First Date

First Date (24×32)

Handmade original by Welzie out of Surfboard foam, fiberglass and resin, one of one. Two fish — one boy, one girl — face each other in simple black-and-white linework, almost sketch-like against a background unlike anything else in Welzie's catalog. That backdrop, a candy-colored grid of small dripped squares, is dripped one color at a time over months, worked in between other pieces as the resin allows — a genuinely rare technique, and a labor of love few of his pieces carry. The result is more abstract than his usual style, elaborate where the fish stay simple. First Date captures that particular feeling of meeting someone you actually like — the awkwardness, the hope, the quiet thought of I think this could work.