COMMISSIONS
“4 Points Books Tote Bag (Summer 2023)” — 4 Points Books is a wonderful independent bookstore in Invermere, BC. As someone who often frequents their shop to procure books (and as someone who truly loves working in a Public Library), the opportunity to paint a book-themed illustration was quite personal to me. The bookstore gave me lots of freedom to explore this theme in my own way. After a couple of initial ideas (including an octopus reading 8 books at the same time), I settled on one of my favourite subjects—Monsters. Irony is a preferred element in cartooning and illustration for me, and that really steered my direction on this one. I also used this as an opportunity to push perspective in a rakish way.
It didn’t occur to me until after I finished this piece, that part of my inspiration for this monster may have come from my childhood fascination with the Chernabog character in the “Night on Bald Mountain” segment of Disney’s Fantasia (1941). I enjoy when unintentional inspiration happens.
“Birchwood Sauce Labels (December 2021)” — These 3 hand-painted designs were commissioned by the chef at Birchwood Restaurant, for their 3 different sauces. After painting the images, I framed them in vintage-style ovals in Photoshop (along with the restaurant logo) for the final labels. It was important to me that all of the characters felt connected—like a series of pieces for a gallery show—so I treated them as such. The regular hot sauce, “Burning Birch” (bottom left), was a play on the restaurant’s theme and inspired by vintage cartoon trees. For their smokey hot sauce, they requested skeletons enjoying a nice hot cauldron. This illustration is called “Bone Broth” (bottom right). As for the lobster sauce (right), they requested a maritime feel, with a fisherman and a lobster…so I turned the tables and made the lobster the fisherman. I call this piece, “A Lobsterman’s Nightmare”. During the making of it, I listened to very old sea shanty recordings, to get in the mood.
“The Station Pub Colouring Sheets (August 2021)” — These 4 custom colouring sheets were made for The Station Pub (a restaurant on Kinsmen Beach, Invermere, BC), where they can now be procured if you dine there! My 4 sheets were commissioned along with other artists, as part of The Station’s projects for local collaboration.
I thoroughly enjoyed making something that gave me such joy as a kid. When I was little, I was always on the lookout for colouring sheets to fill, so this was a full-circle experience. My goal with these was to draw with a consistent theme of pub-food-foibles. Left and above are some pictures of the colouring sheets in the wild, coloured by patrons.
“Big Bad Surly Smokie (May 2021)” — A mini-painting & tattoo commission for my dad. The middle image was my greyscale re-draw, so that it could make the transition to my dad’s arm, where it now happily (or grumpily) resides.
“Recycle Experience” — This single-panel comic was published in the March 2020 newsletter of “ColumbiYA!”. The Columbia Valley-based group focuses on sustainability efforts within local communities, sharing information, and inspiring local action that’s good for the planet. This comic was commissioned under the theme of the 5 R’s (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Rot, Recycle). I wanted to illustrate the ideal of a repeatedly-recycled plastic, applying to become another form of plastic, in a traditional job-interview.
In November 2020, I had the pleasure of designing and painting the album art for the whimsical, theatrical, Vancouver band, Blackberry Wood. They were revamping their Christmas album with new tracks, and they wanted an all new piece of artwork for their cd covers! They have a lovely knack for hiring independent artist friends, and I am so proud that they asked me to the job. Our style sensibilities merged so well, and it was an absolute blast to draw inspiration from Victorian Christmas Cards, which I love so much.
A gallery of some of the visual inspirations for this commission.
“Pokey is Being Pokey” — An original acrylic painting with inside jokes that were really fun to capture for the client. I used my actual Pokey & Gumby toys as my models, for light reference on their rubbery skin. (Final piece left; workspace right).
“Tiffins by Allium” — A logo designed, painted, and photoshopped for print on stickers & other media, for Café Allium (in Invermere, BC).
“Miszu (A Cat Named Fish)” — A custom Immortalmal polymer clay sculpture for my Manitoba friends, Cindy & Rick. It was my 1st commission piece that I got to do for them, and remains one of my favourites. I spent roughly a month sculpting, painting, and adding toothbrush-hair whiskers to this miniature cat (with the aid of reference pictures), all in the effort to achieve the closest likeness I could to their late-cat Miszu.
“The Painted Valley” — An original surrealist-landscape piece, depicting the many landmarks and elements that make the Columbia Valley home. This particular piece is special to my heart for many reasons. At the turn of the Covid-19 pandemic, I came back from Vancouver to my hometown of Invermere, BC. I was pivoting the many plans I had previously made, when I was contacted by a lovely man in Manitoba, who wanted me to make a piece for his wife’s birthday. They had been visiting Invermere every year, and were devastated that they wouldn’t be able to come out in 2020. He provided me with a list of landmarks that were special to her, and I undoubtedly filled it with mine as well. It features Radium Hot Springs, Downtown Invermere, “Invermere Farmers & Artists Market” (where I used to street perform from age 9 to 19), Lake Windermere, the Columbia River, Toby Creek, Panorama Mountain, Mt. Nelson, the Bugaboos, and many of the people and businesses whom I have personal relationships with. How ironic it was to come home after a few years away, only to be tasked to pack it into the margins of a 16x16” canvas. Since its creation, I have been making prints and puzzles of it, and when selling them at markets, I am always tickled to see customers’ reactions and personal connections to the fine details in The Painted Valley.
You can view my Instagram Video-Tour of the piece HERE ———>
