Yaimel López – Graphic Artist

This week I spoke to Cuban graphic artist Yaimel López, about the process of screen-printing, Cuban art, and the launch of his first art book.

At the time of this interview, Yaimel has been working as an artist for over ten years since graduating from design school in Cuba. He first worked in editorial design before landing a job at a Cuban magazine that produced political cartoons. Working alongside more experienced cartoonists, Yaimel says that he learned a lot from them both artistically, as well as in a narrative sense. He shared that “you have to be very smart in how you talk about things,” when creating these satirical cartoons, and that this style of layering meanings within the image itself has persisted into his current work. For Yaimel, “my work is never decorative. At least that’s not my main concern when I’m working”.

Screen-Printing

After moving to Canada with his wife, Yaimel continued to forge his own style, taking inspiration from many global influences, but naturally, also from his time in Cuba. He attributes his work to the stylized imagery of political graphics from the 60’s and 70’s, as well as the aforementioned cartoons that he worked on earlier in his career. Perhaps his strongest influence is the the strong screen-printing tradition in Cuba, rooted in bold colours and graphic designs. For those unfamiliar with screen-printing, this is a process in which a combination of mesh and stencils are used to either allow or block ink from reaching the printing surface. By applying multiple layers of this technique, an image can contain multiple colours, as well as more complex images. When Yaimel first came to Canada, his first job was working in a shop that screen-printed designs onto t-shirts. While he was there, he was speaking about his love for the medium when a coworker mentioned that he should get the supplies he needed online, and start making prints of his own. Yaimel sheepishly admitted that he didn’t realize that he could gather the necessary tools so easily in Canada, and he soonafter began working to print his original designs. It can certainly be a messy operation, and one of Yaimel’s biggest challenges starting out was convincing his wife to let him convert their washroom into a space in which he could clean and hang his used screens. As someone who has lived with six other people, I’ve definitely seen worse bathrooms.

Translating Photos Into Prints

As a professional artist, Yaimel says that he has worked on many books in the past for other clients and artists, but “I always had a dream to make my own book”. For his inaugural collection of prints, he took inspiration from a photo album his mother-in-law had found in a home she was working in. The pages of this album contained a series of original black and white photographs of Colombian and Venezuelan indigenous peoples taken during WWII. Yaimel was fascinated by these photos and began thinking about how to translate the story of not only how these people looked and dressed, but what they were thinking and doing in their day-to-day lives. One particular image that stuck out to him was a man making arrows. A dynamic composition, interesting layers, and the bold colours he loves all came together to make an image well-suited for screen-printing. For all of the images he produced, he essentially had to disassemble the photos into their distinct colours and forms, and then layer them back upon one another to compose the final images. After several months of designing and printing, he amassed a series of twenty prints for this book. As he had such a strong background in screen-printing, he tells me that his biggest struggle was not the prints themselves, but rather creating the cover of the book. Handmaking the cover proved much more difficult than he had thought, as even just finding a product that was strong, yet flexible enough was a task of its own. From there, he faced further challenges, experimenting with different measurements in order for it to align and close properly. You should judge a book by its cover if so much love has gone into making it.

Life as a Graphic Illustrator Artist

When Yaimel came to Canada, he initially had some difficulties finding work, but not due to any lack of talent. He shared that a barrier he faced was simply referring to himself as a graphic illustrator and not a graphic artist. In Cuba, clients focus on “if they connect with your work,” as opposed to the creator’s title itself, whereas in Canada, calling himself a graphic illustrator did not afford him as many opportunities as he had hoped for. Once he shifted his title to one of a graphic artist, Yaimel says that “people approached me in a very different way,” and he found himself booking more gigs, and having many more doors open for him. He is very excited to share the work from his new book, saying that immersing himself in the imagery and colours of Latin America helped him get through a turbulent year in the world. Yaimel shares that “maybe because I’m a Cuban, being far from my country, I need to connect” back to his memories of home, and that this book is a way to share these memories with others as well.

Follow Yaimel on Instagram, and check out his website to see his portfolio and new book.

Follow A Musing on Instagram for more content on Yaimel and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check our last interview with improviser and sketch comedian, Ronald Dario

-BF

Ronald Dario – Improviser and Sketch Comedian

This week I spoke to improviser and sketch comedian, Ronald Dario about how to play dumb, teaching with Blind Tiger Comedy, and representation in Vancouver’s comedy scene.

Studying and Teaching at Blind Tiger Comedy

Ronald began performing improv in his high school drama program, where his teacher was formerly a student with The Second City. However, Ronald’s first love was sketch comedy, and his main motivation to start doing improv was to grow his skillset and make him a stronger sketch comedian. From discussions he had with his teacher, as well as viewing the pedigrees of successful television and movie comedians, Ronald thought that enrolling in The Second City was the necessary next step in his journey to make a living in comedy. This naturally meant moving away from Vancouver, and he set his sights on a relocation to Toronto. However, before he was able to move, he fortiuitously received a Twitter follow from Blind Tiger Comedy. As a fan of The Sunday Service comedy group, he recognized that members of The Sunday Service were also serving as faculty members at Blind Tiger Comedy. As they were a new school looking for students, Ronald quickly enrolled and took this opportunity to get some stage time and experience from performers that he greatly admired.

Walking into Blind Tiger’s intro classes, Ronald tells me that “I remember going into it thinking that I would be really good, like automatically,” and that he was soon humbled by the talent of his other classmates and teachers. Amongst his classmates were performers that would eventually become some of his closest friends and collaborators, and they all felt a communal hustle in order to get as much stage time as they could. Ronald shared that for many improvisers, “it’s easier for us to fail together than fail alone,” and the support they had for one another helped them form deep roots within the Blind Tiger community. After moving through the curriculum, and building up his own experience on stage, Ronald returned to Blind Tiger Comedy, but this time, as a member of the faculty. As a former student who was enrolled in several inaugural iterations of the classes, Ronald said that becoming a member of the faculty was “always a dream, but was never something that I thought would happen”.

As a teacher, one hurdle Ronald sees students struggle with “is just being comfortable with being stupid and silly in front of other people”. Sounds like me in highschool. He noticed that especially for new students, this can be a difficult habit to break due to the “veneer of control and coolness” people can put into how they carry themselves in day-to-day life. Definitely me in highschool. Earlier this year, Ronald and Blind Tiger Comedy hosted a workshop on playing “dumb” characters, an archetype that Ronald has seen performers of all experience levels struggle with. For him, the key to giving a convincing performance is to “play these characters with love in mind” and not to punch down. Adding layers of humanity and sympathy helps make these characters more believable and multi-dimensional to watch. Ronald says that this approach also translates to other difficult character archetypes including creepy characters and gross characters, although one could also argue that these traits are not necessarily mutually exclusive. We all knew that guy in highschool.

Representation in Improv

As an improviser, Ronald has collaborated with many other performers, some of whom he has known for years, and some who may have been near-strangers prior to their performance. He applauds the talent that he has been able to work with, and says that “knowing that they’ll have your back on stage, regardless of what happens” has made it much easier to jump in between different teams. Ronald also spoke on the increase of BIPOC performers in Vancouver since he began performing. He cites that he has been fortunate to not encounter any difficulties in his career as a BIPOC performer, but acknowledges that not seeing yourself represented onstage has been a powerful barrier preventing other performers from joining the community. The pandemic halting all performances has stalled the progression of many performers, BIPOC or otherwise, but Ronald is encouraged by the movements being made in our community. Seeing more representation amongst the performers he was working with meant a lot to him as he was coming up, and “made me feel like I could make my comedic voice whatever I wanted; I didn’t need to conform to a certain stereotype”. Last year he shared a collection of BIPOC improvisers, sketch comedians and stand-up comedians that he has worked with in an effort to celebrate this increased diversity; you might even spot a shoutout to an amateur blog writer amongst the ranks of some very funny people.

Like most other performers, there were many nights of grinding to get to where Ronald is now. Audiences of two people, audiences of only other performers, and audiences who simply didn’t like his work are all experiences that he went through, but Ronald looks back fondly on the shows “when I was wondering if anything would actually happen”. A major milestone for him early in his career was earning a spot in the Vancouver Improv Festival. This was a goal “that I’d written down nerdily in my notebook,” and was the first big audience he had the opportunity to perform for. This set served as affirmation that he was progressing in his own growth and Ronald still cites this as “the moment where I knew that if I kept doing it, I would be able to achieve all the things that I wanted to do”.

Follow Ronald on Instagram and Twitter for his thoughts and musings, and check out his website as well to keep up with his work.

Follow A Musing on Instagram for more content on Ronald and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check our last interview with Commercial Illustrator, Jasper Yiu.

-BF

Jasper Yiu – Commercial Artist

This week, I spoke with Jasper Yiu, a commercial artist specializing in watercolour paintings for food-related products. We spoke about her decision to leave a full-time job to pursue a career as an artist, her experience of growing an audience online, and what artistic qualities your pets share with your favourite meals.

Pursing a Career in the Arts

Unlike some of the other artists in this series, Jasper did not pursue an education in the arts, rather pursuing a degree in Computer Science from the University of Ottawa. This is not to say that Jasper is new to painting, as she revelled in the arts during her time in high school. However, she said that as she turned her attention towards post-secondary studies, “I just dropped art because I was insecure about my work”. After taking a few years away from art, she tried painting watercolours for the first time in her last semester of university, rekindling her desire to create more work and start an Instagram account to curate her paintings. Upon graduation, she accepted a position related to her studies in computer science. Jasper continued to build her portfolio in the hours outside of her day-job but eventually realized that “I was working in a job that I didn’t really like or enjoy”. As 2020 came to a close, she made the decision to leave her full-time job and move to Vancouver, picking up remote work to support herself while she continued to invest more time into her art.

Growing an Online Following

The first paying gigs Jasper landed were to paint pet portraits, and this work helped her build a following amongst private commissions. From there, she explored other accounts to see what similar artists were doing and realized that there was more commercial work available for food illustrators. It isn’t an accident that food is also one of her favourite subjects to cover, and her familiarity with the subject matter also helped her enter this field. Transitioning from painting animals to food, she said the variety of textures she has to realistically depict is a challenge in both fields, including wet noses and thick fur to crisp produce and soft dough. As she grew her online following, Jasper reaped the benefits of attracting a global audience, by booking editorial assignments from clients located in Malaysia to Belgium. The majority of her bookings came through her Instagram account, which started as “a visual diary,” and a means to collect her work, but soon became a major influence on the business she received. Despite this benefit, Jasper shared that the ecosystem of Instagram can make it “a bit harder to find your voice independent of what you “think might do well”” and find a balance of posting content that she enjoys with content that she hopes will draw high levels of engagement.

The Perks of Watercolours

When Jasper started using watercolours, she chose this medium simply because it was a low-barrier entry into the arts. Picking up a small travel watercolour set, this was a much more affordable, portable, and compact setup to work in compared to oil or acrylic painting. Something that has remained the same today is that Jasper only uses four to five base colours in all of her work. By starting with such a simple kit, she had to learn to manually mix any colour she needed as opposed to buying additional paints. Retrospectively, she said that “I think having a somewhat restricted palette has given me a better understanding of colour,” and a stronger foundation to apply new skills and tools. One noticeable upgrade Jasper has made is that “my brushes have gotten smaller and smaller” to allow her to be more refined and detailed in her work. Overall, she says that her style is more controlled than when she started, and this has helped her to more accurately portray real life in her own style.

A personal project Jasper has been working on is building a recipe journal, naturally complete with watercolour illustrations. She has been collaborating with different writers to contribute recipes to the collection, but she also mentioned that she also intends to leave many pages blank for the user to fill in as well. Being the architect behind a project like this comes with logistical challenges such as ironing out royalties for the writers, and getting the book into production, but she has been encouraged by the success she has had working in similar projects for other clients. Simply put, she believes that “what you put out there is what might come back to you,” so she is excited to realize her efforts into a finished project.

Jasper’s artistic evolution is by no means complete but she has found that the most rewarding aspect of this field is “finally getting to do what I really like to do”. She said that many of her friends and family were surprised that she didn’t pursue the arts in her post-secondary studies, and acknowledges that “I went on a detour but now I’m back on track”. No less than a year and a half ago she was working in a job that didn’t fulfill her, but she has quickly pivoted and built a following of over 7,500 followers on Instagram. I look forward to the day when this figure is embarrassingly out of date.

To take a look at Jasper’s work make sure to follow her on Instagram and check out her online portfolio. I would advise you to avoid browsing in between meals.

Follow A Musing on Instagram for more content on Jasper and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check our last interview with painter, illustrator, and muralist, Ciele Beau.

-BF

Ciele Beau – Painter, Illustrator, & Muralist

This week I spoke to artist, Ciele Beau about a busy year of mural-painting and the fascinating ways she uses synesthesia to create truly original art.

Ciele’s journey as a professional artist began by completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at The University of Victoria in 2013, earning a major in Visual Arts and a minor in Art History. After receiving her degree, she moved to Vancouver and spent the next seven years building up her portfolio in the evenings and on weekends, while she worked day jobs to support herself. By 2015, she had started doing more freelance work, and while these jobs often didn’t pay well, she says that each one was a valuable learning experience to get better as an artist. As a freelancer, design jobs were often more easily available than illustrative jobs, and she soon found that she had reached the limit of what she could teach herself. Ciele decided to continue her education at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2017, earning a certificate in Design to supplement the more traditional training she had received from her former degree. With her foundation solidified, Ciele transitioned to becoming a full-time artist in 2018 and began holding her own solo shows, featuring in part, work inspired by and created with synesthesia.

Synesthesia Art

While studying in Victoria, Ciele was tasked with an assignment in which she had to create a painting inspired by a song. She picked “Pro Nails“, by Kid Sister as her song, and ended up painting a piece that she describes as “this crazy mess of just shapes and colour,” but something that reflected her feelings when listening to the song. While certainly abstract to the uneducated blog writer, Ciele said that experiencing this array of visual stimulation was and still is very normal to her when she listens to music. However, this experience proved difficult to explain to the other students in her class. During the class critique of their work, Ciele said that “I was so proud of it, but nobody got it,” as many others fell back on painting literal representations of their songs’ subject matter. Later that year, Ciele was approached by one of her peers who had learned about synesthesia, and had been reminded of her painting. At the time, Ciele didn’t know what synesthesia was, but after doing some research she realized that she had been living with it all her life. In fact, she realized she has multiple forms of synesthesia, but for the purposes of her art, she focuses on colour synesthesia. For Ciele, this means that when she listens to music, she feels colour, “kind of the same way that you would feel emotion…on a chemical level”. This feeling manifests as tangible colours and shapes that she is able to translate into two main approaches to synesthesia art, colour frequencies and chromatic forms.

Beginning with colour frequencies, this is a method in which she translates sheet music into a grid pattern filled with the colours that she feels when she listens to the song. This creates a visual blueprint of the song, featuring a specific range of colours and palette arranged in time with the music. Of course, it would be an oversimplification to describe it as simply a grid, but the end result spans the entire song with different line weights to correspond with the varying notes in the song. Conversely, chromatic forms are an opportunity to translate both the colour as well as the shapes she feels, creating a piece with more movement and less structure than when working in colour frequencies. This results in a product with more fluidity and represents the song in a visually different way than the former technique. When she first starting using synesthesia in her work, Ciele would listen to whichever song she was working with until she was finished with the piece. She says that this became quite overwhelming on a sensory level, as well as the basic fatigue that will come when listening to any song for that long. She has since refined her workflow; when creating a colour frequency piece she will listen to it only until she is able to create a colour palette for the song. From there she is able to use that palette to create her grid, without needing to listen to the song live for the entire process. Similarly, her current technique for chromatic forms is to listen to the song until she creates a sketch of the painting to serve as the plan for her piece. This also serves as a starting point from which she can continue her work without relying on the song. Looking back at how her workflow has changed, Ciele says that when creating her piece in university, “I remember kind of going a little bit insane” listening to the song for that long, so she is certainly happy to have developed a more sustainable practice.

Mural-Painting

This past year was an exciting year for Ciele as she was able to complete several murals, something she had not had the opportunity to do so before. In the past, she had found it difficult to gain experience in large murals due to the difficulty of finding clients with enough trust to allow her to cover an entire wall, as well as the corresponding funds for the volume of paint necessary to complete it. But in the spring of 2020, Ciele received an opportunity as businesses began boarding up their storefronts as the lockdown in Vancouver began to take full effect. She was approached by the Gastown Business Improvement Society to paint a mural on a storefront, with the caveat that it would be unpaid work. While this deterred some artists, Ciele saw an opportunity to gain mural experience, but also create a piece unfettered from any restrictions from the client. Inspired by the proliferation of blue medical gloves in our world, she painted a blue hand taking a bath, reflecting her affinity to “add a little bit of humour” to her work. From the success of this mural, Ciele was selected to be part of the “Make Art While Apart” initiative from the Vancouver Mural Festival, taking her talents to decorate the South Granville area. For this installation, she painted a blue alien covered in Cheeto dust, featuring the quote “You’re doing amazing Sweetie,” from Keeping Up with the Kardashians lore. A classical pairing of imagery and messaging. Finally, Ciele earned a spot in the Vancouver Mural Festival’s installation in the River District, during the run of the festival itself. She painted a girl with bright blue skin, flanked by two coffee cups and the words “Wake Up!” across the entire piece. Every artist has a blue period right? Ciele says that this last mural has two meanings behind it, with the obvious one being caffeine’s place in our morning rituals. But in addition, she wanted to reflect on the social movements that heavily defined 2020, and comment on the world awakening from “that unconscious sort of slumber that people have been in”.

Ciele says that the number of resources and knowledge on synesthesia is vastly different compared to when she began exploring it back in art school. Now that she understands what is happening, she has been able to harness it and further expand her breadth as a creative. Reflecting on her path to a full-time artist, even though she fully committed to life as an artist just a few years ago, the years leading up to it, along with now living with a partner in the music industry have created a “creative, isolated bubble” in which she has lived in for quite a while. And with the bubbles playing such a large role in our lives over the past year, wouldn’t you want yours to be a little bit more artistic as well?

Check out more of Ciele’s work on her website, and follow her on Instagram and Facebook for more content. She has several exciting upcoming projects that I won’t share just yet, so stay tuned!

Follow A Musing on Instagram for more content on Ciele and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check our last interview with creative, Nadine Nevitt.

-BF.

Nadine Nevitt – Creative

This week I spoke to Nadine Nevitt, an artist with hands in textile design, art direction, photography and a whole lot more. We discussed her strategies behind designing in different mediums, her inclusion in the Vancouver Mural Festival, and why pineapples are suitable for all ages.

Working in Textile Design

Nadine grew up in rural Ontario and in a way, pursuing an artistic career was continuing in the family business. Her father was an art professor at Ontario College of Art & Design and her mother taught art in primary school. If you ask me, it’s tough to say who had the more challenging student body. Surrounded by art from a young age, Nadine describes family trips to galleries, museums, and spending her formative years exploring many creative endeavours. Despite also being attracted to the sciences and music, she decided to attend Ryerson University and earn a Bachelor of Design with a specialization in Fashion Communication. With a curriculum including pattern drafting, sewing, photography and over four-hundred hours of an applied co-op, she says that navigating through the multi-disciplinary program really helped her create a diverse skillset alongside an equally diverse range of artists. Based on their professions, I would assume that Nadine’s parents would agree with her belief that “any learning is good learning;” she has recently been upskilling her studio lighting and portraiture chops at Langara College.

Upon graduating from Ryerson, she entered an economy in the middle of a recession, spurring her to “always say yes to all opportunities” presented to her. Her first position following her graduation was at Joe Fresh, where she was tasked with creating graphic and colour print patterns for their clothes and homeware. She spoke very highly of the senior graphic designers who helped mentor her there, but after her time at Joe Fresh, Nadine joined Lululemon, to help build their Ivviva line of girlswear. As a result of accepting this position, she moved from Ontario out to Vancouver in 2012 and worked with Lululemon for five years (but has stayed on the West Coast ever since). She describes her time there as a full-circle experience reflective of her multi-disciplinary education, beginning in concept design for prints and then moving to marketing roles in art direction and product photography. Nadine also started her own business five years ago, and now designs her own products, as well as working to support a wide range of clients.

The Vancouver Mural Festival and Art Direction

Nadine has completed three murals in Vancouver, for Turf, Adrenaline Tattoo, and most recently, Breakfast Table in collaboration with the 2020 Vancouver Mural Festival. Working on such a larger scale than her normal work presents a unique set of challenges, so “going in with optimism is really helpful,” as is giving herself some extra time to get it done. For this latest mural, she took a print that she had originally designed for a sweater and applied it to the front of the restaurant. Having a mural in such a heavily-travelled space was a special opportunity for her, as was the chance to permanently add some art to her own neighbourhood. Nadine also spoke of the physical toll that a large mural requires, saying that between climbing ladders, moving equipment, and covering such a large area, “I think I only have a mural in me a year if that”. However, this project also presented an added bonus of chatting with passersby throughout the process of finishing the mural, and Nadine says that the positive energy and feedback she received certainly helped motivate her along the way.

In addition to leading her own work, Nadine also works in art direction, collaborating with other designers and artists. She has had a longstanding relationship with Shop DYI in Texas and says that “sometimes it’s refreshing to step in halfway or towards the end of the process,” to offer a fresh second thought, as opposed to being involved from the very beginning. Regardless of when she joins a project, Nadine says that constant communication between herself, her team, and the client is paramount to achieving the best possible outcome. Expanding on this, she adds that “it’s always magical seeing a set of four or five people, all different and really amazing creatives come together” to bring something to life. This work also serves to keep her engaged and refreshed as she can move between several different projects in one day.

Designing Across Mediums

Textiles and murals only represent a small portion of the mediums in which Nadine works, and she explains that scale, material, and client are just a few factors that must be considered before diving into a project. For example, to the uneducated blog writer, it would be easy to overlook whether the design will stretch when the user is moving or whether a waterproof finish would affect the image. Textiles are especially exciting to Nadine as “there’s always an extra element of who’s wearing it, or what kind of fabric it’s going on, and how it’s being styled”. In this way, her art is interactive and personal to the user in a way that other forms don’t necessarily offer. The same piece can be worn in many different ways, granting her designs the ability to cross demographics, cultures, and individuals themselves and have a “completely different life”. As an example of this life, she told me a story in which she was asked to design a sweater with a pineapple image for a Japanese clothing company. Originally she thought it was for a children’s collection, but she had to pivot her design when she learned that it was actually intended for professional businesswomen. Nadine was part of an international group of designers who worked on this line, and she was eventually invited to Japan to promote the products in the stores in which they were being sold. As part of their promotional campaign, Nadine was asked to take commission requests from customers, drawing portraits of their pets or whatever else they could think of. She remarked that “their appreciation for art and the exchange,” of dog drawings across a language barrier was a bizarre but extremely fulfilling experience for her. Travelling to see her work in its natural habitat is something Nadine looks forward to getting back to, as she says that “sharing [art] is the best part whether it lives in a house or on a body. I think any artists would say that”.

To keep up to date with Nadine’s work, follow her on Instagram, and check out her website to browse her portfolio. Amongst other products, she currently has a line of notebooks available, but reach out to her if you are interested in commissioning some custom prints for apparel or other products.

Follow A Musing on Instagram for more content on Nadine and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check our last interview with Food Waste Recovery Coordinator, Martin Field.

-BF.

Martin Field – Food Waste Recovery Coordinator

This week I spoke to Food Waste Recovery Coordinator, Martin Field about his journey through culinary school, why you shouldn’t take your pasta for granted, and his work to help reduce food waste with A Better Life Foundation.

The Ups, Downs, and Rice Pilafs of Culinary School

Martin’s experience in the food industry began in 2017 when he began working as a food truck operator at Tacofino, assembling burritos in the confines of their travelling establishment. Ironically, he couldn’t drive which marginally limited his utility in the team, but this is where he began gaining a firsthand appreciation for the instant gratification his work could spark in a customer. This experience spurred him on to enrol in culinary school at the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver, and commit to life in the industry. While at school, some of Martin’s biggest takeaways were not necessarily from specific lessons, but rather the close camaraderie and banter he shared with his fellow students. This is not to say he doesn’t remember the dishes he had to learn, as he notes hollandaise sauce and rice pilaf as two notorious lessons from his time at Northwest. Rice pilaf, in particular, gave Martin fits due to the difficulty of balancing various moisture levels, but he challenged himself by personally selecting this dish to be part of his final exam. When he finally produced a successful rice pilaf, he said that “I don’t know if it was satisfying” to cross it off his list after so many attempts, but it certainly was a relief. Studying dishes and techniques from all over the world in a supportive and positive learning environment, Martin says that this is where he truly gained an appreciation for cooking.

The Pasta Station

At the end of his time in culinary school, Martin volunteered for Swine Out Vancouver, a festival featuring local craft breweries and charcuterie prepared by local chefs, or you know, a good time. This is where he met the future owners of Autostrada Osteria, who offered him an opportunity to join their team. As Martin’s first official job following culinary school, he says it was a whirlwind of a year, moving from the appetizer station all the way up to the position of sous chef of prep, with multiple stops in between. He singles out the pasta station as a particularly difficult all-day affair. Hand-making fifteen to twenty portions of pasta for hours on end, he describes looking down on his board for so long that his vision would blur into a singular doughy mess. Think about the person on the pasta station before your tasteless tableside impression of Lady and the Tramp. When COVID-19 hit the restaurant industry, Martin was, unfortunately, one of the many layoffs that followed. He talks about this sudden change in his life as a bittersweet experience, as while he found the job to be extremely fulfilling and “the biggest hustle of my life,” the hours he had accumulated were also taking their toll on his mental health. With a lot more time on his hands, he turned to an activity that will forever be associated with 2020, making homemade bread.

The Secret to Making Bread

While many of those who started sourdough starters have since stopped (also the title of my favourite nursery rhyme), I asked Martin for some advice to share with the remaining holdouts. He said that “just investing in really good flour,” will make for a superior loaf, citing that fresh flour will be weeks or even months fresher than a bag from the supermarket. This results in different colours, textures, and of course flavour, as well as making bread more accessible to those with gluten sensitivities. He wanted to show that bread could be elevated to something more and that by investing in better ingredients, “the product is better, even though the process is the same”. But eventually, he reached a point where his freezer was full, his friends were fed, and he had to decide what to do next with his life. He recognized that the pandemic had disproportionately affected several local communities and decided that he wanted to use his skills to help alleviate food scarcity and food waste in Vancouver. After some searching, he found a match with A Better Life Foundation, an organization working to help feed residents of the Downtown Eastside.

Reducing Food Waste with A Better Life Foundation

At its core, Martin’s role is to reduce food waste from both the donors who supply his organization with food, as well as within the programs run by the organization itself. His involvement begins with A Better Life’s Daily Meal Program, which delivers an incredible thousand meals a day. Despite such a large quantity of meals being produced, some ingredients are left behind, and Martin says that whichever starch (potatoes, pasta, rice, etc.) is most available is often the starting block of the dishes he will prepare that week. In addition to constantly surveying the excess food from the Daily Meal Program, he also receives deliveries several times a week from supermarket donors, constantly varying in their contents. An example of a strategy he uses to manage this unpredictability is an affinity for fruit salad, a way to effectively use all the fruit he has accumulated in a productive way. Moreover, he explains that “sometimes you’ll get a papaya, or a dragon fruit or even just a pomegranate,” not necessarily the type, nor quantity of ingredient to make many meals. Coming up with creative ways to utilize an ever-changing pantry, and extract every ounce of good out of the donations provides a constant challenge for Martin, and helps keep him inspired at work. He also takes a lot of pride in the meals he makes on Fridays, using everything he has saved from the past week to create as much food as possible without sacrificing any quality. Tuna casserole, macaroni and cheese, and bolognese on rice are all recent products of this Friday meal; a personal challenge he gives himself is to make enough food where “I don’t weigh anything, I just fill the container to the brim,” and get as much as possible into the hands of those who need it.

Chefs in the Media

In between shifts, Martin follows @for_the_chefs, an Instagram account celebrating the lowlights and mishaps associated with his line of work. A quick glance shows compilations of big spills, overflowing vats, and other situations you’d like to look at, but don’t want to be a part of. However, Martin shared an unfortunate lesson he learned when he attempted to move a 20-litre bucket of short rib juice that was perched atop an overturned milk crate. Instead of lifting it off, he pushed the entire unit, completely flooding the walk-in refrigerator he was standing in. With all the liquid pooling up, he had to sweep the liquid out of the fridge and into the kitchen, before he was able to actually clean it up. Despite this laborious process, Martin maintained a good perspective on the situation, saying that he immediately thought “I am now one of them,” and this helped him to find some pleasure in a day spent cleaning, which if we are being honest, is not always a bad day at all.

To finish the interview, I asked Martin if any of the many food movies and television shows out there are worth their *ahem* salt. He replied that he would love to see more programming from a young chef’s perspective as opposed to the idolized, master chefs who are perpetuated both in fiction and reality tv. By showing a more realistic point of view, he says that “people who don’t cook would actually gain a pretty good understanding of what life is like being a young cook,” and find it a more accessible field to enter as well. Simply put, he recommends Ratatouille over Burnt every time.

To keep up with Martin, and see some of his most recent dishes, follow him on Instagram. Learn more about his work with A Better Life Foundation, and donate to a program that has helped deliver over a million meals since 2012. They are currently in their #BeingHungrySucks campaign to increase both the number of meals they can deliver with their Daily Food Program, as well as their donor list to help reduce food waste across Vancouver. Finally, they are launching Sharpen Up, a program to share cooking skills and education with members of the Downtown Eastside community.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Martin and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check out last week’s interview with comic artist, Alyssa Hirose.

Alyssa Hirose – Comic Artist

This week I spoke to comic artist, writer, and improviser Alyssa Hirose about the everlasting value of greeting cards, the secrets behind a good interview, and how to win a fight protect your artistic property in the digital age.

Writing with Comedy

Alyssa’s portfolio is incredibly diverse, but I’ll try to hit all the major stops in a semi-coherent way. Beginning with her career as a writer, she began writing as a hobby in high school but started writing with more intention when she applied to the Creative Writing program at The University of British Columbia. In her application, she included a poem titled “Rhinocerous Preposterous,” a story centred on a kid who can’t get out of bed because there is a rhinoceros sitting on him. Classic imagery. This poem was one of the pieces that got her accepted into the program, and she eventually gave it new life by turning it into a zine to enter the Vancouver Comic Art Festival. Along with some other zines, she ended up selling some of her work at the festival, marking the first time that this had happened in her writing career. While studying at UBC, she also earned an internship to write for Vancouver Magazine, a publication where she now serves as an assistant editor.

Much of the work Alyssa does for Vancouver Magazine are arts and culture pieces where she interviews chefs, playwrights, or other individuals making contributions to Vancouver’s arts community. Kind of like this, but better. She says that to get the most exciting and relevant content out of an interview, “I really like to talk about what the person I’m interviewing wants to talk about” instead of keeping to a tight gameplan. As a result of conducting regular interviews in her work, Alyssa has also found that “I have definitely gotten a lot better at asking the important questions,” to work more efficiently and allow her to focus on the articles themselves, rather than the interview. Her favourite pieces are the ones where she can incorporate comedy in some way, with some standouts including “5 Things I Hate About Tacofino Kitsilano” and “6 Things Men Really Need for Christmas,” the latter of which naturally opens with a description of a Manzilian Wax. The piece on Tacofino makes no such mention of male grooming. You can also find her work in Western Living, and on Instagram under @hialyssacomics where she releases new comics every day.

Writing for Comics and Greeting Cards

For Alyssa, the biggest difference between writing for magazines and writing for her comics is that the latter serves as “a way to relax and sort of wind down,” and space where she allows herself to be less critical of herself. Since May 22, 2018, she has posted comics every day, amazingly without the safety net of a backlog to protect against writer’s block. The inspiration behind them really comes from anywhere, with some of my recent favourites covering the holidays, political updates from our neighbours to the South, or even interviews she had with amateur bloggers. When she started her Instagram account, she would upload pictures of her hand-drawn black and white comics, but she has since moved to a digital sketchbook, traversing many themes, colours, and structures over the last three years. Ironically, keeping up such a consistent content calendar has only been difficult for Alyssa when she receives especially high engagement or appreciation on a post. When this happens, she shared that she can feel the pressure to uphold such metrics on her next post, before reminding herself that “at the end of the day, I can do comics that are bad”. Not that I’ve seen any of these reportedly bad ones.

At the end of 2020, Alyssa began making greeting cards featuring her comics to sell on Etsy. This stemmed from a long-held fondness for greeting cards that Alyssa has had since childhood. She shared that her mother would let her stay in the greeting card aisle while grocery shopping, and that greeting cards were a big influence on her style of comedy. We had an unexpectedly poignant discussion on the cultural impact greeting cards play in our lives, with Alyssa arguing that “it’s an old form of art that we haven’t really found a replacement for yet,” which I can’t help but agree with. Don’t you dare bring up e-vites.

Fistful of Kicks

The last involvement we discussed was Alyssa’s work with Fistful of Kicks, an improv team of Asian-Canadian performers. Alyssa began performing improv by joining the UBC Improv team in her fourth year of studies and consequently auditioned for Fistful of Kicks the following year. Finding such a group was a welcome opportunity in an improv community that is not necessarily known for its diversity amongst its teams. Expanding on the notion of diversity, Alyssa said that it would be a mistake to generalize all of her fellow performers in Fistful of Kicks under the brush of being simply Asian-Canadian, as they are all coming with their own experiences and upbringings. However, it’s been really enjoyable for her to perform with a group that shares similar values and sensibilities when it comes to comedy. Due to COVID-19, she hasn’t performed with them in a while, and is excited for a reunion; Alyssa says that “it’s a shame that we can’t fake kick each other’s asses right now, but I hope we can do it soon”.

With experience in so many different disciplines, Alyssa shared that when she hears feedback on her work, she takes it to heart perhaps more than a “traditional” artist is supposed to. She acknowledges that the common train of thought is that “you’re not supposed to care what other people say, but it’s impossible not to care what other people say,” whether it is positive or negative. Luckily for her, but by no means an accident, the feedback she gets from her work has been overwhelmingly positive and has been a real source of energy and drive to keep up her schedule. However, positive reception and fandom on the internet are not without drawbacks.

How to Win a Flame War

A couple of months ago, it came to Alyssa’s attention that one of her comics had been reposted on a meme account, but not before removing her watermark and posting it without any attribution. She said that at first, she didn’t pay it much mind, but when she saw that the account had tens of thousands of followers, with the repost aggregating thousands of likes of its own, it started to gain more traction and scrutiny from her own friends. They began flooding the comments of the post, asking the owner of the account to not necessarily delete the post, but to at least credit Alyssa for her work. Upon receiving this constructive criticism, the account responded in the only way online disagreements are settled and began deleting the comments as soon as they were coming in. At this point, Alyssa realized that “oh, we’re in a flame war,” and she started messaging the account herself, asking them to tag her in the post. Waves of comments from her friends continued to pour in, and Alyssa eventually asked that they delete the post itself when they refused to tag her in it. Ultimately, the account finally deleted the post and replied to her, with a hollow line of petty defeat, “I deleted it, you bloody bitch”. Now that is how you have a peaceful transfer of power.

Follow @hialyssacomics to keep up with her daily comics, @alyssa_hirose for more personal content, and remember to use her Etsy shop for all your greeting card needs. Also, check out Vancouver Magazine and Western Living to see the entire backlog of Alyssa’s articles, and to keep up with what is going on in our city.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Alyssa and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check out last week’s interview with musician, Eric Tsang.

-BF

Eric Tsang – Musician

For the first post of 2021, I had a chat with Eric Tsang, musician and manager of The Phonix. We discussed the unorthodox way he came to pursue music as a career, his experience as a music teacher, and what this new year may look like for professional musicians.

Originally from Hong Kong, Eric came to Canada when he was twelve years old, and he didn’t have any intention of becoming a musician. Like many newcomers to any country, his family did not come with swaths of money and after several years, reached a point where they strongly considered moving back to Hong Kong. However, their financial troubles ironically meant that “we didn’t even have enough money in the bank account to buy plane tickets to go back,” effectively leaving them stuck in Vancouver. Eric realized that he had to figure out a way to support himself and his family moving forward. He had a mild grasp on English but didn’t feel confident going into any of the arts or sciences, so he turned to music as “less of a passion, but more of a necessity”. To accelerate his career, he pursued a jazz degree at Capilano University and then continued on to earn a Master’s of Education at the University of British Columbia, with the aim to give himself some job security as a music teacher.

Building a High School Music Program

With his degrees in hand, Eric earned a position to teach at John Oliver Secondary School, where he was tasked with building up a struggling music program. At the time, the student body of John Oliver was dotted with kids experiencing a wide range of challenges. Many faced socioeconomic hardship and complex living situations at home. Eric realized that music held different values here compared to other schools he had worked at in the past. In wealthier neighbourhoods, Eric observed that music was certainly a class that students looked forward to, but played a small role in their lives amongst other extra-curricular activities, sports teams, and family trips. In this school, “music was really important in that they use music to keep kids in school”. Music became a transformative means to add structure to the students’ lives, foster growth and work ethic, and make school a worthwhile or even enjoyable experience. Eric also saw his role evolve while working at John Oliver, as his responsibilities as a music teacher were often also met with duties more akin to a counsellor while working with their unique student body. Another challenge was that as a teacher, he had to know how to play as many instruments as there were parts in the band. He admitted that “I suck at playing the flute,” but hey, my list of instrument incompetency is far, far longer. Over eight years, Eric played a large role to increase membership from seventy students to over three hundred strong, and create a self-sustaining program that was able to thrive without him.

The Phonix

Near the end of his tenure at John Oliver, Eric was invited by his friend Reuben to fill in as a saxophone player in The Phonix, a funk, R&B and soul cover band. The band formed soon after they all graduated from Capilano and were looking for work as musicians. Operating on the platform that “we’ll play music that we all really like, and hopefully people would like it,” The Phonix built a loyal following playing regular gigs across Vancouver. Soon becoming a regular fixture in the band, Eric was eventually asked to transition into a management role in addition to his duties as a performer. He was excited to take on a new challenge but was soon thrust into client management, rate negotiation, building a website, and all the other duties of running a small business. Over the last ten years, Eric has helped take The Phonix in many new directions including opening a community-driven recording studio for fellow musicians, a photo booth business to give their shows some added interactivity, as well as launching an app to help artists improve performer-client relations. Expanding on this latest development, Eric says that each show would generally take Reuben and himself four hours in paperwork before they actually got to perform (assuming that clients still paid them on time, filed their paperwork, and held up their end of the agreement). This inspired them to build Back On Stage, a web application that helps automate scheduling, negotiation, booking and contracts. This dropped their workload from four hours to four minutes and encouraged them to provide this service for other musicians to help expedite their work as well.

Inseparable from Eric’s place in The Phonix is his sunglasses, a mainstay in every conversation I’ve ever had with him until this interview. Like Slash without his top hat or Steven Tyler’s mic stand free from scarves, it was frankly a strange experience to actually see his eyes. He explained that these remain a fixture when he performs to help fight the stage fright he feels, especially when performing solos. Expanding on what goes into a great solo, Eric shares that “[each] thirty-second solo came from years of doing really bad solos,” and that failure is something that he had to embrace to grow as a performer. Some of his favourite memories with The Phonix include playing at a house party full of fans, as well as shows at the Penticton Peach Festival. He describes the atmosphere of playing in a living room was noticeably different than at any club he has played at. All of the attendees were familiar with the band and each other, and as he walked through the crowd “everybody is your friend; everybody’s your buddy”. Playing in Penticton was also always a memorable experience since “not a lot of festivals like to hire cover bands,” making this a great opportunity to go on the road as a group and enjoy their time out of town. Mix in some time on the water and playing to a crowd in the thousands made for a tradition that sadly feels like a relic, given the effect the last year has had on the performing arts industry.

Saxo’grams

Coming into 2020, Eric says that The Phonix were primed to continue their upwards trajectory, with gigs booked through to the December holiday season. But upon live performances being shuttered so quickly, they had to refund all of the deposits that they had received and set a new course for the year. In these stressful times, Eric “quickly had to come up with a lot of new ideas, new ways of doing things,” which include streaming shows, moving his private saxophone lessons online, and Saxo’grams, a way to spread music in a safe way. The genesis of Saxo’grams came from a desire to bring shows to folks while they aren’t able to physically go to one themselves. Eric totes his saxophone around to houses to play a song or two for the desired recipient, bringing live music right to their doorstep. Lovely, right? An additional goal of this program is to help promote other local musicians and small businesses in this time of need, and a number are featured in the videos that have been released so far. This returns to Eric’s belief that at its core, The Phonix is a community initiative. Simply put, he says that “we want to help people, and this is our way of helping them”.

Eric has returned to teaching for the time being, but definitely check out his Saxo’grams to spread some live music to your friends and family. The Phonix was named the Best Band of 2020 by readers of The Georgia Straight, check them out on their website and on Instagram, and use Back On Stage to book them for your first post-COVID party. When I started this project, Eric and The Phonix were some of the first bucket-list artists that I wanted to speak with, and I can’t think of a better way to kick off the series in 2021.

-BF

Shae Bourne – Dancer & Performer

This week I spoke to dancer and performer, Shae Bourne. We spoke about the differences between dancing on stage and in film, her early work in cabaret shows, and how dance classes have adapted to COVID-19.

Cabaret Work: The Darlings Cabaret & The Smoke Show

Shae has been dancing her whole life; it is a testament to her dedication that she has been a dancer since she was three. I can’t think of an activity I was doing at age three that didn’t involve an essential bodily function. Upon graduating high-school, Shae was accepted into a dance program in L.A. and moved to train there for six months. Reflecting on this experience, she said that “I honestly kind of got eaten alive,” by the whirlwind of moving, living, and training alone for the first time. Surrounded by much more experienced dancers made her feel like truly “the tiniest fish in the biggest pond”, and she became disillusioned with pursuing a career in this industry. Upon her return to Vancouver, she took a few months off from dance, but eventually joined a dance company called Source that was operating out of the Harbour Events Centre. Through this company, she gained more local exposure and was subsequently recruited to join another company when she was nineteen, The Darlings Cabaret. As one of her first professional dance gigs, Shae said that it was just like any job in the sense that she had to learn and adapt on the fly; the main difference being that “you’re going to watch me dance in my underwear”.

After three years at The Darlings Cabaret, Shae was approached to join a new cabaret show founded by Jen Oleksiuk, The Smoke Show. Like many of the opportunities Shae has earned over the course of her career, she was referred for this part and says that “all my successes I owe to people that I trained with” in any capacity. This time it was a mutual friend she had with Jen who had been Shae’s dance instructor many years ago. Both The Darlings Cabaret and The Smoke Show gave Shae the chance to perform on a regular basis and “learn so many skills that a lot of performers don’t get the opportunity to, at that young of an age”. With a steady stream of shows to prepare for, Shae was put in an ideal environment for growth as a performer, as she was constantly rehearsing and collaborating with her peers.

Expanding on this collaborative experience that went into building shows, since all of The Smoke Show performances are hosted at Guilt and Co., there is only so much rehearsal that could be done in a traditional studio. Shae said that “for the most part, we have no idea what the hell we’re doing until we’re in the room,” and able to be positive of timing and spacing. The interactivity between the performers and the audience is another feature of this show that can’t be rehearsed, and for Shae, confidence is paramount to make this a positive experience for everyone attending. She admits that cabaret shows “can be incredibly awkward if the dancers aren’t 100% owning it,” as they traverse tables and bars to move through the crowd. Shae credits having started performing at such a young age as key to her longevity in the performing arts in general, saying that “you have to be comfortable with you and who you are” to find success in any genre.

104 Shows in 1 Summer

Shae’s other involvements have most recently come in the film industry, but also include stage shows as well. One show we briefly talked about was a role in Rock Legends, a musical hosted by the Chemainus Theatre Festival. For those who have never visited before, Chemainus is a beautiful small town on Vancouver Island that is known for an incredibly strong arts community. Prior to this role, Shae had never done any musical theatre and had only her experience at The Darlings Cabaret on her professional record. But upon earning a spot as an ensemble dancer, she moved to Chemainus for five months and performed eight shows a week for a total of one hundred and four across the whole summer. She says that while the schedule of the run was extremely challenging, she loved the experience of living in the town itself. Since it was such a small town, she was able to enjoy being “kind of like a little celebrity” with folks recognizing her and the cast in between shows.

Dance Auditions & Hugs with Kenny Ortega

Inherent to any gigs are auditions, and I was curious whether they lived up to my pre-conceived expectations of dance auditions, mainly gleaned from A Chorus Line. While the description she gave me is set in pre-COVID times, Shae tells me that for bigger budget productions, casting will invite hundreds of people to audition all together for only a handful of parts. When she was starting out in the film industry, Shae describes this process as an incredibly intimidating environment to walk into, but it has now become somewhat of a reunion for peers that she doesn’t get to see every day. However, this camaraderie also presents its own challenges, as since everyone is in the same room together, “it’s hard to not worry about that other person,” as they are all vying for limited positions.

In one such audition, Shae was trying to secure a spot in a show directed by Kenny Ortega, the director of the High School Musical trilogy. For the record, the second installment is by far the best, no contest. At the end of the audition, all of the dancers were lined up as Kenny went down the line to meet them, and thank everyone for coming by. As he went to shake Shae’s hand, she says that “he was holding it really daintily,” instead of shaking it like everyone else. He lifted his hand, which she took as her cue to go in for a hug. Kenny responded not with a hug, but by saying “oh we’re hugging,” as he indicated that he was going to twirl her around. Let’s be honest, that is just as weird, if not weirder than a hug. Suffice it to say, he stuck with traditional handshakes for the rest of the line, with Shae being the only one “hugging Kenny Ortega in the middle of this room”.

Dance Instruction with Formation Studio

Last September Shae helped open a new dance studio, Formation Studio where she still serves as one of their founding instructors. It has obviously been a tumultuous first year for Shae and the Formation Studio team as they have had to adapt to many changes in safety regulations. Even prior to this interview, Shae was recording a class for people to check out online. However, something that has remained the same is their emphasis on creating “this environment where people can come take [a] class and literally just not care about what they look like”. Getting people out of their comfort zone has been a core tenet of Formation Studio, and a means to build a strong community that has supported them through their inaugural year of operation. The relationships that Shae has built with the people who attend her classes have been the highlight of this experience, and something she is extremely excited to get back to when we can safely do so again.

While working in film has afforded Shae the opportunity to make a living as a performer, she says that nothing replaces the feeling she has when she performs live for an audience or in a class. The time constraints placed on film performers simply do not grant them many opportunities to savour the work they are doing. Shae says that when she is booked for a film shoot, it isn’t due to any single particular physical skill that sets her apart, rather it is “because they know I’m smart enough to do this in four hours”. Stage shows require much longer rehearsal periods, that are also generally unpaid, but this process also gives her the satisfaction of being much more involved in the final product.

While this year has been quite a shift in Shae’s professional life, she is staying positive and continuing to create, saying that “there’s nothing to do for me right now other than [to] just work on myself and pick back up where I left off”. Until that day comes, check out Formation Studio, as well as The Smoke Show on Instagram. For more on Shae, visit her website for a full breakdown of her career thus far.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Shae and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check out last week’s interview with journalist, Oscar Beardmore-Gray.

-BF

Oscar Beardmore-Gray – Journalist

This week I spoke to journalist, Oscar Beardmore-Gray about the secret to interviewing athletes, the phenomenon known as K Cider, and his podcast, Taking Hugh for Granted.

Early Publications

A fervent reader from a young age, Oscar’s path to journalism was rather linear when he made the decision to pursue it in university. At the University of Bristol, Oscar took advantage of several opportunities, becoming the sports editor of the university paper, and a writer for The Tab, an independent student publication. While it may appear that this would play second fiddle to his other work, Oscar continues to receive recognition for an article he wrote for The Tab titled, “Why K Cider Will Change Your Life“. Now, K Cider is not a product that I was familiar with, but Oscar describes it as “the most foul drink ever,” and a staple for UK university students looking to maximize their return on dollars to drunk. Wherever you are from, you know what that drink is for you (looking at you, Alberta Pure). Oscar didn’t think much of this satirical piece at the time, but its message quickly struck a chord with readers and topped 100,000 views in only a few months. Thanks to the sustained regional notoriety of K Cider, the article has continued to circulate at The Tab to this day, generating publicity for not only Oscar’s early writing, but also himself, as a photo of Oscar holding a freshly cracked can graces the cover of the piece.

CBC and the Vancouver Whitecaps

Following his studies in the UK, Oscar was successfully accepted into the two-year Master of Journalism program at The University of British Columbia. He shares that while he was nervous to move such a long distance from home, he was incredibly excited for the mandatory eight-week internship inherent to the program. For his internship, he worked at CBC’s London, UK bureau, ironically travelling back home to continue his Canadian education. Going home did have some advantages for Oscar; due to his familiarity with the area “it didn’t feel too intimidating,” to jump right in, whereas other members of his class were thrust into much more foreign environments. Oscar shares that this experience was invaluable to his growth as a journalist, and that “you definitely learn more in six weeks inside a newsroom, than you do in six months studying journalism”.

Another involvement Oscar took on during his Master’s program was working in the communications department of the Vancouver Whitecaps. A longtime sports fan, Oscar says that “I was lucky to basically join the club on the biggest week in our history,” when the Whitecaps sold homegrown star Alphonso Davies to Bayern Munich. Assisting with the fanfare and celebrations of Davies’ final games was an exciting time, and certainly an effective foil to his more traditional journalism work with the CBC. As a sports fan myself, I had to ask Oscar what it was like to interview athletes, given the well-documented history of statements given under duress of both stress and dehydration. Oscar simply said that “you learn from experience not to get as flustered,” by one-word answers, especially when competing for time with a sea of other media personnel. Taking a player aside to talk to them in a more casual manner usually yielded better results, but he concedes that this was not always a common occurence.

Investigative Journalism

Expanding on the best practices of interviewing, Oscar shared a story he wrote while in China working for NBC. At the core of this story was the worldwide contradictory practice of catching wild fish, only to turn them into feed for farmed fish that will yield a higher price. Being a foreign investigative journalist in China during the week of the Huawei scandal was just cause for anxiety, but these circumstances also gave Oscar a crash course in extracting information that people may not be apt to give up. He credits the local journalism students he was working with for helping him overcome the language barrier, and says that this experience taught him that “keeping a good relationship with people is really important,” but at the end of the day, a journalist’s job is to get the story.

Oscar’s current role is with the Global Reporting Centre based out of UBC, where he has worked on projects including the positive effect of medical cannabis on the opioid crisis, as well as the process in which conflict zones around the world transition towards peace. In this role, Oscar is “a producer with a very broad brushstroke,” contributing to both written and video work. I asked Oscar about the differences between producing journalism in various mediums, and he said that while written work is still “the bread and butter” of journalism, video “can be a more creative way of telling stories,” and truly capturing emotion. Gaining more experience in video journalism has also sparked an interest in more longform documentary work, a subject in which he hopes to explore further in the future. Oscar feels that this style allows him to spend more time with the material and dive deeper into the story, whereas print work is often contingent on much tighter deadlines.

Taking Hugh for Granted

Outside of his professional work, Oscar also hosts a biweekly podcast with his friend, Diggory Waite, titled Taking Hugh for Granted. Holding the accolade of “the internet’s number 1 (and only) Hugh Grant podcast,” each episode Oscar and Diggory explore a different film, television show, or other important moment from the canon of Hugh Grant’s acting career. Having played so many similar characters over the course of his career, Hugh Grant is described by Oscar as somewhat of a “comic villain” and a fitting divisive figure to serve as the backbone of the podcast. Diggory and Oscar met in university, and hosted several student radio shows while at The University of Bristol. Like all impactful pieces of art, the conception of Taking Hugh for Granted was birthed at a music festival, Glastonbury Festival to be specific. It started as just a funny name for a show, but eventually they decided to mobilize their efforts and dive into podcasting. They didn’t want to join the online glut of hapharzardly produced podcasts, so six months were spent polishing their product, creating the artwork, recording, and editing the inaugural episodes down into a show that they were satisfied with. Oscar and Diggory knew that they were reliant on somewhat of a niche audience, but they were also confident that an audience was there, citing that “the amount of people tweeting and instagramming every day about Hugh Grant’s hair in the 1980s is remarkable”. Taking Hugh for Granted has reached listeners in over sixty countries and at the time of writing, is approaching ten-thousand downloads; I think its safe to say that they have found their fan-base.

One notable fan of the podcast is Mary, a woman living in the Midwest of the United States, and a true “Hugh Grant fanatic”. Having latched onto the podcast quite early, Mary was invited to be a guest on episode ten for a question and answer segment. Oscar describes her as “our first super-fan,” and a joy to speak with on the show. In many ways, meeting Mary was also gratification for all the time that went into getting Taking Hugh For Granted off the ground, and a feeling that “we’ve actually tapped into our target audience”.

With Diggory living in the UK, and Oscar now based in Vancouver, their workflow was relatively unaffected by COVID-19. They have continued to put a lot of work into the podcast, writing new jingles, keeping up a strong presence on social media, and adding an adaptive segment titled “Hugh’s News” in response to any unscheduled Hugh Grant content. Seemingly, the most imminent threat to their success is the simple fact that while prolific, Hugh Grant’s filmography will eventually reach its end. When I posed this inevitability to Oscar, he shared that while there have been discussions of shifting the spotlight in the future from Hugh Grant to Colin Firth, he also admits that this could “be a little bit blasphemous,” to abandon their star. However, he also expressed gratitude that they have made it this far and that they owe all of their success to their fans. As long as their listeners continue to enjoy it, “we’ll continue making them until we run out and then we’ll, I guess, cross that bridge when we come to it”.

Until that day comes, keep up with Taking Hugh For Granted on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Twitter, and Instagram. They are coming up on their one-year anniversary, and have a great backlog of episodes to check out.

Follow A Musing on Facebook and Instagram for more content on Oscar and the other creatives in this series.

And don’t forget to check out last week’s interview with motion graphics designer, Cory Ransom.