Jay Alders is an American fine artist, photographer and graphic designer. He is best known for his original surf art paintings, live painting and is a well-known profile in surf culture for his work with musicians, artists and cause organizations.
Early life
Born in
Lakewood Township, New Jersey
Lakewood Township is the most populous township in Ocean County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. A rapidly growing community as of the 2020 U.S. census, the township had a total population of 135,158 representing an increase of 41,415 (+45.5 ...
Howell Township, New Jersey
Howell Township is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The township is the largest municipality in the county by total area, comprised of about . It is located in the New York metropolitan area and has been a steadily gro ...
. This environment provided an early-childhood influence for beach culture. Alders openly attributes surfing as one of his artistic inspirations. He graduated from Howell High School in 1991.
Alders attended
Montclair State University
Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...
and earned a
bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in art in 1996.
At
Montclair State University
Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...
Alders was a member and co-founder of the Gamma Mu Chapter of
Theta Xi
Theta Xi () is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. It was founded at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on April 29, 1864. Of all the social fraternities today, Theta Xi was the only one founded during the Civil War. Its ...
fraternity and illustrator for the ''Montclarion'' college newspaper.
Career and cultural impact
Although Alders drew and painted since childhood, it was not until his mid-20s that he started displaying his work at regional art shows.
In November 2007, Alders toured
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
with musicians
Donavon Frankenreiter
Donavon Frankenreiter (born December 10, 1972) is an American musician and surfer. His debut self-titled album was released in 2004 on Brushfire Records through Universal Music.
Career
Frankenreiter was born in Downey, California, United Stat ...
Matt Costa
Matthew Albert Costa (born June 16, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter from Huntington Beach, California, United States. He has 13 independent releases: 7 self-recorded EPs, 6 complete LPs, 4 of which are released via Brushfire Records. ...
as part of the
Billabong
Billabong ( ) is an Australian term for an oxbow lake, an isolated pond left behind after a river changes course. Billabongs are usually formed when the path of a creek or river changes, leaving the former branch with a dead end. As a result ...
-sponsored ''Mostra Festival AlmaSurf''. The tour also included surf artists Celine Chat, Sean Davey, and other prominent personalities in the surf-entertainment industry. The tour helped push Alders' work into the global market, landing his artwork in art galleries, on skateboards and surfboards and television, including
Fuel TV
Fox Sports 2 (FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in the Century C ...
.
In 2008, dietary supplement company
Emergen-C
Emergen-C is an effervescent, powdered drink mix vitamin supplement manufactured by Alacer Corp. The Emergen-C product line was introduced in 1978. Alacer was established as a private company in 1972, focusing on vitamin supplements containing v ...
used Alders' artwork for a new packaging design, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the Surfrider Foundation.
In February 2009, Alders designed musician and pro surfer
Donavon Frankenreiter
Donavon Frankenreiter (born December 10, 1972) is an American musician and surfer. His debut self-titled album was released in 2004 on Brushfire Records through Universal Music.
Career
Frankenreiter was born in Downey, California, United Stat ...
's Limited Edition Tour Poster. This modified version of Alders' painting, ''Rio Jam,'' was released during Frankenreiter's winter/spring 2009 West Coast tour. Alders contributions to Frankenreiter also included the artwork on his custom acoustic guitar and a flip book animation for Frankenreiter's guest edition of
Surfer Magazine
''Surfer'' was an American monthly periodical focused on surfing and surf culture, founded in 1962 by noted surfer, writer, photographer, artist and humorist John Severson (1933–2017). The magazine folded in 2020.
''Surfer'' began as a quarte ...
, published November, 2008.
Alders' artwork was used as a surfboard design for the first time in early 2009. His art piece ''Left Behind the Wall'' was shaped and distributed by 9Fish Surfboards.
New Jersey-based reggae band
Echo Movement
Echo Movement is an American reggae band based in New Jersey. As of 2012, they are a seven-piece band.
Echo Movement performed on the House of Marley Stage on the Warped Tour 2012, according to the tour's official website. The band released the ...
used Alders' painting ''Burning Inspiration'' as the cover artwork for their 2009 release, ''In The Ocean''.
Australian based Peter Dixon Band featured the Alders painting ''Home Slice'' as the album art for their 2011 release ''Long Way Home''.
Reggae band
Echo Movement
Echo Movement is an American reggae band based in New Jersey. As of 2012, they are a seven-piece band.
Echo Movement performed on the House of Marley Stage on the Warped Tour 2012, according to the tour's official website. The band released the ...
featured Alders' painting ''Star Crossed'' on their 2012 release ''Love and The Human Outreach''.
Acoustic musician Gabe Gomez released his album "In My Island" in 2012 which features Alders' painting ''Sea Zen of Tranquility''.
In 2012, Bermuda born reggae musician Mishka featured Alders' painting ''Out of the Blue'' on his album ''Ocean Is My Potion''.
On August 24, 2013, Alders hosted a solo art show at Manasquan's historic Algonquin Theatre featuring much of Alders' original surf art as well as his other genres of work. Following the art show, Alders shared the stage with
blues music
Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...
icon G Love; Alders painted during G Love's solo performance.
In 2014, Alders linked up with friend Stefan Lessard, bassist of the
Dave Matthews Band
Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...
, to illustrate a setlist from the band's June 14, 2014 show in Camden, New Jersey by request of Lessard.
In 2016, Alders was commissioned by Slightly Stoopid to create four art tour posters for their international music tours. In 2016,
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...
based musicians The Expendables commissioned Alders for a T-shirt design. The Expendables also performed several live shows while Alders did live painting in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
Sasha DiGiulian
Sasha DiGiulian (born October 23, 1992) is a professional rock climber. She won the gold medal at the 2011 International Federation of Sport Climbing World Championships in Arco, Italy, for Female Overall, placed Silver in Bouldering and Bronze ...
to create a painting inspired by her.
In July 2017, Alders released a limited edition tour poster for the band
311 311 may refer to:
* 311 (number), a natural number
* AD 311, a year of the Julian calendar, in the fourth century AD
* 311 BC, a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar
* 311 (band), an American band
** ''311'' (album), band 311's self-titled album
...
The Stone Pony
The Stone Pony is a New Jersey music venue in Asbury Park, New Jersey known for launching the careers of many New Jersey music legends, including Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.
In July 2018, the band Slightly Stoopid released their new album "Everyday Life, Everyday People" which features an original Jay Alders surf art painting on the Album cover which is inspired by the band's hometown surf break Sunset Cliffs, San Diego.
On October 10, 2018, Jay Alders and his wife Chelsea Alders, launched a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
, The Shifting Perceptions Podcast:Inspiration for a Creative Lifestyle., url=https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/shifting-perceptions-podcast-inspiration-to-live-more/id1438321207?mt=2 ,
Charity work
In 2009 Alders was named an official
SurfAid International
SurfAid International (often called just SurfAid) is an international charitable organization working in the Mentawai Islands of Indonesia. It was founded by Dr. Dave Jenkins of New Zealand in 2000. In 1999 he was on a surfing trip in the area and ...
Ambassador for his dedicated philanthropic work for the organization.
After
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
hit the Jersey Shore in October 2012, Alders took to action to help his home state. He was featured on Actions News Jax to cover his philanthropic support efforts. Alders helped organize donation drop off points and helped fill trucks with donations.
In November 2012, Alders designed a charity hoodie and t-shirt design which he sold on his website with 100% of the profits going towards Rebuild Recover, a local grass roots
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...
non-profit to benefit Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. As of mid-2013, over $15,000 in support was donated from this campaign.
In May 2016, Alders was named one of the 2016 Honorees for Hometown Heroes for his dedicated work raising money and awareness for the organization.
Personal life
Alders has lived at the Jersey Shore, first in Belmar and then in Brick Township, together with his wife Chelsea Alders and his three children: Summer, Greyson and Judah."Industry Magazine Feature – 'Catch A Wave'" JayAlder.com, July 6, 2015. Accessed August 7, 2016. "Although he enjoyed surfing among the dolphins and being inspired by the tropical beauty of Florida, Alders and his wife decided to return to Jersey in 2013 when Chelsea became pregnant with the couple's daughter, Summer Emerson, first settling in Belmar. The couple now resides in Brick with Summer (whose initials spell out S.E.A.), and newborn twins Greyson Dutch and Judah Kai."
Awards and honors
Alders was named a 2016 honoree by the organization Hometown Heroes.http://usahometownheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2016-GalaPacket-01282016-V2.pdf