In 2000, we built, owned and began operating Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf. A year later, we drew up plans to expand the golf course with a new railroad and bumper boats. The railway was to wind around a mountain, which would have hidden our house and a studio inside. As part of that plan, the Imagination Corporation would have become Giggle Ridge Studio Incorporated, and I would concentrate on concept design only from that point forward. I created the artwork for a new website, business cards and brochures and drew up the plans for the entire project, and we presented the concept to the park board where Giggle Ridge was located, but we could not agree on terms for a long lease. With that deal not possible, we instead bought our property in Yarrow and built our studio, shop and house there. Instead of putting away my tools, we would continue to design and build fanciful creations for customers far and wide. Looking back, this was the perfect plan.
China Adventure Golf
I’ve been working on transferring thousands of old files from CDs to my computer and have come across many projects that have been long forgotten. One such project was a mini-golf course in China. It was to be built in a large mall. I received a series of phone calls from a gentleman there, always in the dead of night, because he never understood the time difference. His English wasn’t very good, and I spoke no Chinese, but we managed to communicate enough to get by. I was contracted to produce a set of concepts and plans for the golf. I also included many photos of current projects in various stages so they could see how we built our features. As I recall, it took a while to send enough information to satisfy them. They paid my design fee in full, and I never heard from them again. Was the project completed? I’ll most likely never know, but if my readers have come across it, I would love to see pictures!
Sterling store mural
I spent about fifteen years of my early artistic career painting more than 125 giant historical murals across Canada and the USA. I used my pen-and-ink style to create visual stories on concrete and brick walls. This mural was painted in Sterling, Illinois - one of four in that city. The locals enjoyed watching the process, and in this case, many elementary school groups dropped by. I always took the time to chat and answer questions - especially with the kids. For this mural, I would ask the kids to tell me their first name, and I would hide it in my painting on the wall. The names are mostly in the shadows. There are more than 150 names in the dark area under the porch. A local sports store owner visited often, and as a nod to him, there is a giant NIKE swoosh just over the DRY GOODS window lettering. Many other things are also hidden through the mural as well, and I believe the mural is still there more than three decades later.
