big piece across all of them. It shows wild animals coming out of nature, conquering back their territory. My brother and I like to recycle, so we thought we'd show people how to make a difference when it comes to garbage disposal. So as you can see, we turned trash into art. This is pretty trendy nowadays, we are definitely not the first artists to do this.

Close ups of the "The Wild Painting"

The whole thing is not for sale right now, we want it to stay in one big piece. What we're doing at the moment is taking bids. After finishing the tour (date unknown) we will give it to the highest bidder. We are also planning to give a large amount of the money to a charity. I know what people may think: "Every artist donates in order to come off as a good person." But we don't actually really care too much about what others think of us. We are just happy to be sitting in a place where we can change some things. So whether it is giving away some of our income in order to fight pollution or giving to the poor, we are in. In Michael Jackson's words: "Let's make the world a better place" (it's a cheesy cliche but it's what we are trying to do.)

What's up with you guys and animals? Were you guys like little zoo geeks as kids?
Andy: Yeah we are total zoo nerds! We've loved nature since we were kids. As kids we were living out by some creeks in Florida and then in the heart of the Austrian Alps. When you live that close to nature it puts things in perspective and makes us realize we are not the strongest creatures in the the wild.

Tom: I remember that there was a time when I wanted to become a vet, but that was just for a little while. I think I was just trying to impress this girl in my class. Other than that, I just like drawing life in my own way. As kids we never had house pets but had alligators and snakes as neighbors in Florida.

Tom handling the media at the Metro in London

How do you always end up showing your work at snowboard trade shows like Metro and Ispo?
Andy: We just keep our ears and eyes always open as we tumble through the world. They are good places to exchange ideas and always cool to do some live painting.

Tom: People apparently like our work and the things we do, so we keep being asked to attend this type of shows. It's cool to think we can inspire people with our live painting. Our UK shows happened thanks to Sarah Seipahi. We came out for 3 shows, ended up doing 6!

How was presenting your work at Freeze?
Both: We had "The Wild Painting" hanging up at the Desperado Bar, which was just in front of the the kicker. It was a nice three days, doing some live painting with some of our close friends and the FBBB crew artists (Darren John, Two-pence, Vents, Lulu).

Freeze in London

What is the deal with FBBB?
Both: Those guys are like family... I guess we ended up being their long-lost relatives from Austria. They call us Team Austria. They are a good bunch of riders, musicans and artists doing their thing and doing it well! Plus they are always trying to get involved with charities. Big thanks to Sarah, Mikee, Dan, & Aly.

How are companies like FBBB better for snowboarding?
Both: Well, they are actually a collective. If snowboarding would be a body, then big companies would be the flesh and bones and organizations like FBBB would be the heart! Both sides are important, big brands bring the money to the sport to make the gear and put on big events, but without the soul brands the whole thing would not make sense. At the end of the day snowboarding is a soul sport, which you should enjoy with your friends and that is what counts.

Weirdest thing you ever painted on?
Both: Passed-out drunk people!

Snowboard, skateboard, river surf? You can only choose one and why.
Andy: Well, I guess as long as you have an excuse to get your butt out into the fresh air, it's all good! Ultimately, I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up on the beach.

Tom: Snowboarding at the moment. Since our friends and family live in the mountains it lets us ride a bunch!

Andy skate break at Metro Andy handplant
If it's a board, he rides it. Andy once again.

Favorite artist that has done board graphics? Ever done any designs for mass productions?
Andy: I like Jari Salo's work he did for Jussi Oksanen & Joni Makinen's graphics and Mike Parillo did some cool stuff for Terje and Travis. 

Tom: Nicolas Thomas is always doing some phsychedelic Apo graphics and Squido. Me and my bro have collaborated on some designs for Lamar and other smaller companies in the US.

Andy: We hope to do some more stuff for mass production but hopefully for the smaller companies that are still keeping it homegrown, organic and fair trade, or else it's just modern slavery.

Mass production the old-fashioned way.

Do you think those board and tee-shirt design contests are just exploiting artists for cheap work?
Both: Well, it depends on the deal! It can help get your work out there, but you can still get ripped off quite easily. Depends on the terms and conditions really.

You both do commissioned graphic design as well. Do you enjoy that or are you just trying to pay your rent?
Andy: It is more than only paying the rent. Graphics and communication design can take you on an adventure. Every time you do something, you have to get deep into the material to get it done the right way. We prefer to work with/for people who care about the environment and their worker's rights.

Tom: Of course something has to pay the bills, but I can say that we actually just do jobs we feel comfortable with. When it comes to graphic design or advertising, companies know that they can contact us when they want something different.

Both: We are putting a creative collective together at the moment. The launch should be soon. The advantage of such a collective is that we can work on far bigger projects.



Is snowboarding art or sport?
Both: A very artful sport, we would say. Riders develop styles like artists develop styles. In both case it is an expression, the better someone is with what he does, the more you can see personal characteristics in the way the person does that art from.

Check out their site for more of their work!

www.loslohbros.com