Ambitious success

In a week or so, a long-awaited documentary about the construction of Disneyland will debut on Disney, and this afternoon I got to watch a preview. The show will showcase the construction and many of the very difficult challenges that surrounded it. The documentary is going to be well worth watching, and I look forward to it with great anticipation.

Watching the Disneyland preview reminded me of how it felt when we worked on our own, albeit much smaller-scale projects. First among these projects was Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf, which we built in 2000. The mini golf was exceptionally ambitious for our family and little crew, taking every ounce of our energy, labour and finances. Looking back, I vividly recall how that dream brought us to the financial brink before we opened the doors. Thankfully, the project was a success over time, and we thoroughly enjoyed operating it for well over a decade. When we decided to return to our roots and concentrate solely on customers’ theme projects, the sale of the Adventure Golf helped finance our new shop, state-of-the-art equipment and our new house. Once again, we plunged into a season of high debt, long work hours and considerable risk. But we firmly believed in our dreams, worked extremely hard, and over the next years prospered. A decade later, we plunged into the deep end once again to begin designing and building the Hazelnut Inn. That project is now nearing its spectacular completion and is already being enjoyed by guests from near and far.

The truth is that very few people truly understand the challenging, untold backstory or the decades of hard work when they peek over our fence or that of someone who realizes an ambitious dream.

Journey to the past

My career as a visual storyteller stretches back to the 1970s. My distinctive drawing style has its roots in my work as a pen and ink artist.

My fine art has always been infused with a sense of history and locale that is uniquely Canadian. My work depicts the humbler qualities of objects, both real and imagined and, at its best, transports the viewer to a place of wonder.

Although our work as theme artists has kept us very busy for over three decades, I’ve never lost this love of drawing. In my travels, I stop frequently to admire and record what I see - especially the old, rusty relics of days gone by. This past summer, my brothers and I drove back to BC’s Interior to where I spent my formative years. That trip was a journey into my past, and on the way, I discovered I sorely missed the drawing I used to do as a way of making a living. It was an itch that begged to be scratched.

Since then, I have worked up many drawings, starting with the reference material I recorded during our summer trip. This drawing is of an old wagon we saw. My artistic license allowed me to add a tree I had collected from somewhere else.

This coming week, I’ll fire up the laser to create some limited prints we’ll soon be offering. Stay tuned…

Small success

We are experimenting with a wide variety of substrates and techniques as we test the laser and are seeing varying degrees of success. Peter suggested I slop some gesso on a board and fire up the laser to see what might happen. Moth had some gesso handy, and it didn’t take long to dry. While two or three coats would have been ideal, I decided one coat would be plenty for an initial test. I picked an image of one of the sign concepts, and the gesso would allow for brighter colours when I hand-painted it. The image turned out nice and dark, and the laser cut out the sign perfectly. I mounted it to a refinished panel with some spacers and brought it into the house to paint up after supper. It’s been about twenty-six years since I had hand-painted the transparent inks, but it was like riding a bike. There’s nothing quite like hand-painting, complete with missed spots and runs. Even so, the result is magic. There is still some experimenting to go, but the sign series of limited edition prints will most likely be done in this fashion. Stay tuned…