Jack Dylan is a pretty snappy artist who has been designing posters and creating images for many festivals over the years, such as Pop Montreal, Sled Island and Le Guess Who. Along with Jack's gifted sense of design he's also a co-founder of Friendship Cove; a hang-out space for musicians and artists that turns into a venue for live music and events. Jack's partner in creating some of the coolest lofts around is Graham Van Pelt of Miracle Fortress (they also recorded their latest album Five Roses at the Cove).

Making it in the poster industry requires a lot of hard work and dedication. For many artists it requires staying in on weekends, spending days on a single drawing, spending lots of solitary time and for Jack, talking to his cat for long periods of time.

"Illustration, at least the kind that I do, can be a very consuming process, and when you're starting out, not getting paid, or being paid very little it's going to take even more time away from your life just to make ends meat" says Jack.

For the Christmas season Jack has already started feeling festive. His recent work is decking the "Holiday Shopping" covers for the Eye Weekly in Toronto, and The Mirror in Montreal. He's also going to be selling posters at the Whipper Snapper Gallery on Dec 22^nd.

Although often busy at work and no time for play there are still moments of bliss "adoring girls constantly accost me, and members of all the right bands frequently dial my cell. What can I say?" says Jack jokingly.

To learn more about Jack continue reading after the jump..



R3: What are your inspirations when designing posters?

JD: Because my subject is usually people, for inspiration I only have to keep my eyes open. I take note of the things people around me do, how they behave, how they dress - I'm an avid eavesdropper. So because of all this, my work has become, what you might describe as very contemporary. In that there are a lot of scenes from everyday life: Indie-shows, cafes, apartments, street scenes, that kind of stuff. But that topic of "the every day" is actually a very traditional approach to illustration, not a modern one.

Many of the publications and poster that have inspired me, such as The New Yorker, Harper's, and vintage poster artwork; all frequently showcased moments from everyday life. And often times this could be quite seasonal too. If it was a fall issue of the magazine, you would see images of fall on the cover. Now that sounds kind of boring, but I actually really like this sort of thing, and I think it has made for some of the centuries best contemporary works of art. (Meaning art, which really reflects the nature of the time it was created in.) Harper's magazine was originally great for this, and the New Yorker still does it. But more modern publications and advertisements tend to veer away from this kind of subject matter, and prefer instead to portray the extraordinary: Models, costumes, Rock Stars and Modern art and design. But for me, I enjoy illustration which has a narrative at work. So in other words, it's not just a splashy image to draw your attention for a few seconds. But, hopefully there's going to be at lest a few hundred words behind the picture.

But here's where you've got to be careful as an illustrator. Because it's easy to become really cutesy and overly sentimental with the subject matter. (Think Norman Rockwell, or Charles Schulz). And I don't have to tell you, that it's often the kind of thing that a lot of people might think of as a "low art." But we needn't be too afraid about that anymore. I think the growing popularity of comics has done a lot to re-popularize this kind of illustration, let alone the effects that modern film and reality TV might have had on us. And again, looking historically at it. Many artists and movements have approached these kinds of scenes from the everyday: The Impressionists, and Rembrandt, come to mind for instance. And this kind of artwork is often scorned in its own time, but later might become one of our greatest windows into the past. Things don't stay the same for very long after all.

It reminds me that I was recently listening to a debate about the merits of popular wildlife painter, Robert Bateman. Who critics have called just an "illustrator," or a "poster artist." (As if that was the lowest an artist could ever possibly sink.) So many people were calling into the show to defend Bateman. One caller pointed out that 100 years from now half the wildlife that Bateman painted might no longer exist. And I thought that that was a pretty good point. Maybe I sometimes can get a little too cutesy though.

R3: What's going on in Canada right now with the poster scene?

JD: It really matters where you are. Because aside from the obvious necessity of having a healthy arts and music community. Whether or whether not you're actually aloud to poster in your city is of course a political decision. You may recall that in Toronto a while ago there was some serious talk about this issue in city hall. A couple of councilors publicly announced it their mission to do something about the plague of posters that had befallen their cities once beautiful streets, and clean up the "garbage." A long debate ensued, and apparently the new restrictions are coming soon. And what this will actually mean exactly, no body can say for sure, (depending on whether said law is actually enforced, etc.) But it obviously makes clear the challenges that face the art form.

However, the postering free-for-all that has existed in Toronto for so long, didn't exactly do great things to foster an artistic poster community. I think most people would agree that 90% of what you see on the poles in a city like Toronto, just isn't very good. And I don't simply mean that it's bad art. I mean that objectively speaking, there was just very little effort put into it; and certainly no indication of the "artist's" name or anything like that. I have certainly seen some good poster in and from Toronto --- but I have to say that in Montreal it's plain to see that a lot of thought and care usually goes into each poster. They're almost always illustrated; they've been signed by the artist, and sometimes they're even hand printed limited additions. Perhaps if more advertisers put greater care into the quality of their poster design, the community at large would be more accepting of posters on their streets.

R3: You co-founded Friendship Cove - what's going on these days?

JD: All and all, I've been doing the loft venue thing for almost four years now, and that means well over 150 shows in my living room. When we opened our first venue in 2004, The Electric Tractor". that's when I began doing show posters. I don't think it would have happened if it weren't for that.

One of my venue partners through all of this was my friend Graham Van Pelt. He's the man behind the band "Miracle fortress." His new album "Five Roses", was recorded at Friendship Cove, and was just recently nominated for the Polaris Award this year.

Graham, like me, grew up in Stratford Ontario, and I've known him since grade 7. We even went to our respective music and art schools in the same city, London Ontario. I've done the album artwork for every one of his recordings since his career began. Including "Five Roses", though you might not recognize me in it, as it's a pretty different style than I ordinarily work in. There are some photos of our cat Charles, in the booklet though.

As for Friendship Cove these days, things are still going good. But we're all getting a little tired of picking up beer bottles and dodging noise complaints. Plus Graham and my own careers are different now. Living at the "The Electric Tractor" in particular was essentially like living in an artistic Frat-House. So naturally we have a lot of funny stories from that time. But I would never want to live that way again. Ever. These days we're busier and we have less time to host shows and that kind of thing now. I can't speak for Graham, but I know that I myself would like to sell-out as soon as possible and get a condo with a hot tub.

R3: You've been involved in many festivals, what's it like being a scenester?

JD: Ha! It's great being a scenester! It's all that everybody makes it out to be... Adoring girls constantly accost me, and members of all the right bands frequently dial my cell. What can I say?

When I moved to Montreal, I was arriving as a painter with a background in fine arts; so I was immediately struck by the popularity and dominance of the music scene. There, was a great community of people that was enthusiastic about going out and supporting young artists, (though these artists were all musicians). In the same token, you had an extensive and willing media---magazines, blogs, college radio--- that was eager to interview and promote these musicians.

But did the visual artists have it as good? As a painter I was supposed to only do one big show a year, and then spend most of my time applying for grants that take a year to receive, if at all. This vs. what the musicians were doing, which was playing two shows a month, going on tour and getting all sorts of press and fans along the way. It seemed like the fine arts road to success was going to be a 25-year plan. So even though I didn't really understand the how of it at the time, I made a conscious decision to look at what the music community was up to, and see if I couldn't learn from them. And of course all of my friends were musicians. And they were the ones who wanted to book such and such a band to play at our house, or explain to my why Aids Wolf would be jamming outside my bedroom that night. So it was all quite inescapable. Essentially, I was an artist raised by a pack of musicians.