On the road

This week has been a busy one, out of my studio for the most part. It's the grand opening of MutliCam Western Canada, our biggest project of late. The opening is staged much like a trade show with various participating vendors. We were asked to set up a display as well. With more than five thousand invitations being sent it was too good an opportunity to miss.

The beginning of the week was spent tiddling up the last minute details of the project and setting up our display. The last three days are spent manning our display, and showing what we do. It's been a fun, high energy, yet exhausting week. Some exciting things will come out of this adventure to be sure. And it is not over yet...

-grampa dan

Artist from birth?

I’ve never really figured out if we are born with talent or just pick it up along the way.  I like to believe we all have a talent inside of us - just waiting to be developed and nurtured. Some people sing, some excel at sports - others are good at doing math type stuff. I know lots of people who are just very good at dealing with people. Which ones are learned skills and which come naturally we may never know for sure. Knowing how it happens isn’t the important thing in my view. 

I believe how much talent we are born with does not determine how far we take our skills. That is determined by something else I like to call passion. That too may be a genetic trait for all I know.  But I do know folks who have a passion for something will take what ever raw talent they may possess and develop it much further than those who lack passion. Talent for something is only the starting point - not the finish line. 

I started drawing pretty young. My parents encouraged it. One of my first drawings is shown here. Little did we know drawing and art would become my life’s passion, although by the first grade it was fairly apparent. I wanted to be an artist as long as I can remember - without even knowing really what that might involve back then.

Now, more than half a century later this dream, this passion has not faded in the least. I still wake up each morning with ideas in my head and spend each day making these dreams a reality. Even after all these years I devour every scrap of information I can find in the hopes of becoming better at my craft. 

While I may not have been born an artist I have certainly lived my life as one. for me it is  purposeful choice each day. It is my wish that everyone can discover their personal passion and do at least a little each day making that passion a reality.

-grampa dan

Living the dream.

We have always been a home based business. It provides a lifestyle we enjoy. For many years I dreamed of the perfect shop to work in. We even purchased three properties through the years, but for various reasons it simply wasn't meant to be. I continued to work in our small garage or on our customer's sites. We had to pay our dues. and wait until the time was right. I kept dreaming and sketching ideas, waiting for that time.

In 2000 we relocated from Vancouver Island to Chilliwack, BC. My workspace was downgraded to a carport and a small room in the basement for a studio. I dreamed even harder of the idea work space. In 2003 we found the perfect property, on the edge of the small town of Yarrow and yet surrounded by farmland. Mountain vistas framed the landscape. I drew up the plans and showed them to Janis. She looked at them and shook her head. I was devastated. Then she looked me in the eye and told me to make the shop BIGGER. We would live in the old farmhouse until we could afford to build our dream house. In the meantime t=he dream shop would go ahead. I went back to the drawing board and drew up the final plans. 

 While we could have built an inexpensive, utilitarian steel building, we instead decided to build something much more imaginative. We would be looking at this building for many years to come. It also had to give our customers a clear idea of what we did inside. The construction was of concrete filled blocks of styrofoam, which provide awesome sound and heat insulation. The exterior is of sculpted Concrete, allowing us to give it a fairytale look  with oversize timbers and colorful rock work. A giant twelve foot tall dragon flies over the planter out front. Massive, riveted, magic doors dominate the center of the building. This is no ordinary place.

The shop sits at the rear of our small acreage, 300 feet behind our house. Each morning as I come off our porch this is the site I see. I grin a little grin and job out to the shop to go to work. I'm a lucky guy for I get to live my dream - every day.

-grampa dan