We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Slayton a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Michael thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Playing a small role in the amazing work SkatePal is doing has been single-handedly been one of the most rewarding things I have done.

SkatePal is a non-profit supporting young people in Palestine through skateboarding. The growing team of volunteers have been returning to Palestine regularly; working with local communities to build skateparks and provide skateboarding lessons and equipment to young people across the West Bank.

Working with graphic designer Myles Lucas we created a brand for SkatePal that felt accessible accessible, inviting, and most importantly to me it felt fun! My illustrations were the perfect compliment to help bring SkatePal’s identity to life.

I recall seeing a photo of a kid in Palestine at a skatepark with a homemade stencil of my illustration, it was so moving it almost made me cry.

Since the terrible chain of events in Israel and Palestine, they have been putting their energy where it was needed most and focussed our attention on the wellbeing of their staff.

Hopefully, soon they can go back to what they do best, supporting young people in Palestine through skateboarding.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a lifelong drawer who finally realized you can do what you love for a living. I would say that my specialty is drawing complex ideas simply and clearly.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Most artists will not make money off them.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

For me personally I was very influenced by Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, written by Shunryu Suzuki. I am a Zen Buddhist and this book really gave me a lot of inside into my practice and concentrating on single-minded effort.

I strongly recommend picking that up or The Way of Zen written by Alan Watts. Specifically the section about zen and the arts. It has some great details about art being a balance of form and emptiness which I still think about with everything I create.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mfs-draws.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mfslayton/