If you’re a Canadian and you like art, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Jay Dart. For those unfamiliar, Jay is a several-times awarded “drawist” who creates fantasy-esque drawings and mixed media installation pieces. His psychedelic art is known for its colour and mystery (colourful twigs and beards, especially), and has been featured at Art Toronto’s International Art Fair, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, among many others.
Oh, and he takes his inspiration from his alter ego, “Jiggs” – a character who lives in the land of “Yawnder”. Watch the video below to hear from the man (men?) himself (themselves?)!
This shoot for CBC Arts’ “Exhibitionists” Series , which is “young, daring and born of a passionate and personal connection with innovating artists across genres from diverse communities across Canada,” and features provocative artists working in all mediums who are disrupting the status quo whilst celebrating their cultures, was hosted out of Studio 2, taking advantage of the clean white space and cyc.
Director and Producer March Mercanti brought this project through The Lab back in January, along with Cinematographer Stephen Parker and Engineer/Location Sound Recordist Mike Monson.
“Jay’s art work has a lot of negative white space and I wanted to keep the video stylistically uniform,” says Mercanti. “Therefore, I wanted to shoot Jay, Jiggs and all the items from Yawnder behind a white cyc. If you ever have the pleasure of meeting Jay, you will realize he has the Jedi-like presence to him. I immediately pictured him in this white void and that’s how I imagined his mind works – mentally strong with the ability to phase everything else out.”
Check out the full video below!
Photo by @AdamWeitner, Founder, AstroLab Studios Inc.
Meet Jay Dart’s alter ego
Drawist Jay Dart brings a colourful new world to life with the help of his purple bearded alter ego Jiggs.
And, if you like Jay’s art, be sure to follow him on Instagram, or check out his website for more magical mystery fun. You can also read more about him on CBC Arts’ website here.
For more behind-the-scenes action be sure to subscribe to the blog and follow us on Instagram!
Featured header photo and above video are property of CBC Arts: ©2018 CBC/Radio-Canada. All rights reserved.
