For the last 15 years, all of us have reached deep within our bag of superlatives, eventually tearing the seams at the bottom trying to describe the never-ending series of masterpieces painted by Kobe Bryant on that 94 x 50 canvas, otherwise known as a basketball court. There is an intimidating, boundless amount of text we can read about the Mamba and even a bevy of songs that reference the five-time NBA champion, but neither discipline can engage our ever so crucial visual sense like that of artwork. Seeing is believing and exploring the endless interpretations of Kobe through the eyes of an artist never fails to catch our eyes.
Lakers Nation had the opportunity to sit down with Tracy Tubera, Creative/Art Director for Rob Dyrdek’s Wild Grinders, a skateboarding toy line that will soon ollie its way into the world of animated series as well. While Tracy puts in long hours and a tremendous amount designing the world of Wild Grinders, he has and will always be a full-time artist and of course, die-hard Laker fan.
Combining his passion for art, sports and sneakers, Tracy recently created a sick set of illustrations that focus on our very own MVP, Kobe and his newest signature shoe, the Nike Zoom Kobe VI. As you know, Lakers Nation can’t let anything that has to do with the Mamba fly under the radar so we had to go chat with Tracy who was gracious enough to give us the inside scoop.
NEXT: Inspiration Manifested
Working in the toy design and graphic design industry for the last 15 years since he was 18, Tracy had always wanted to illustrate Kobe, but didn’t want to draw just any simple sketch of the two-time Finals MVP. The Nike Zoom Kobe VI provided the perfect segue to finally put a pencil in his hand and get to work,
“I’ve always wanted to draw a picture of Kobe, I just for some reason didn’t know what to draw. I just felt as if it should have some sort of theme or something behind it besides just a plain old picture of Kobe. And then when the Kobe VI’s came out, at first I think I was mostly like everybody else and thought they looked a little weird, but when they finally came out and I saw them, I loved the way it looked, I loved the idea and concept behind the skake skin and everything to play off the whole Black Mamba thing. So I thought, why don’t I just combine the projects together where I draw Kobe and his shoe. And then when all these colorways started poppin off for the shoe, it got me all excited because I just had this idea where I would draw a picture of Kobe, but change up the colors to match all the new shoe colorways that are coming out. It was just one of those things where I’ve been a Laker fan, I’m a Kobe fan, I like his shoes…let’s draw a Kobe picture.”
Hardly anyone would disagree that Kobe’s sixth signature shoe has a very theme-specific design that truly captures the essence and spirit of his on-court ego, the Black Mamba. It’s that very unique aesthetic quality to the sneakers that really sparked Tracy’s Kobe art, but the Kobe V did come close to being his first project,
Hearing about Tracy’s go-to outfit for the Finals is indicative of his passion for the Lake Show and a quality that all of us can certainly relate to as I’m sure we all have that certain shirt, jersey, jacket or whatever else Lakers paraphernalia we rely on to ensure victory. Since I’ve never actually explored the mind of a fellow purple and gold fan with this level of artistic talent before, I wanted to find out more about Tracy Tubera the artist and Laker fan.
NEXT: Childhood origins
As kids, we all spent much of our time engaging in appeasing our thirst for knowledge, letting our imaginations run wild and most importantly, figuring out what we liked and what we were good at. For Tracy, discovering his knack for transferring what he saw in his head onto paper came into play before he even locked down all the nuances of using words,
“It’s a funny story my mom always tells that I learned how to draw before I learned how to write. I remember she always tells me the story and I remember the picture still, that she gave me a crayon and piece of paper and she wanted me to write something. But instead, I ended up drawing a cowboy on a horse, but of course the drawing was horrible where the cowboy’s feet were touching the ground and yet he was sitting on top of the horse so it was really weird where the cowboy was just as tall as the horse. She would always tell me that I would always wanna draw things more than actually write. I feel as if I learned how to draw before I learned how to write.”
After graduating from Cal State Long Beach majoring in Illustration, Tracy has designed everything from t-shirts to skateboard shoes, but found his niche in toy design and now animation, which are the disciplines that currently drive his career and satisfy his love for designing characters. Just as he can trace his passion for drawing back to his days as a young kid, the Lakers also became a part of his life early on and while he’d never want to have it any other way, Tracy never had a choice in the matter,
“When Magic hit that sky hook, I remember watching that game with my family at a pizza joint. I blame my parents for me being so obsessed with the Lakers because they were so obsessed.”
There’s no doubt that being a die-hard fan runs in the family, but Tracy took his fanhood to the highest level last season by biting the bullet and shelling out his funds to personally attend each home game of the epic seven-game Lakers-Celtics Finals series that we all gutted out just seven months ago. It goes without saying that Game 7 holds a very special place in his Laker-loving heart,
“Game Seven is probably the best Laker memory or moment I have right now. For the first three and a half quarters man, I was sweating, I was pissed, I was kicking stuff because they were playing horrible and Kobe was missing shots. My one homie Julian who was there with me, he was calming me down telling me not to worry and that they were gonna win and even my wife kept telling me too before the game to not worry about it, that even if they’re down, they’re going to win. She even told me in the beginning of the season last year that they were gonna win a championship. So I kept thinking about that in the back of my head during the whole game. And the minute they got the lead in the fourth quarter, everyone started going crazy, high fiving everybody, it was such a dramatic change from everyone being so pissed and sad to being so happy. When the game was finally over, that feeling of just being there was amazing. My wallet was hurting after the games, but it was one of those things where I was able to go to a Game 7 at home, where the Lakers won back-to-back championships, against the Celtics, and it was totally worth it.”
It should be pretty evident by now that Tracy is a big-time Laker fan and a talented, devoted artist. Just to set the record straight as well, he’s a citizen of Lakers Nation like the rest of us and you can expect more big things to come from him.
NEXT: Where to go and what to look out for
As you all know, Lakers Nation is all about tuning into the world of all things purple and gold from the perspective of a fan. When I asked Tracy about how he discovered our ultimate Lakers site, he couldn’t have told the story any better,
“It was one of those things where you go on the Internet and look up any news about the Lakers because I’m completely obsessed with the Lakers. During the season I have to find out anything and everything that’s happening with the Lakers. I came upon Lakers Nation and it was one of those cool things because it’s by the fans, for the fans and that’s the thing I love about it. Because when I read the articles it’s so funny cause it’s like oh God, that’s exactly what I was thinking! I can’t stand some sportswriters and although it’s their right and it’s obviously their job to give their opinion on certain things, maybe I’m just so biased that I just wanna hear everything going towards the Lakers, I just have to hear everything being pro Lakers. Even if it’s bad, I can take it better coming from a fan of the Lakers when they say we’re playing bad than from some reporter who happens to be reporting on them so that’s why I like Lakers Nation. By the fans, for the fans.”
Well in the same spirit of LN, Tracy’s Kobe illustrations are by a fan, for the fans. His Nike Zoom Kobe VI artwork is available for purchase at $30 per print at tracytuberaart.bigcartel.com and you can also check out his diverse portfolio of work at tracytubera.com. Each print is 11 x 17 on Archival Velvet Finish paper with each individually signed and numbered and limited to 24 prints. You can expect to see a matching illustration with each new colorway of the Kobe VI that comes out, meaning he’s hard at work getting ready for the tidal wave of releases to come.
As I touched on in the beginning as well, Tracy is currently directing the artistic development of Rob Dyrdek’s Wild Grinders cartoon series, which marks his first venture into the world of big-scale animation. Toys, skateboard decks, shoes, clothes, you can throw it all at this artist and based on how far he’s come in an industry where you’re only as good as what your work indicates, we will most definitely be hearing and seeing a lot more of the name Tracy Tubera.
