The Shoe
I was lucky to be among the group of artists who went up to the Squamish Music Festival in 2015, and paint a mural on one of the walls of the pavilion that was specifically built for the purpose of large format art. It was an incredible experience and no matter the rain, and with the help of wonderful Thaira Bouhid, I was able to finish this mural in around three and a half days. Huge thanks goes out to Andrew Young (http://dyoung.ca/) for organizing such an amazing project, as well as painting a mind-blowing mural of his own all at the same time.
I wanted to create an uplifting imagery that fit the vibe of the music festival, and that made you want to join in with the characters in the image. Hopefully it worked, and you can see the original design made with festival color palette above. Originally, the name of this mural was going to be along the lines of "Bounce", but since everyone seemed to like his right shoe so much, it had to be changed. I think it fits perfectly with the spirit of the festival, as well as reminds of the good memories we created up in Squamish.
Thank you to Thaira Bouhid and Charles Icay for being such great inspiration.
Brandlive and Livenation present the inaugural year of Squamish Valley Music Festival’s Visual Arts Program. The organizers have teamed up with local artist/curator Drew Young, to produce a robust site-wide program. The instalations were produced by 40+ locally/internationally celebrated artists, specializing in a wide spectrum artistic disciplines. Festival-goers engage immediately with 100’+ of sculptural works at main gates. Their course continues by installations including a massive rendition of this year’s Poly Bear mascot and ultimately arrive at the VA Program’s mecca - The Art Pavilion. The Pavilion is a 3-tiered arts castle; providing attendees a constantly evolving day/night arts experience and incredible vantage points for performances. The structure is wrapped in 20 live-painting murals and houses one of the world’s largest mechanized kaleidoscopes. At night it’s look is illuminated by an incredible light/laser display and a 40’ one-of-a-kind psychedelic interactive animation wall. This festival has become the playground the West Coast art community deserves. Executive Producer: Paul Runnels Creative Director/Curator: Drew Young Project Manager: Jackie Sakaguchi Site Director: Isaac Kinakin Lighting: Jason McKinnon POLY BEAR Concept: Drew Young Fabrication: Aaron Gullmes Animation/VJ: Jonny Ostrem Bear Design: Jeremiah Shaw Schematics: Drew Young, Jonny Ostrem REACTIVE WALL Concept: Jonny Ostrem Animation/VJ: Jonny Ostrem KALEIDOSCOPE Concept: Drew Young Design: Brayden Eshuis, Christian Honetschlager Fabrication: Christian Honetschlager ART PAVILION Concept: Drew Young Layout: Drew Young Managers: Lucy Cameron, Nick Pound Muralists: Ilya Viryachev Drew Young Tierney Milne Shannon Elliott James Knight ISREK Peter Ricq Alison Woodward Ali Bruce Lauren Coutts Brent clowater Colin Moore Ben Knight Mark Illing TIKTOK Lucy Cameron Karston Smith Taka Sudo Ben Tour Mandy Tsung Russell Alton Dylan Humphreys GATES Design: Drew Young Fabrication: Aaron Gullmes Murals: Colin Moore, James Knight, Brayden Eshuis Schematics: Drew Young Signage: James Knight, Eidan Gidon VIDEO Camera: Joe Klymkiw, JOI Productions Edit: Drew Young Music: Runnin - GANG SIGNS (STINT Remix)