This feature is a celebration of Ric Clayton – RxCx – and his book that came out this year called Welcome to Venice. Below you will read about the impact he had on his friends’ lives and how we all have noting but love for him.
Josh Klassman is an OG Venice Local and a Venice Photo Historian
I grew up with Ric Clayton in Venice back in 1980’z – he’s older than me and is someone I always looked up to for different reasons. He is cool, the kind of cool that comes naturally; he never has to try at it, he just is cool. He’s one of the most quick-witted people you’ll ever meet. I use to watch Ric tear people down and rip them apart in many bag sessions; he’s pretty much an unstoppable force once he gets going on a roll. He grew up looking up to the extremely talented underground Venice Break Water Local legendary and iconic artist Doug Smith, aka Dougo, and you can see Ric pay homage to him in some of his artwork over the years, especially anything beach, surfing, and skating related. Ric has a crazy past as a Punk Rocker and a Biker – both lifestyles fit him and his personality well, he is by nature a free spirit, rebel, and an outlaw who absolutely lives by his own rules. He plays bass and was in a few well-known local Venice punk bands such as No Mercy and Butcher; he played bass in No Mercy and sang in Butcher.
Now let’s get to Ric’s art. We all know him as the OG artist for Suicidal Tendencies, but his art goes way past that. My good old school friend Jayme “Vision / Crazy J” Burtis put it best about Ric’s art, “It’s so simple looking until you really look at it and see how much detail goes in to it, it’a crazy how detailed his art really is, it’s layer upon layer.” Ric puts a lot of his sick, dark, raunchy humor into his artwork, which is amazing to catch in the detail of his work, he puts some stuff in his pieces that will make you laugh hard out loud. Look past the subject and the foreground and you’ll see a whole world open up in his drawings that may be overlooked the first time you look at them. A lot of the younger generation of artists in Venice look at Ric in an entirely different way, most will tell you that Ric is one of their all time favorite artists that actually gave them the motivation to want to go to art school after high school. They view his art as fine art and not just a skeleton skateboarding – they see that skeleton skateboarding as a detailed masterpiece that only RxCx can conjure up inside his head and put down on paper, and we should all see his work in that way as well. It’s true punk rock, gangster, biker, surf, skate, from the streets, as genius Venice art as it gets. Ric covers it all because he was and is a part of it all. Ric is radical and yet humble, he takes his friends along for the ride.
He recently came out with a book of his artwork this year (2018) called Welcome to Venice (When I have fun they call 911), published, edited, and co-created, by Bryan Ray Turcotte from KYI (Kill Your Idols) Books and Gingko Press. Ric put some of my old Venice photos from the 1980’z in this book. Each chapter starts with a photo of mine on one page and Ric’s lettering for the title of the chapter on the opposite page, along with the first few pages of the book are my photos as well. This was beyond huge for me to say the very least, and Ric, along with Bryan, fully took care of me by allowing me to be a part of his now legendary and iconic book. I can’t thank Ric enough for planting that seed for me. Again he takes his friends along for the ride. Ric Clayton, he is the real deal, he’s lived it, survived it, and came out the back end getting the recognition and success that he has deserved for decades now. RxCx you rule homie!
Pat Bareis aka PB is an OG Suicidal Boy // 80’s Hardcore kid // 3rd Generation Dogtown Skater
First time meeting Ric was at a Suicidal Tendencies party and he was wearing one of his hand drawn shirts, and as soon as I saw the shirt I fucking wanted one – it was KILLER! Then came his tattooing, and I’m stoked to have gotten a couple from him. THANKS RIC! Also the countless flyers he drew for all the local bands from Venice that I had on my wall, like I’m sure a lot of you people did that were involved in our punk rock world. Also he has done some Skateboard decks that are sick and album covers as well. Stoked to see Ric still going on STRONG with his art, and as far as the book goes he fucking nailed it! There are some Bad Ass old school Skateboard photos in the book I was stoked to see Ric ripping it up! Thanks Ric for having a huge impact on our punk rock skateboard culture and congrats on the book my friend.
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OG Venice/SM Punx early 80s at the Venice whitehouse #LApunkrock #zboys #patbareis #FEAR #dogtown
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Earlier 90s at chickens with my homie BAGEL @jbk_photos who also took this photo
Bryan Ray Turcotte OG South Bay 80’s Hardcore Punk and Owner of Kill Your Idols Books
Ric Clayton’s illustrations are marked simply as RxCx. R period, C period…and his art hits you in the face like his personality. Bold and straight to the point without any bullshit, he is a true freethinker living life as cutting edge as his artwork, black and white, dangerous and poetic. He never uses sketches or plans out his drawings, he simply puts ‘sharpie’ pen to paper and commits. After more than three decades he is just as dangerous as ever. His art serves as a reminder that we are all living on the edge, just skin away from being six feet under, so fuck shit up while you still can!
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@therealjeffho @rxcx_ric_clayton @beyondthestreetsart @juicemagazine @kyi_books #welcome2venice
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@therealjeffho @rxcx_ric_clayton @beyondthestreetsart @juicemagazine @kyi_books #welcome2venice
AN UNCENSORED LOOK AT THE ARTISTIC LIFE OF RIC CLAYTON! ‘WELCOME TO VENICE RXCX’
Venice Beach, CA is a special place for the creative world – the list of artists that come from this hood is long and goes back decades. It’s also a place that fosters a strong sense of pride and localism. I moved there around 1975, which for many of the kids was the beginning of the Z-Boyz culture. The graphics on our boards were hand drawn by local artists, and if you weren’t from the hood you couldn’t get a deck that was hand drawn in Venice. The skater, young outlaw, future illustrator and punk Ric Clayton was a product of this environment. The new book Welcome to Venice RxCx published by Kill Your Idols gives you an in-depth look into Ric’s influence on SoCal underground culture. Straight up, he is one of the most influential punk artists to come out of the 80’s, but because he has always been super humble, many people don’t realize how important he has been to 80’s Hardcore, the birth of 80’s Thrash Metal, and Art and Tattoo culture worldwide. When I flip through the pages of his new book, I realize how it is an important historical document, because Ric has given himself to underground culture from day one. This is one of my favorite books that I have seen in the last decade and the quality is next level. Below you can read some of the things I have written about him on these pages so you can get better picture about this kick ass human and how he changed a generation!
Pick up Welcome to Venice HERE!
THE STORY BEHIND SUICIDAL TENDENCIES NOTORIOUS SHIRTS CREATED BY RIC CLAYTON
Venice, CA is tiny beach town that has had a HUGE impact on underground youth culture. This place has given the world some unreal illustrators, and one of them goes by the name of RIC CLAYTON or RxCx for short. He is a true OG Suicidal Boy and the band’s go-to artist for most of their early flyers. Seeing the rad shit Ric drew for each show was just as important as the line up. He was a genius at turning their lyrics into illustrations that still resonate with youth culture today. What really made him stand out from other illustrators of the day were the button down shirts that he drew on. If you were a Venice/Mar Vista/Santa Monica local who was down with Suicidal Tendencies, you would get in touch with Ric, hit him with $15 or maybe less – I’m not sure – come back in a week or so, and he would hand you a one of a kind Suicidal shirt (this was before silk screening shirts became the norm). For some people, seeing a bunch of dudes rocking these shirts with blue bandanas struck fear in their hearts. These shirts become famous because they were featured on the cover of Suicidal Tendencies’ debut album. Check out this rad photo essay of RxC’s hand drawn button down shirts, compiled by the man himself. Thanx Ric for being the first person to ever turn me on to Motörhead and Venom!
