The Golden Age of Neglect Paperback - 2005

Ed Templeton was born 1972 in Orange County, California. He began skateboarding in 1985 and went on to become a champion of skateboarding. Outside of skateboarding, Templeton is a painter, graphic designer, and photographer, areas that he has gained a reputation within without any formal training. He is the founder of skateboard company Toy Machine and was the founder and creative director of Red Design 1996-2009. Since then he has travelled around the world surfing, writing, reading, thinking, completely immersed in the street life. He founded Soul & Surf in India with his wife and the exercise programme for surfing SurfBodySoul with Ryan Huxley. Templeton is a featured artist in "Beautiful Losers", a project that consisted of several elements: a touring art exhibit, a collected art book and a feature documentary film, all of which include the work of various contemporary artists. A large section of the art in the Beautiful Losers project covers skateboarding and other urban themes. In 2003, Templeton, along with members of the Toy Machine team, skated on a variety of purpose-built structures--including a car--at the base of the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center for the temporary showcase of Beautiful Losers. Templeton's work and career are also subjects in the Beautiful Losers film. Templeton's signature model skateboards for the New Deal company were self-designed and he subsequently became the head designer for his own brands--Templeton produces all of the art work for the Toy Machine skateboard company that, as of January 2013, is his primary skateboarding project. Templeton is also a co-editor of ANP Quarterly, an arts magazine started in 2005. In 2000, Templeton's book of photography, Teenage Smokers, won the Italian Search For Art competition and Templeton was awarded US$50,000. In both 2001 and 2011, Templeton's artwork was featured in Juxtapoz magazine and, in 2002, the art exhibition, "The Essential Disturbance", was held at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France, a show that was accompanied by a 100-page book, The Golden Age of Neglect (published by Drago).