View from The Pas
It’s the evening before the first ever father and son show opening for James and Matt Dean.
The pair sat down with me over Teams to discuss the gallery show Of Apples & Trees, their journey as artists and what it’s like raising an aspiring artist in a northern Manitoban community; this show was a long time in the making.
When thinking about a father and son art duo, one thinks, “How special for a talented artist to be able to share his craft with his son and see him thriving as an artist all these years later.” And, if you too were thinking this, know, like me, you have it all wrong! The show earned its name in earnest, James informs me. “I know you might have heard the old adage that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, which is cool, but it didn't work that way with us. My son was the artist before I was actually doing it. From the time he could walk he kept drawing and drawing and so that whole journey was him and everybody knew it.”
In fact, it was James as a father who learned to draw to encourage his son’s natural ability and talents. He saw into the future and was able to understand that if he didn’t do something to help foster Matt’s talent, that the video games and other childhood distractions might take their hold and Matt’s talent might dissipate. James’ support for his son’s talent was the driving force behind uncovering his own talent as a painter.
Their styles are vastly different, yet the duo crafted a showcase of their bodies of work that are most complimentary. “For myself, I've got a lot of portraiture, figurative works. I've kind of been dealing a little bit with AI recently,” Matt tells me. “I'm a high school teacher and I teach graphic design, so a big part of what we talk about in my classes is AI. I've been dabbling with it in the last few years. It’s a thing that we can use to create; you can create an AI generated image in 10 seconds with some prompts, but then taking those images that are made by the computer and painting them, you're taking a 10 second thing and you're putting an additional 20 hours into it. It's kind of a reversal of some of those ideas.”
James’ work captures a different focal point outside of portraiture. “So, whereas Matt uses all kinds of stuff for his references, as he mentioned AI, for me, I use mostly photographs of places I've been, people and street scenes; also, the boreal scenes that I've done. I'm more leaning on our street scenes and our unguarded moments of people.” James continues, “We've had some local artists, that as a group we went out and did the plenary just like the Group of Seven. That also was part of my journey; sitting out in the snowbank, painting the frozen ice with the trees like Tom Thomson did, and that was part of my journey to where we are today.”
The duo is excited to be opening their first show together; as much as Matt was the one to spark the fire for James discovering himself as an artist, it was James who really put the time in to allow Matt to become the artist he is today. Matt tells me, “He put in the time to buy me materials, to go down to Winnipeg to find comic book artists working in the city. We got to have relationships with some really, really fascinating and cool people. My dad is very good at talking to people and hunting people down, finding mentors that definitely inspired me.”
James chimes in, “I wanted him to be the best he could be. I wanted him to have everything that I could give him, while I could give it to him. So, in this case of art… well, how else do you get to change the world, but immerse yourself in it? But also, to seek it out, find it and bring that to him. To realize that there are people doing this and they know what they're doing, and you can glean and take what you want from them. And I'll never forget that Doug Wheatley, who does Star Wars, is from Winnipeg. I saw in the newspaper that in the Exchange District there was a company doing graphic drawings for the episode 3 Star Wars comics; Matt was really into Star Wars, big time. I put his drawings in a little cache with his pencils and we went walking around the exchange trying to find out where this was happening as the newspaper wouldn’t tell us anything. We went to the first building and he said no, and went to another building and we talked to another guy. Matt pulled out the article from the newspaper and said, ‘I'm looking for these guys that draw Star Wars.’ The man replied, ‘I think they're at the end of that long hallway with that door.’ Of course, my mouth dropped to the floor. Matt and I walked down the hall, knocking the door, and walked in to discover we’d walked into Star Wars!”
And from then on, Matt as a middle school artist had a mentor who would look at his drawings and critique them – someone who he deeply admired and who was working with all the big names, Marvel, DC and Star Wars. The two would meet three or four times a year to talk about art and this gave Matt the foundation to continue his artistic pursuits, which lead him to teaching and taking these lessons to the next generation of artists.
This show can be found within The Sam Waller Museum, located in the old courthouse building and heritage status space within the town of The Pas. To get a show at the Susan MacCharles Gallery in the Sam Waller Museum, an artist must book two years out. The Susan MacCharles Gallery is currently the only permanent gallery space within the town and features local Manitoban artists almost exclusively. The gallery space is named for a longtime volunteer and the first curator of the museum who passed away in 1999 after battling breast cancer. Of Apples & Trees is on display at the museum until September 20th, 2024. The cost of entry is $5 per person. The artist’s work can be seen at www.jamesdeanfineart.com. Many of the works on display are for sale and I encourage readers to make the trip up to The Pas to witness this beautiful display of art, creativity and what can unfold when you support children in their passions.
Gabrielle Swan moved to The Town of The Pas 18-months ago after spending a decade in New York City. She holds a Bachelor of Design from Toronto Metropolitan University with a major in communications and a minor in marketing. Swan brings her love of art and non-profit experience to a community who is most welcoming to an outsider. Swan serves as the Chair of the Destination Marketing Committee, the Treasurer of The Pas Guest List Inc, is a board member of The Pas Arts Council and is a committee member of Imaginorthern.
