“The connections we make kind of reverberate all over the place,” he says. One such reverberation was a friendship with Dirty Donnie (who has worked extensively with Metallica), which in turn led to a connection to Mastodon’s tour manager Tim Moss and his purchase of one of Skinner’s paintings. “I drive the painting to his house in San Francisco and tell Tim I’m going to Atlanta to paint a mural at Adult Swim. He tells me I should meet his friend Brann [Dailor], and I realize it’s the drummer from Mastodon. Then Brann texts me and I think ‘Wow, this is so exciting. I can’t believe I’m texting this guy that I love so much!’”
Dailor later picked Skinner up “in his truck” and took him out to some local haunted houses before capping the hang off by drinking beer at the percussionist’s Atlanta home. The two became fast friends, sharing similar tastes for a boldly outrageous and clownish aesthetic. When Mastodon asked Skinner to design the cover and gatefold layout for 2014’s Once More ‘Round The Sun, he graciously accepted the offer and put together a stunning representation of the band’s vision to encompass the universe, the sun, and “some sort of beast” to tie together the brutal unity of it all.
“These are the kinds of things that you never in your life think would happen to you,” he says with a quiet reverence in his voice. “It’s unbelievable.”
Skinner’s wide-eyed refusal to become jaded or complacent is precisely what imbues his works with the freshness and excitement it retains today, 11 years into his full-time immersion into the artist life. “Buzz from the Melvins was just texting me a bunch of photos he while was was on the road, asking me if they were cool. I just like...I can’t believe it, you know what I mean?”