CANMORE – With a can of spray paint in hand, ready to turn a blank wall into a work of art, Pat Jakubiec begins laying out the foundation of his largest solo mural.
Using technique, control and creativity, the artist, alternatively known as Tower in the street art community, turned what was once a dull brick wall in downtown Canmore into something to stop and admire.
Jakubiec’s latest creation on the backside of JK Bakery Café (7th Avenue), is a vibrant reflection of the Bow Valley utilizing his style and creativity as a graffiti artist.
“This is my biggest solo piece ever. I have other ones with friends, like with two or three other artists [that are] much bigger. But yeah, this is my biggest, let’s say, debut solo piece,” said the artist of 20 years. “That’s the reason I kind of wanted to do it. Just a display of everything I can do so going forward people can see it’s like a portfolio.”
Employing 120 cans of aerosol paint, Jakubiec illustrated local sights such as an elk, marmot, Mount Lady Macdonald, the red wild rose flower, a CP rail train exiting Spiral Tunnels, and his tag, Tower, thrown up in the middle using graffiti letters.
“The train, it’s very cultural with graffiti… and then there’s a huge history in this town regarding trains and coal mining … and then we have that Engine Bridge in town and how many trains passing through, so I just wanted to display that,” said Jakubiec.
From November until late-December, Jakubiec waited for breaks in the unforgiving winter weather to be outside and complete the mural. Normally, a mural of this size would take him around three to five days given the right time of year.
“Unfortunately, it took me like two months, because I painted it during the winter. So, I had little windows where I’m like, ‘hey, it’s four degrees today, let’s attack it for three, four hours,’” said Jakubiec.
“I worked a lot with a headlamp in the dark after work for like five hours to like 7 or 8 p.m. So surprisingly, for a lot of it being painted in the dark as well, it’s turned out pretty sweet. I’m satisfied.”
With around 50 murals to his name, spanning from the oceanic west coast of Canada to the flat prairies of Saskatchewan, Jakubiec is no stranger to transforming blank walls into masterpieces.
Jakubiec began his art career as a young kid using big block letters, to more complex text and to realism earning street cred in Calgary along the way. A lot of his work in the lively Calgary neighbourhood of Kensington could be seen alongside other artists on walls that were donated to them by business owners around 15 years ago.
“Calgary had a lot of grey, blank walls, and these people just trusted us enough to donate these walls and give us free creative control that changed everything for us,” said Jakubiec. “So, we expanded our portfolios exponentially. We grew as artists really quickly.”
The wall in Canmore was also donated to Jakubiec to express his creativity.
“That’s why Jackie (one of the building owners) here, when I showed her, she just fully put trust in me to create this and she donated this wall for like full creative control and that’s been a huge game changer too,” Jakubiec said. “And then in the future, I may change the design every year or two as I want to progress myself or change the scenery, try different animals and landscapes.”
In typical fashion, Jakubiec would free hand his pieces; however, to show the Town of Canmore and the building owners his vision he used a photo of the wall and superimposed images to convey what he had in mind. Once his permit was approved, he was able to start freehand spraying, beginning with black outlines and then slowly filling in the rest. Layer-by-layer, his colourful concept came to life.
With this mural completed, Jakubiec said he hopes to fill more of Canmore’s blank walls with art.
“[I’m] hoping this kind of grows in the community and then maybe I can have more commissions, more donated walls or walls that me, and a couple of friends from Calgary, can do the same thing and expand the way we did like in Kensington and in Calgary,” said Jakubiec.
