0:06

uh my great name is mr gonappel uh in our language for us

0:12

it means wooden man as told to me by my grandmother

0:17

in a cree dictionary it would say carpenter uh works with wood but for for our

0:24

language the way we um would treat the name would be wooden man not carpenter

0:31

awesome that’s great so you where were you born and raised i was born in watasquain alberta

0:39

and i was raised in hobima okay now it’s cheeks but right it’s been so long i

0:45

always call it hoping yeah yeah i know it’s hard to to um

0:50

change that sometimes when you’re so used to something yeah so um so your last name is samson does that

0:56

mean that you’re also of the samson uh band yes um

1:02

my great great great grandfather was uh

1:08

samson he was the one who signed the treaty okay and yeah uh he was given that name

1:14

samson from the bible from the missionaries and stuff so that’s why our last name is samson samson okay was he a

1:21

strong man too your grandfather from what i understand he was a he was a

1:27

big a large baby from remembering corrections yeah

1:32

okay quite a big person and ironically joe sampson the other portrait there he

1:37

was quite a short statured person yeah okay

1:44

so those um your great great great grandfather and your great grandma you

1:49

have portraits here in the gallery just to mention i think everyone

1:55

understands that but byron is a portrait artist

2:00

and so um has been delving into the portraiture for some

2:06

time how long have you been doing portraitures technically since uh

2:13

high school around grade 11 grade 12 yeah more when i got more into it yeah um before that i

2:22

was actually into comic book art i wanted to become a comic book artist the penciller oh

2:28

and i was wanting to do that up until graduation

2:34

and then the last year of uh classes my teacher got us to do uh

2:40

a still life of bottles fruits things like that and realism and with that it kind of

2:48

progressed and i tried doing

2:54

people’s portraits but honestly i couldn’t get them right at first

3:00

which was frustrating to me because i always excelled in art right to a point and

3:05

then this one kind of stumped me in the beginning i was like why can’t i make this look like like the

3:11

person yeah and quite honestly up until now i haven’t shared the story okay

3:17

but um actually my cousin shane yellow bird was in the same class

3:22

and he actually could make it look like the person yeah actually

3:28

was one of the main reasons actually wanting to do portraiture better because his pieces were better than mine in that

3:35

area and i was right i want to be at least that good yeah if i can’t surpass

3:40

him i want to be that good at least you know yeah for sure and so um your cousin shane we should

3:48

mention uh unfortunately passed away uh not too long ago about a month ago

3:53

and sadly so we we have a his portrait still hanging on the wall here

3:59

at the request of the family and shane yellow bird was

4:04

a wonderful musician and singer songwriter you know

4:10

and i think he was a role model to many people and uh just want to honor that

4:18

[Music] yeah for cousin shane he i told him i wanted his piece to be in this

4:25

show and he he didn’t hesitate he was just like oh yeah yeah

4:31

and shane being shane he was like just make me look sexy

4:36

if he knew shane you know that’s what he would say just make me look sexy i don’t care

4:43

[Laughter] well he did have some appeal that’s for sure definitely yes

4:49

so fun to hang around with yeah he was so proud to have this piece and done by me yeah

4:57

i’m just really sad i never let the pool tell him that yeah you’re one of the reasons why

5:03

yeah i did this is because i was trying to beat you yeah

5:08

there’s a little bit of competition in there yeah for sure oh that’s okay

5:13

that’s good it’s healthy it’s healthy competition right yeah oh good stuff okay

5:19

so i’m gonna see if i can find some questions here to ask you um

5:25

so can we ask that so the exhibit is entitled place of honor

5:32

and we talked about that early on but what does that actually mean for you like when you think of

5:39

the place of honor and the people that you chose to um to to draw

5:46

well for me a place of honor means someone who is very truthful

5:52

helping kind and selfless

5:58

it doesn’t matter if they were chief or just someone down the street

6:03

even a great leader could have no honor and with these pieces i chose them

6:09

specifically because some of them i knew others i’ve heard about

6:15

[Music] and others i’ve actually thankfully got to meet and talk with and

6:21

about i’d say about 90 of them are family yeah but i can’t really help that yeah yeah

6:28

yeah the reason i chose them is because they have done something for and within

6:35

the community [Music] and to help family friends whoever and

6:41

to pass on that knowledge the culture in some way right right that’s awesome

6:47

so many of them like you said are family members but many of them are hereditary

6:52

chiefs that um that you come from that line of hereditary chieftainship so you

6:57

know so they have left a legacy in a sense uh to follow and to look up to so it’s um i think

7:05

it’s very honorable that they are they are they do have their portrait here in this gallery today so yeah yeah

7:15

kind of different from my experience for talking about the chiefs is because

7:20

in our family we talk to them like grandparents not chiefs

7:26

so for every chief that is here i got to hear the

7:31

kind of behind the scenes right who they were as a person not just as a leader or

7:36

an official right right so it was really good to hear those stories instead of oh

7:42

yeah he did this he did that he did you know this and that he was just smaller oh he was like this and i never tell you

7:48

this story about it yeah the inside scooping

7:53

definitely that’s awesome

7:59

so i guess that next question is and why did you choose who you chose to

8:04

do these portraits of and i know you kind of touched on it but just if there’s anything else that

8:10

was an inspiration i guess uh many of them i wanted

8:16

for this show specifically i wanted to make it diverse as possible

8:21

i didn’t want to just do old chiefs that everybody can kind of look at their pictures i wanted to grab some other

8:28

people from our community that aren’t so um i won’t say recognized but just known

8:35

other than chiefs because we’ve got dancers and elders knowledge keepers things like that and

8:42

my uncle george my cousin yeah i tried to include more

8:49

people that weren’t just not to say that it’s a bad thing but just chiefs right

8:54

yes exactly and because i wanted to show that we’re more diverse than just what

8:59

kind of people see our culture as for sure in that way yeah for sure

9:07

and you mentioned your uncle george little child and we we know that he’s a well-known

9:13

so that creative side definitely runs in the family then oh definitely yeah

9:20

that’s awesome yeah and on my uncle george’s piece actually i got to communicate to him while i was doing

9:27

his piece i was showing him the progress and he was like i love it but you need more color yeah i want more color i’m

9:34

like whatever you want uncle yeah just tell me what you want you know great well if you know his work it’s all about

9:41

color yeah most of his stuff is it’s awesome it’s awesome he offered me great advice on

9:46

each of the pieces he said yeah i should do this maybe incorporate some of this oh good yeah

9:53

i love having him as an uncle and a way to contact him yeah and a mentor in some

9:59

ways right when it comes to that art oh definitely and i just wish i could

10:04

kind of uh rise to the kind of state he’s at right well

10:11

hopefully you’re on your way so this is this is a nice show that to have and and at the

10:17

art gallery of alberta it’s it’s nice to have you you showing your pieces here and and people are probably getting to

10:24

know your name a little bit out there now so that’s that’s awesome and i’m so thankful for that yeah

10:30

oh for sure so you have a number of pieces in here that are women

10:36

and and that’s really nice to see and these ladies um some significance um to you personally

10:44

and and to community can can you share a little bit about them

10:49

some of them are knowledge keepers dancers

10:54

um one of them is marilyn rowan who’s a mental health counselor

11:00

so she helps the community in that way but also she’s a dancer as well and

11:06

many of them were just a great big part of the community right

11:12

what kind of a dancer uh powwow dancer sorry i can’t remember i think she said traditional oh yes yeah yeah okay

11:20

and as you can see on my my aunt ivy’s piece i got to

11:26

draw her with some of her regalia oh nice yeah i wanted to include with

11:31

marilyn too but unfortunately it was a time restraint so yeah put another piece on there without going over right yes

11:38

deadline yes that’s okay and does are they still alive and do they

11:45

still dance and they’re still active in the community and my aunt ivy doesn’t dance anymore as far as i know

11:52

marilyn’s quite busy with her work yeah during her work right i think she dances from time to time i’m not

11:59

sure um the golden age dancers probably yeah

12:04

yeah there’s a sheila yellow bird in the corner there that’s actually shane yellow bird’s grandmother oh okay yeah

12:13

wonderful knowledge keeper [Music] and the other woman i have is

12:20

my late grandmother nancy sampson in the corner there oh very nice yeah and

12:27

i can’t really speak to how she was as an elder because i had

12:33

such a close relationship with her right right um all i can say is that

12:39

she was such a caring and loving grandparent more so than an elder to me so that’s

12:45

why i can’t speak on her as an elder right right um she tried to teach me so

12:51

many things early on in life but being so young i never really listened to yeah right we don’t

12:57

when i still remember what she told me yeah everything

13:03

the reason i put her up there is because in the community she helped with so many things that i’m just learning about

13:09

now actually back way before when i was born in the 60s actually

13:16

but what i remember from my grandparents is that we when i was younger in the 80s we went on

13:23

the powwow trail so we’d take this big rv and my grandparents would load up all their

13:29

beadwork which is what they did yeah did a lot of bead work a lot of regalia

13:34

stuff and we’d go to powwows and sell yeah like all this regalia and stuff and

13:40

that’s part of the artistic part of our family my grandmother got to create all this

13:46

magnificent beadwork yeah and do you have any of her pieces

13:51

unfortunately i don’t know but i do remember one that she made that i think is still

13:58

up in our church she made this beaded cross oh wow yeah that still hangs in

14:04

there i believe but i remember her beating that and thinking that’s

14:09

kind of weird for regalia but i didn’t know it was for the church oh yeah and i seen it in the church i was like

14:14

oh okay yeah that makes sense now yeah yeah that’s awesome so nice to have a

14:20

close relationship with your grandmother and and to honor her by you know the portrait that you have there yeah that’s

14:26

that’s really wonderful um we we should mention though that um

14:31

there was another portrait that was hanging there yes and unfortunately um

14:37

uh he was looked up to as an elder um

14:42

my mind is not i can’t think of his name his name was uh billy joey deschamps there it is yeah and uh yeah he owned

14:50

land that uh you can pull the sundances and ceremonies on his land and he was a host of that he

14:58

was a great knowledge keeper yeah and when i came up to him he was

15:05

he was taken aback he was he was like very excited about it yeah i’m so honored by this this is going to be

15:12

great i can’t wait to see it right yeah unfortunately he passed yeah did he see it before he

15:19

passed or um not sure i can’t really speak to that because i think i did send him the

15:25

progress pics of his piece okay but i’m not sure if he got to see the actual finish right yes before he passed

15:33

and under the family’s request that it was asked to to remove it for a year not

15:39

to have any of his uh any photos or paintings of him

15:46

for at least a year so in honor and respect to the family it was re removed and

15:51

but we do have a beautiful one of your grandmother in place so yes it’s uh nice

15:57

to see her her there part of the part of the the exhibit so

16:02

that’s awesome um so let’s see here

16:10

so what do you hope the audience um feels when they’re looking at your

16:15

pieces what are your what is your hope that they’re experiencing when they come through and

16:20

look at your pieces a sense of

16:28

i don’t know how to say it but i don’t mean in this ways respect and

16:33

a sense that you can feel that person sense who they are

16:39

because that’s basically what i try to do with every piece is to give off that essence of that person

16:47

and that’s always been the hardest thing to come across on a

16:53

on a piece of paper right is to give the essence of that person like you can actually

16:59

kind of feel what they’re like in life yeah and for

17:05

for a lot of pieces it’s been i wouldn’t say difficult but just

17:14

to get it right exactly yeah and because a lot of people say oh it must be hard it’s like no it’s

17:20

just time consuming it’s i know how to do it it’s just it’s got to be done in such a way that

17:25

you can bring out the essence of that person but it’s easy

17:31

relatively easy for me now yeah yeah oh that’s good yeah for sure and then having pieces in there like

17:38

like for instance uh your uncle george i mean there’s a you have him painting something it looks

17:44

like he’s he’s in the middle he’s creating something he’s painting so you know that i mean we know him so it’s kind of like

17:50

we know that that’s what he does but that’s that’s a good example to show that you know he’s

17:56

he’s creating something he’s painting we know that he’s an artist himself and and then the you know the the larger

18:03

picture he looks very thoughtful and uh and i think you know even george himself is a very deep thinker kind of a

18:11

person i mean he’s that he usually chooses or you know there’s definitely there’s depth to it

18:18

oh yes so it’s it’s kind of nice to see that and and like you said that essence of who he

18:24

is is part of that yeah that’s a it’s really good i think uncle george is

18:29

always um sending me photos of our family it’s very interesting in our genealogy

18:35

yeah he’s saying oh yeah by the way we’re related to this here here and

18:41

i mean showing me new pictures of chiefs that i’ve never seen before yeah and i’m so

18:46

thankful for that because it creates more uh more material that i can draw from it right i’m so thankful for him

18:54

that’s awesome yeah and also younger uh pictures of

19:00

the pieces too yeah like there’s a younger piece of joe and my grandfather and a bunch of uh on the other side of

19:07

my family that i’ve never seen before and i’m like this would make a great yeah

19:12

[Music] oh yeah so maybe more in the works oh definitely i’m always i’m always

19:18

sketching and drawing and thinking about these things but yeah work seems to get in the way of

19:24

yeah i know well you know how they say the artist it’s you know it’s an ongoing and it’s

19:31

it takes some time then once you’re established and then hopefully you can we our our dream of course as an artist

19:38

is to live off of our artwork and to and just to be in that space and that that would be a wonderful a wonderful

19:45

thing yeah definitely yeah so why is it important to you to explore

19:51

this type of of work and the portraitures that you’ve done and

19:56

portraits you’ve done for me it helps to diversify my skill

20:04

and also to enhance my uh i don’t know how you call it observation

20:12

okay every piece is unique and every person is unique no people no two people look

20:17

the same every piece you have to [Music] really concentrate and think

20:25

so you know even if i did like a set of twins one’s different from the other the way you slice it they’re still two

20:32

different people true yeah and through portraiture i’ve learned to notice little

20:37

details of things here and there and it’s it helped me in other areas as well

20:43

when i’m doing other pieces but i hope to expand into

20:48

other mediums and things like that but for right now this is where you are this is where i’m

20:54

at because it makes me happy and i’m yeah just so grateful to be able to do it that’s

21:01

that’s wonderful yeah for sure we always want to be in that happy place [Laughter]

21:07

absolutely so most of the people here are from your home uh your like samson

21:13

band and i know i talked to you before and you mentioned that it would be really neat to go to other

21:19

places and in other communities and and an interview and talk to ones that

21:25

that might have others that would be of someone that they would want to honor

21:30

in their community is is that something that you’re you’re still thinking about and oh definitely

21:36

if i could kind of do a traveling show type of thing that would be

21:43

great because um because i think our people have a

21:50

all of our people have many stories and many

21:55

many different uh people and leaders and elders and

22:00

just people in general in our culture to show right yeah well i think that would

22:06

be really neat yeah i have to apply for one of those grants right yeah that would be a dream job definitely yeah

22:13

that would be awesome um so

22:19

um has have you noticed or has the experience in having your art here at the aga has

22:26

it has it opened up opportunities for you and have you seen like has it widened your

22:33

your exposure i guess to to your art oh yes i’ve gotten a lot of message off of

22:40

instagram and facebook about artwork and you know the pieces and wondering do i

22:47

do anything else and i was like yes i do but but for right now this is just yeah yeah

22:53

and um a lot of questions i get asked is do you do animals and pets and things like that

22:59

i’m like yeah if you can take a picture of it i can i can definitely do it you can try it

23:05

and the reason why i don’t have many animal pieces because right away people want to

23:10

buy them right and i never get a chance to make prints or anything like that it’s just like oh i want this one yeah

23:16

it’s actually funny story about that because me and my fiance uh i was actually in the pinocchio stampede

23:23

i think this was a year before the pandemic oh okay um i was in

23:28

a gallery showing area i was with all these other artists and i was sitting around and i was bored

23:34

so i started sketching horses and i was just kind of doodling away

23:39

here and then a customer came by i was looking at all my pieces all this great art all around

23:45

me and i’m sketching these horses and he’s like i want to buy that i want that horseshoe i’m like i’m not

23:50

even done yet he’s like i don’t care i want it i’ll pay whatever you’re right okay you know yeah so there you go yeah

23:58

and not that i would say it’s upsetting but it’s kind of um

24:04

not frustrating either it’s just kind of weird how you make all this great art and then you yeah make something that’s

24:10

simple in a sense yeah then people want them

24:15

right well you’ll have to do more horse paintings or drawings i should say yeah that’s actually what i’m focusing on

24:21

okay yeah well they’re a wonderful animal i love horses yeah

24:27

so do you see this as a stepping stone into other other works or oh absolutely

24:34

yeah um i’ve been thinking ever since this came out

24:39

that maybe the next thing i’d want to do is just in all

24:45

woman chill interesting instead of just diversifying you just doing all yeah women’s show

24:53

okay and maybe all children’s and then just kind of you know yeah playing with different

24:59

themes yeah and yeah okay that’s really good um i guess that’s the next kind of

25:04

question and this is on your artistic journey what new things have you been exposed to

25:12

exposed to i’ve been exposed to quite a bit um yeah a lot of artists on instagram have showed me their stuff and

25:19

what they do yeah and it’s kind of like i would love that like one artist i thought i would love

25:25

that as a background as this piece for this piece and i’d love this in the foreground with this

25:31

and then it’s usually i’m thinking of how i can incorporate it into my

25:37

into my style and things like that not that i don’t love their work which is very i’m more

25:43

of a creative mode when i see somebody else’s work because it inspires you to kind of expand on your own

25:50

your share yeah yeah [Music] so your portraits are

25:56

drawings and you use uh [Music] high-end crayons pencils and

26:03

is there anything else that you use in your no pretty much that’s

26:13

the consistency in their leads like the wax they use the chemicals and whatever yeah it’s really great for uh

26:20

blending and mixing of the colors

26:26

and it where i work really well with it because it’s it’s sort of like painting okay except

26:33

it’s more just fine right okay um

26:38

i would like to get into painting yeah i was just going to ask you have you dabbled in the painting

26:43

when we did acrylics i i really hated painting at the time right right because it was so loose and you had to you know mix it

26:51

pre-hang and then yeah yeah and with this um i can layer the

26:57

the base color of the shadows the lights you know the accents and everything

27:02

it just i understand it a little more better for me right that’s why i work so well with

27:07

it is because i know how to work with it yeah for myself yeah well and it takes time to master a medium you know

27:14

and i mean my my my crayon what if i use pencil crayons i knew it

27:20

wouldn’t look like this at all so um yeah no you can definitely tell that

27:25

you have mastered those you know that that medium and that’s that’s wonderful

27:31

yeah let’s just see what we’re trying okay we have a little bit of time um

27:37

so other i guess you kind of answered this one but are there other subjects that you’d like to

27:43

return you said women and animals horses is there others that you

27:48

might want to expand into and try and see what that’s like i know i’ve seen some of your work some of the other you

27:54

were like you did a bruce lee uh one i thought that was that was really cool um

28:00

oh there’s for different subjects uh right now i’m mostly into

28:06

portraiture i’ll only do animals as a throwaway kind of throwaway

28:12

okay mainly because i’m i’m i know it doesn’t seem like this but

28:18

i’m so impatient i really am impatient to finish the piece okay

28:24

especially when it comes to hair right okay doing hair it’s so annoying to just you know

28:31

do each little hair and things like that and that’s why i’m telling myself to

28:37

kind of do whoa horses and animals with hair so i can kind of get over that hump

28:44

because they have a lot yeah they’re covered and most of my actual commissions are

28:50

people of um can you do my dog oh okay he’s like okay what kind of dog is it

28:55

and then it’s this big wavy hairy thing

29:02

great took a while yeah for sure oh that’s good though it’s good to challenge yourself and to like you said get over

29:08

that little that that hump or in a sense of you know challenging yourself to to do something

29:14

else or something that’s not as comfortable maybe yeah and yeah that’s another thing i discovered with doing

29:20

this yeah is that you have to learn to get over yourself

29:25

right right okay because with most of these i yeah i’ve gotten to a place where like i just

29:31

finished the phase and then i’m like i’m exhausted i just kind of wanna you know

29:37

okay fiddle around with it but with this um project i’ve had to be patient

29:43

i’ve had to wait and i’ve had to be like okay i can only do a bit of this piece right now right and that’s all i’ll

29:49

commit myself to today if i can get this done today great yeah i’ll worry about the next thing tomorrow

29:55

or the next day or whatever so through this it’s taught me how to be patient and to set a schedule for myself

30:02

and to kind of pace yourself yeah pace myself and also confront

30:09

doing hair okay there you go because every piece i did i

30:15

was i would always look at the hair first i’m like that is going to be [Laughter]

30:21

man oh man if everyone was bald it would be good right now it was just okay great

30:28

well there might be no another subject that you might want to work on

30:34

bald no and hairless man okay um so

30:39

let’s talk a little bit about um what you use for like paper and things like that what is there papers

30:47

that you found are the best or things that you like and if you’re going to share this with

30:52

somebody who’s just learning what might be something that advice that you might

30:57

give them yes for this specific project i’ve had to

31:02

use a certain size paper right uh a cans

31:07

was it a strathmore i believe it was called strathmore papers 18 by 24.

31:13

and the reason i chose this paper is because of the neutral tone of the paper okay so i can get that realism and i can

31:20

get it done relatively quick okay so you actually use the paper as part of

31:27

of your the the drawings and okay paper is a major consideration for all my

31:32

pieces okay um rarely will i ever ever do just

31:39

just a normal white sheet of paper because you’re starting from once one extreme right like pure white and you

31:46

have to get to that value of dark right okay and that’s why i like working with a mid

31:51

tone is because you can go either way you can either make it lighter or darker yeah you have one if that makes sense

31:56

for sure okay and on the type of paper i use it depends on what style of drawing i

32:03

[Music] i decide to do because a lot of you can’t see it here but

32:10

when i do different pieces i um maybe a more refined piece that has a

32:17

lot of detail other ones i’ll do a quick line you know quick shading and

32:23

not any blending of the colors just kind of uh matted out

32:28

and because i’m so sensitive to the paper that’s not that’s how i see it is that

32:34

i’m sensitive to the paper so if it was a fine tooth like a smooth paper like these

32:41

the drawing is usually more refined and more detailed okay

32:46

and if it’s a coarse paper like um you can’t remember it’s canson pastel

32:52

paper that’s it if it’s a pastel paper my drawings become more loose and more

32:58

uh expressive right i would say so it really depends then on on what you’re

33:04

using and how the much detail or not that you can put into your your works then yeah definitely and when i’m using

33:11

cotton red paper it can go either way okay well that’s interesting

33:16

hmm and so you said what kind of pencil prints you said are there uh prismacolor premiere pencils okay and those are the

33:22

best ones if for myself not the best they’re just what you like the the way i work

33:29

okay it’s best for what i do right okay so if someone’s just learning would you suggest trying that kind or just

33:36

exploring and experimenting with all kinds i suppose i would always say experiment with everything right never

33:42

limit yourself to saying oh well this artist uses this so i must use this right no experiment with everything and

33:49

anything you can okay and no product is better than the other

33:54

because everybody is different like we all treat different things a different way

34:00

and at the end of the day there are only tools right yeah it just depends on how you use that tool exactly yeah

34:08

well yours is yours you do a good job with what you use so we’re happy to see that

34:14

um do you have a favorite pencil sharpener i do um

34:20

i can’t remember the name of it but it’s um for those of you

34:26

those people who are old enough to remember those old the cranking types yeah yeah

34:32

the cranking uh pencil sharpeners um those get such a fine point on them

34:38

a lot of artists will use a knife and just kind of file it out in it no i can’t i don’t have time to waste on

34:45

that so yeah i just use that oh okay for myself personally that works then yeah yeah

34:51

with the prismacolors if it’s something else like if it’s pastels it’s i can’t sharpen it so i’m just gonna

34:58

yeah yeah okay here yeah an eraser do you use eraser

35:04

i do use an eraser okay um but there are so many different erasers

35:09

for different mediums yeah you really have to know you’re

35:14

working with right and how it’s going to affect the uh the piece

35:19

because on these on these pieces if i had to erase i would use a prismacolor gummy

35:25

gummy eraser because i can dab it and then it pulls up the color rather than eraser and then rubbing yeah rather than

35:31

rubbing it out it pulls it up that way it doesn’t smear anything around it okay so i don’t i just have to it takes

35:38

longer but it’ll do a better job yeah okay well that’s that’s interesting i’ve never never even

35:44

thought of that that’s really neat yeah and it took me a while to figure that out yeah there you go

35:49

awesome is there any other supplies that that you would recommend or that you

35:54

like using right now uh i just use prismacolor yeah pencils

36:00

for what i’m like i said you can use anything to make

36:05

art it doesn’t have to be a high-end right product yeah yeah but uh like two

36:10

years ago i bought a like a five dollar watercolor set from walmart and just a

36:16

couple of crappy paint brushes from dollarama yeah and i can still make a great piece out of that right so that’s

36:23

when i tell people what do you recommend do you recommend this just like it doesn’t matter yeah as long as you’re willing to put in that work yeah you can

36:30

make anything out of anything right okay well that’s another funny note um yeah i

36:37

visited my brother i think a couple of weeks ago and he showed me

36:42

a bunch of art pieces i did uh drawings i did when we lived in vancouver and he pulled out this paper towel roll

36:50

oh yeah that i did some drawings on that he kept and he kept it out like 20 years ago he kept it and he said yeah this is

36:58

on a paper tower remember in the office we had that like oh yeah i can’t believe you kept that and all these like doodles

37:05

were on it yeah yeah i kept it all this time it’s like i kept all your stuff man

37:10

i’m so thankful oh that’s cool that’s really neat yeah that’s the best thing you can give but yeah you don’t really

37:16

need a high-end yeah yeah you can do art on anything that’s right yeah so any other advice you’d give to people

37:23

that are just learning just keep at it and doodle yeah

37:30

and don’t don’t try to how does that analogy go don’t always

37:36

try to bat for the fence like don’t always try to make a home run um

37:43

you can get done is when you’re just fiddling around with your drawings right

37:49

okay just keeping at it right yeah little steps at a time you can’t

37:54

some of us we’re lucky that we can make those giant leaps yeah and figure out how to do it quicker and better for sure

38:02

for sure yeah but it’s in the practice right it’s so definitely it is yeah for

38:08

sure the one thing that nobody sees is how much time i spend alone doing these

38:14

pieces and they’re wonderful pieces and i love doing them but it’s

38:19

it’s a time where you’re by yourself and you’re in your own world you’re creating and your time just kind of

38:26

is there a time a day that works best for you when you’re when you’re doing work it used to be at night yeah

38:32

okay but i have a evening job now so that’s kind of out of the window so great most

38:38

of these were done in the afternoon or in the late evening but not very long

38:44

in a lady yeah okay do you find natural light helps when you’re working or is it

38:49

or do you rather just have really good lighting good lighting is best

38:55

but i can honestly work in the dark okay yeah it doesn’t have to be very well lit

39:00

but yeah because yeah for my process i’ve already finished the piece in my head

39:06

okay i’m just going through the process of putting down yeah and putting it down okay yeah and

39:13

the other thing is that i wanted to say was that for me as an artist i’ve already

39:19

like all of these were already finished in my head right i just had to do the work to put them on paper yeah awesome

39:26

and the process that i disliked the most was the beginning when i had to lay down the foundation

39:33

it’s all muddled and i still have to coordinate everything right but when it starts to come together that’s when i’m

39:39

at my most happiest is like when i’m almost finished come together yeah yeah awesome so do

39:46

you work do you have like a home studio and like where is that where you like i have a little corner in our dining room

39:52

okay yeah because i have this like this big uh wooden artboard that i just lay on the

39:58

the kitchen table and i’m just sitting there like and i’m usually hunched over like this yeah like that

40:04

right because i want to get that detail in and i’m like really close yeah okay so my back is

40:10

pretty yeah pretty sore but yeah i guess you must get stiffened yeah

40:15

go sit in a hot tub after something [Laughter]

40:20

oh that’s awesome okay um well we we have a little bit more

40:25

time and it’s i think it’s probably q a time so we’ll just see if there’s anybody in the audience if you have any questions

40:32

please feel free

40:43

well half of it i get it from alberta art gallery downtown in red deer and the other

40:50

place i get it from is from where i work at dominoes [Laughter]

40:56

in domino’s lancaster and red deer okay

41:01

and um the one day i went into work and i noticed they were throwing out the boxes yeah of the dip cups but i noticed

41:08

there was a kind of a thinner kind of cardboard paper okay and it was the same as the canson paper i

41:13

use at home so i was like hey can you save these like yeah i think they’re

41:20

oh i see okay so every day when we have a big rush there’s usually a stack of

41:25

brown paper yeah in the back okay and that’s how i get uh free paper for a lot

41:32

of my pieces okay well whatever works right exactly and like that’s what you said earlier it doesn’t

41:38

matter what it is but as long as you’re it works with you and you

41:44

and you can apply your whatever you’re doing on it yeah so that that’s great yeah and it’s

41:51

really really great paper actually it’s okay and that you know a lot of dominoes are wrong

41:56

yeah well there you go well that’s actually you know for some

42:01

people you know buying supplies is is difficult so if you can if you can then why not get

42:08

it free if it’s if it’s doable for sure so i’m just looking online here to see if there’s any questions out there from

42:15

people and there isn’t yet so i’m just put it out there again if there’s anyone that um has the live feed then please

42:21

feel free uh to uh send us a message and we can answer it

42:27

looks like we’re running a little bit out of time are we oh you have a question okay i was like he’s like

42:34

okay good work

42:40

[Music]

42:49

and how do you really decide like in particular some of them you can see that

42:54

you changed a lot other ones you kept your composition and you just kind of made it

42:59

larger like how do you kind of decide to go from sketch to a full drawing or a

43:05

study my process is that

43:12

if i’ve already decided to do a piece i’ve already decided on the composition

43:17

the position the the the pictures i’m going to be going from it’s usually already done in my head

43:24

it’s just i gotta put down the initial sketch just so i can see if it’ll work for what i want and if i can get it done

43:32

um the one thing i like to say to a lot of people for art it’s it’s up here it’s

43:38

not in here this helps a lot but it’s here because a lot of people think oh i can’t

43:44

do that it’s not as it’s like no you can i just put a little more time into it than you have that’s all that’s the only

43:50

difference between me and you right it may not look exactly the same way i do but it’s not supposed to you’re a

43:55

different person right for sure um i have a question here somebody’s um

44:01

sent in uh tara lee uh has asked would you ever consider

44:07

teaching art classes definitely i would definitely love to

44:14

teach art classes [Music] the only concern i would have is

44:21

that i would not know how to communicate properly what i’m trying to convey

44:26

[Music] that would really concern me is that i’m trying to get across a point that i

44:33

can’t really articulate mm-hmm well it’s i mean it’s it is practice you

44:39

know to be able to get up there and do it and then the beauty of that is you can show people too oh yeah so

44:46

that’s one thing i would love to do is to i never thought i’d be saying that in my life but yeah

44:53

but i do have a student um right now she’s constantly working on her own things

45:00

calling me for advice and saying well what do you think of this and this and we usually meet up every

45:05

three months or so whenever she has the time yeah and uh we go over

45:11

what she wants to do what she wants to accomplish how to get there oh awesome so you’re mentoring somebody already

45:18

that’s great yeah and she’s doing quite wonderful she won’t say that about herself obviously yeah which makes her

45:24

an artist so yeah because an artist will always be their worst critic and that’s good because if

45:31

you become stagnant in something that means you’re not growing and you’re not progressing yeah for sure so it’s great

45:37

that she’s like no i’m not i’m not great so yeah keep that yeah keep that attitude keep on i’m still like this

45:43

with all of this i’m good but i’m not great yet yeah okay

45:49

you have high expectations of yourself yes yeah and if you’re not progressing you’re just there’s always a little room

45:55

for improvement right okay okay cool uh just double check here

46:04

hey no one more place to look here no okay is there any other questions

46:12

yes uh do you think that a realistic style is required to send the message that you

46:19

want from this exhibition no definitely not

46:25

to send a message one merely has to have an idea

46:30

and an idea can form many different ways to deliver that message

46:38

this was just merely one way that i could express myself

46:43

and if i had a different style or if i was focused on many different things i i imagine these portraits would all look

46:50

vastly different but for the show i wanted to maintain a

46:56

a a continuous style rather than mixing up each piece which i imagine

47:02

would be a lot more interesting exhibit but for this i wanted it to be sort of

47:09

refined and dignified i guess being

47:15

expressive awesome yeah that’s really good yeah um

47:34

it was about grade 3 i believe yes grade three

47:40

about eight nine um ironically because we had um the

47:46

classroom i was in in grade three had a had a contest it was like it was something to

47:53

do with superman i believe who can do superman you get like free lunch at superfoods or something like

47:59

that and everybody as soon as they mentioned superman everybody in the class just

48:04

turned to me because i’ve been doodling you know comic book art and everybody kind of turns to me and

48:10

i’m like what yeah and they’re like oh man he’s gonna win like you know

48:19

i really had the first um inkling that okay maybe maybe i’m

48:24

pretty good at this stuff because before that i was just kind of doodling and doing my own thing and i

48:30

didn’t think nothing of it yeah yeah i’m sorry yeah that’s when i thought all

48:35

right maybe i’ll keep at this and thankfully yeah this is

48:43

excuse me sorry about that a little dry in the my throat so

48:50

sorry but that’s awesome though it’s a very very young age that you you realize that

48:56

this could be something that you wanted to do more of oh yeah definitely and uh

49:02

and also when i started drawing it was because of my cousin alistair who i

49:08

lived with at the time um he’s about seven years older than i am

49:14

when i go down into his room because he had a basement room like in the basement

49:19

and he was doodling too except he was doing comic book art from like uh

49:24

uh casper richie rich those kind of cartoons yeah yeah and watch him draw

49:31

and that’s kind of where i got those first inspiration to start drawing because he showed me how

49:38

he did it and then i kind of expanded on that um [Music]

49:43

yeah great any other questions or we’re

49:49

we’re good so have you thought about transitioning aside into like other material leather

49:57

or something like that if you’re painting your horses for example you use like a horse blender or something like that or tell them

50:07

uh yes i’ve been actually i’ve worked with leather about five years ago

50:13

and i lost interest in it simply because i didn’t like the tools

50:19

yeah uh with leather working um i didn’t like them then i’m not saying i wouldn’t like them now if i retried it

50:26

but back then yeah i was experimenting with leather and different materials and this kind of

50:33

i wanted to focus on this more than expanding but now i’m at a place with

50:40

all of this that i’m like okay maybe i can move on to something different um

50:52

yeah um yeah also expanded yeah

50:58

yeah that’s another creative side of me is yeah i have these coats these long coats and the reason why i have them is

51:05

because i couldn’t find them anywhere right i can’t find a decent long trench coat that goes to the floor

51:11

without it being like you know over a thousand dollars right yeah and i thought well i’m smart enough why

51:17

don’t i just grab a sewing machine and see if

51:22

to a point where i can actually do the whole coat myself the lining and everything else yeah it’s like okay that

51:28

was relatively easy yeah i don’t know why people are struggling with it

51:34

that’s awesome it just came naturally then to you that’s good maybe you’re a fashion designer as well

51:40

inside of you i find well for me anyways what i’ve learned is

51:45

when i have a sudden interest in something it’s way easier to learn everything about it

51:51

like you instantly pick up the lessons that you have to learn to be good at right yeah and i figure that’s

51:58

with anything in life really yeah if you’re interested in it for sure that’s probably why i didn’t do great at

52:04

school because i was not interested in learning all that stuff but in art um

52:09

me and shane actually never did any of our assignments

52:15

both of us were just doodling around our art teacher actually passed us just

52:20

on our doodles and little things while my brother craig had to create these big huge paintings and

52:27

you know actually do the work yeah me and shane were just kind of coasting along on our talent

52:33

kind of felt bad but i was like hey you know there it is

52:40

awesome okay well um i think if there isn’t any other

52:46

questions uh but if there is feel free jump in um but i’ll double check here just to make

52:53

sure we haven’t i haven’t lost anybody here but okay

52:58

no we don’t have any other chat questions double check this

53:03

okay nope we’re good okay i guess that’s that’s where we are so we

53:10

can we can wrap it up so thank you all for coming and it was it was it’s been a privilege

53:17

to work with byron so we’re really happy that he was able to come today and do our cue our interview and

53:24

our well all the q a’s and everything so yes thank you so much for being here byron and

53:30

we really love your your work so we want to see more thank you so much for having me and

53:36

thank you for the opportunity i mean this has been one heck of a ride so far i mean good

53:42

i’ve loved every minute of it

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