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Recently I was asked on an instagram post "How do you get your type so accurate and crisp?" This is not the first time my type/logo rendering approach has been inquired upon and I love the fact that followers and fellow artists notice this and ask!

I gave a brief answer by saying that "I've been around before computers" and thought perhaps I'd better share a slightly longer version here.

So many artists today use projectors, they speed things up so work can be pumped out the door faster then the paint dries.

Now before anybody jumps all over me for saying this, there is nothing wrong with this, but for me, I choose to do it the manual way.

I do not use projectors for any of my work. This is a personal choice. I am a representational artist, but I don't choose to be so tight it stops looking like a painting. I like the challenge of taking it up towards the edge but not over it. My subject matter is not perfect, I don't always get things quite right, but I am happy with the final result.

Trust me, it would be easy for me to take a photo and load it up on a USB/cloud and project my entire image to canvas, trace everything perfectly and add colour. Some days I wish I would do this, but instead I choose to do it the way I was trained to do over 35 years ago.

Just like in elementary school, for those of us old enough to have been taught cursive writing skills, hand lettering logo's and specific fonts, is just a matter of practice. And lots of it!

You see my commercial art or now, more often referred to as graphic arts, career started just before computers were affordable in the work place.

My first job out of college was manually recreating logo's and typesetting for corrugated boxes.

My second job was with a design studio called "Slicko Studios" and part of my job was to paint type and logo's on top of felt pen renderings for client presentations. I had the steady hands of a surgeon, I could render 1/16th type that was readable with glasses better then anybody! And I was proud of it too.

My first job was easier then my second. If I screwed up I could easily start over, my second job meant dealing with the artist that had spent several hours illustrating the project and asking them (bribing with golden liquid beverages) to do it all over again. I learned fast!

It also helped that I now had a creative director that was a master at doing this himself. I was like a sponge, I watched carefully how he held his pens and paint brushes and copied his style. And I practiced, and practiced and practiced. I think you are starting to get the picture.

Computers then entered the picture and I had to change skill sets and for roughly the next 28 years I stopped using my manual skills.

Now having left my graphic career behind and focusing entirely on painting, I am able to bring back into my work my type skills. I am still a bit rusty, and age and steady hands have set in, but I have started the practicing all over again!

It really is just like riding a bike, I haven't forgotten how to do it, I just need to keep practicing and practicing...

On June 11th, 2018 I was given an opportunity of a lifetime!

Getting into galleries is not easy and getting into Vancouver galleries is next to impossible. There's just too much competition and not enough wall space, so when Katsumi Kimoto, the owner of Kimoto Gallery contacted me and inquired about a piece I had done asking if it was available I was over the moon!

Katsumi was setting up for "Art Walk, South Granville"  and was interested in including my "Conversation Piece" in the salon style show.

I would never have guessed that my work would be hanging on the walls next to so many talented artists at KIMOTO GALLERY, but Katsumi gave me an opportunity and I have had such an amazing ride.

Kimoto Gallery was just completing it's 6th year when a difficult decision had to be made. Today an email was sent to everyone announcing the closure of the gallery.

https://mailchi.mp/fae3077de053/kimoto-gallery-will-be-closing-at-current-location-at-1525-west-6th-ave?fbclid=IwAR1wENr9Rb4viZINwOhZ4lFUPMJZeex5D-EMRLzl-ZYq371_Ijvzj0d66eU

So as sad as this announcement is for me and so many others, I am most grateful for the opportunity I did get!

Thank you Katsumi and everyone at KIMOTO GALLERY or giving this artist their first chance in a Vancouver commercial gallery!

I wish Katsumi, his family, and everyone at Kimoto Gallery all the best. I hope our paths get to cross again some day!