Singing a new ‘toon

Growing up near the beach in Mexico, Edward “Teddy” Kelly loved skateboards and surfing ? and later the graphics that came along with the sports gear. A couple of decades later, Kelly is a featured artist with edgy giant sports apparel maker Volcom Inc. based in Costa Mesa.

He’s just 27 but his talent for depicting cartoon characters and love for street and urban art shines through. Kelly was recently asked by the Mexican government to tour Mexico as a representative of the Arts and Culture of Mexico.

His tour will also include Mazatlan, Mexico, where he was brought up.

Besides showing his installations at Mazatlan, a port city, Kelly will travel to Culiacan in Sinaloa state, Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterey City.

But work wasn’t always so rewarding or easy for Kelly.

Starting out as an artist, he remembers taking on unpaid projects so he could get the exposure and learn the trade. Or dealing with cultural expectations to be a well-to-do family man.

Working odd jobs helped make ends meet and buy art supplies. Kelly also freelanced for businesses owned by friends. He designed corporate logos, brochures and T-shirts as well as for family and friends.

Kelly is glad he’s able to make a decent living doing what he loves.

Early on, Kelly was fascinated with Disney animation and its early black-and-white cartoons. That interest led him to create his own set of characters and stories inspired by Mexican and American music bands and songwriters.

With several new upcoming projects, it’s no surprise Kelly wants to focus on producing and creating art.

He’s participating in the Featured Artist edition “New Balances” for the 2006 X Games, a key international event for action-sports companies and athletes in Los Angeles in early August.

Kelly is also creating a limited-edition series of skateboards for Puro Gallo Skateboard Co., a Costa Mesa-based company selling skateboards in Mexico.

“I think it’s great,” said Ben Brough, senior graphic designer at Volcom. “He has really clean lines, the colors he uses blend well together.”

Kelly attributes his success to his mentor, Charles Glaubitz, who has influenced his work the most. Glaubitz was Kelly’s professor while he was studying at San Diego City College.

Picking the right projects to work on is half the battle of being a successful artist, Kelly said.

“Always get a fair price for your work,” he said. “They say it’s important who you know. But more important is who sees your work and having the spark of talent to back it up.”

His cartoon characters based on the three little pigs and their adventures won him the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ Illustration honorable mention award from its San Diego chapter in 2004.

“When you’re a young kid, cartoons are really fun,” Brough said, adding that Kelly’s work “gives you a warm feeling, and is exciting to look at.” Brough will be working with Kelly on a company project. Volcom’s philosophy “youth against establishment” is popular with teens and the young adult generation.

To have been embraced by Volcom as a featured artist has been the best break yet for Kelly, he said. But he prefers working from home.

“I don’t like to be in an office,” he said.dpt.24-bizspot-C.1PhotoInfoHO1T7TC920060724j2txxbncCredit: JAMIE FLANAGAN / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)Local artist Teddy Kelly, who designs for Costa Mesa-based Volcom and other big-name corporations, turned an affinity for cartoon characters into a career.