MONSTR

My partner Marsha died suddenly in my arms of a brain aneurysm. One moment she was there, the next she was gone. When she was alive, she was my muse and I incorporated her in all of my artwork. Without her I was lost. I left my city to walk the west coast until I couldn’t walk, and ended up on carver Phil Ashbee’s doorstep. He saw I was in trouble, and took me in. I began a tough year and a half apprenticeship, learning from him and another carver. The teachings were harsh, but helped me to heal. MONSTR takes place during my time with Phil, and brings to life how I grappled with my demons and the grief of Marsha’s passing. It is my story, one only I can tell.

In the 12 years since Marsha's passing, I created very little art that expressed the pain and grief of her loss, up until MONSTR. To be creatively crippled and unable to see her in my work was extremely distressing. Over the past three years, with the help and encouragement of my creative team member, I found healing through telling stories of my life through animation. This process has brought Marsha back into my life, and helped me tell my story. Through the supernatural teachings of the forest shared with me while totem carving, MONSTR explores the meaning of life and death, of love and loss.

I grew up the eldest of eight kids in a Black/Potawatomi and mixed-race family. We went through a lot. Saying that art saved my life is not an exaggeration. I have been a life-long artist, drawing since I could hold a pencil, and I use art as a way to make sense of the world. There have been many times when creating was my only driving force and my only solace in being alive.

Art has brought many good people within my circle and has afforded me the chance to work with my creative heroes. I've designed merch for some of my favorite wrestlers, bands and monster trucks. I've been the art director for haunted houses in carnivals and theme parks across Canada, and was a tattooist for a notorious motorcycle club (a wild time in my life to say the least). Through art I met my all-time most influential artist “the Pizz" and became art director at "Tiki Farm,” designing tiki mugs for Disney, 21st Century Studios, and most recently for Elvira herself.

I came to love animation 6 years ago when I received a scholarship through Quickdraw Animation Society in Calgary. I am a person who thrives on routine and discipline. I appreciate the meditative repetition required to create animation. Through making my first two auto-biographical shorts with monster and fantasy elements, I’ve found telling my story through animation is a form of time travel; my art is healing the person who I was in the past.

I have made several animated shorts as writer/director/animator. “Still,” an undersea space fantasy with pyramids, was made as part of my scholarship with Quickdraw Animation Society. "RKLSS" is about my time as a young offender, and “SAVJ” is about my brothers, sisters and I surviving for a summer in a provincial park until children’s aid apprehended and placed everyone in separate foster care. RKLSS and SAVJ are successfully touring the festival circuit.