The Whistler Podcast

Season 2 Episode 22: Starry nights, music festival installations and championing arts in Whistler (with Dave Petko)

• Resort Municipality of Whistler • Season 2 • Episode 22

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In this episode of The Whistler Podcast, Councillor Cathy Jewett speaks with artist Dave Petko (“Pepe”). 

Dave’s art spans from murals, paintings, sculptures, large scale installations for music festivals, and snowboard graphics to tattoos. You’ll find his work around Whistler: the mural on the Whistler Olympic Plaza washrooms, and at Black Ohm Tattoos. He was awarded the Whistler Champion of Arts and Culture in the 2021 Whistler Excellence Awards. 

Dave’s glow-in-the-dark exhibit Starry Nights is at the Gallery at the Maury Young Arts Centre. The exhibit is running until March 6. 

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Today on The Whistler Podcast,

Dave Petko:

Like my little critters, um, I started sketching critters, and then I started sculpting'em and I have a toy designer friend in Squamish that I worked with last year to produce a series of limited edition critters.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

He's Cole Stefiuk. I am Jack Crompton. This is The Whistler Podcast, as we always do. We wanna acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional unceded territories of Lil'wat Nation and the Squamish Nation. Cole today, we are going to continue our journey through the Jewett episodes. And this week we are going to hear all about the work of Whistler artists, Dave Petko, are you familiar with Pepe's work?

Cole Stefiuk:

I, I definitely once I, I mean, not as much when I, when I first did the interview, but when I started, uh, listening to it and going through, uh, I got to see a lot of work plus, uh, I did know a bit about him cuz I'm looking for some more ink and I know that, uh, Dave does an incredible job in the tattoo parlor, so yeah.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Huh. So you are a, uh, you are a tattooed man.

Cole Stefiuk:

I have one tattoo. It's really, it's really nice, but I, I wanna get more, but they're just very expensive. That's basically, I, I wanna have a big, I wanna have like a really nice tattoo, so I want to invest in it and to do for a lot of tattoos is a that's a cost.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

And do you have a vision in your head?

Cole Stefiuk:

Oh yeah. And I think Dave would be, would be great for it, but I've got lots of different tattoo ideas I've got in my head. I could have two whole sleeves, but I just, you know, in my bank I can't, you know?

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah, yeah. That's

Cole Stefiuk:

Fair.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. Well, as you say, Pepe's been tattooing and creating art in this town for a long time. Like I really, I'm pretty sure that his first gig here was working with George at, uh, at Toad Hall studios, like screen printing and, and creating all kinds of wonderful down and function. Yeah. Which I, a Function is his haunt. Like he, he is sort of the in charge of function. I always kind of imagined Pepe running, running Function Junction on all of our behalfs,

Cole Stefiuk:

Like the mayor of function Junction only. Yeah. Yeah. It was

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Totally

Cole Stefiuk:

Yeah.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Like cool. Um, he also has, uh, an exhibit right now at the Maury until March 6th. You can see, um, large set of his paintings called Starry Nights. Uh, it's a must for everyone who loves all things Whistler. So go see Pepe now until March 6th at the Maury.

Cole Stefiuk:

I'll go check it out.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

All right. Um, so let's get to ask Jack anything, ask Cole anything. We'll start with you. Ask anything, go for it. All

Cole Stefiuk:

Right. This is like a little game of, would you rather I think.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Okay. All right. Sounds good.

Cole Stefiuk:

Would you rather have a really like a, a, like your favorite item at your favorite restaurant named after you or a ski run named after you?

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Oh, I think a ski run. Yeah. Just because then you can, well, I just think being able to take someone to your own ski run is, is it would be pretty special now.

Cole Stefiuk:

Okay. So what would you

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Call it? Like, oh, what would I call? I don't know.

Cole Stefiuk:

Crompton's Crash?

Mayor Jack Crompton:

No, no, I wouldn't call it Crompton's Crash. No, you know what I think is important. If, if someone's going to name something after you, you shouldn't be the one that names it true. Yeah. So you should let someone else name it. What about you? What's your sandwich? The, the, the Stefiuk sandwich gonna be called.

Cole Stefiuk:

Oh, I don't know exactly what it's gonna be called. I, I mean a Sloppy Cole would be really funny I think, but oh yeah.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. It was good. That is good.

Cole Stefiuk:

Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that'd be neat, but a ski run would probably be cooler, you know, but everyone eats, not everyone skis. Right.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair. That's fair. Um, okay. I'll to ask Cole anything. There is no talk radio in, in Whistler. Why?

Cole Stefiuk:

Uh, well CBC has like talk radio features sometimes.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah, that's true. Yeah. There's no CKNW kind of a thing here. Like it's no local talk radio.

Cole Stefiuk:

No, I, if I can be completely honest with you, I think it would be hard to talk for like 12, 13 hours on one station about it's like, we don't, there's not a lot. There's not enough to go on to just continuously talk about it. I think. Yeah.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. That's fair. I mean, they don't even rebroadcast CKNW up here, which I think is interesting.

Cole Stefiuk:

Yeah. I mean, you can definitely stream any, any station you want online. I'm sure. CKNW has an online like player and there's like the radio player, Canada app, which you can stream out FM on as well, no matter where you are in the country, just a short little plug there. Um, but I think just to have like, cuz a lot of talk radio, they talk about like everything going on in the world. So those are only really in major cities. Uh, they, they focus on the city first, but then move on and Vancouver has a million plus people in the GVA, the Sea the Sky, you know, we have what, 60,000 maybe is that too much? Yeah. 50,000. Like, so to have that many things going on to talk about all day, it's tough.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. I'd forgotten about the internet. As you say, you can listen to those stations on the internet. There's this interesting, um, set of podcasts now called city casts. Um, and uh, it's being run by a guy named David plots who, uh, had, uh, run a company called Atlas Obscura, which would sort of take you to the hidden side of whatever city you'd travel to. It's still out. Their Atlas Obscura is a really neat place to find what to do if you're in Portland or, or London. Um, and so his new, uh, venture is this I, this company called city cast and they basically set up an online daily from San Francisco and LA and they hire in that community, a person to do like a daily 30 minutes or 45 minutes on that city, sort of maybe, uh, talk radio for each city in that city on the daily. So it's interesting. Uh, let's get, I, I think we need to rename last week's headlines because it occurs to me that we use the Pique and we should acknowledge that. So I think we should rename it Pique last week. Ooh, I like that. Here you go. Pique last week I name three headlines cold two, use this one and we discuss it. First one is Whistler gyms reopened. Here's everything you need to know before heading to meadow park sports center. Second is Whistler businesses overcame a flurry of challenges over the holiday season. And third is Canada's Olympic Snowboard and Luge announced what's your choice.

Cole Stefiuk:

Usually I go for three, cause I love talking about sports the Olympics, but I think, and I think one and two kind of go together. I want to go with one with the gym closures. I, I want to talk a little bit about, about that and them being reopened again. And how much of a delight that has been for so many people in our communities. It's crazy.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. My son, I went to school the day that Dr. Henry was gonna make the announcement and he like made me tune in. I, I, I tune in to Dr. Henry. Yeah. Anyway, so that I can make sure that I'm aware of what's happening. Uh, but he like scheduled it for me. He needed to know exactly when he'd be able to go climbing and, and, and work out at the Core. Nice. Um, and so yeah, I, there's a lot of enthusiasm and excitement about getting back to, um, gyms around this town, for sure.

Cole Stefiuk:

Yeah. And I mean like, look, the purpose is a personal story, I guess, of experience, but I just started going to the gym in November for like, I, I went back in like 2016 and I just been a lazy slob since then. So I started going to the gym, like as religiously as I could starting in November. And I, you know, the physical side effects are cool. The mental side was so I didn't realize how much I needed it mentally until they shut them down. And I was just sitting at home for, you know, a week locked out and I was like, yeah, this, I think my mental health needs that boost of going to the gym. And then I got COVID for two weeks. So I've been like without physical exertion for like three or four weeks now. And my body's feeling it physically and mentally.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. They're they are places that are critical to the fabric of, of, of towns. It's interesting. You don't know that until it's gone. And then the number of people who, uh, that is their place to, you know, remain centered and, and connect with people is it's, it's a really big deal. So yeah. Not having it for that period of time has been a real insight for sure. Yeah.

Cole Stefiuk:

It's been, I mean, it's, they are, they're a huge, and tight-knit community, the gym community. So I'm, I'm glad that they got reopened. I think it was the, we needed it so

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Happy for everyone. Yeah, I know it was the right thing for sure. Okay. Well, let's get to the Jewett episodes and Dave Petko.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

All right. Well welcome. Uh, I'm Cathy Jewett, I'm a councillor here at the RMOW and one of my portfolios is arts culture and heritage. And I'm fortunate enough today to be speaking to David Petko, who is the 2021 arts champion of Whistler. And so it's a pleasure to have you here today, Dave.

Dave Petko:

Hi.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Hi. Hi there. So, um, uh, you were recognized this year as Whistler arts champion. Can you tell us about some of the, um, the work that you've done to, to be a champion of art in Whistler?

Dave Petko:

Uh, well, I've, I've been in Whistler almost 30 years and I've, I've been making art in town here for probably the last 28 or so. And, uh, I've done everything from the brand new mural on the multimillion dollar washrooms at the Olympic Plaza. I was chosen to do that. Um, I've done a lot of, uh, paintings, acrylic paintings. Um, I've been in almost every State of the Art and Brave Art from like the very first year on snowboard graphics at Prior. Um, I have a successful tattoo. Um, I've done large scale art installations at music festivals around North America. Yeah,

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yeah. You know, actually talking about those art installations. Cause I, um, I saw on your, your bio, uh, Guild Art Collective is the, the name of the, the group that does these, um, these big installations and they're phenomenal. So just amazing. Can you tell us a bit about those?

Dave Petko:

Yeah. Um, we we've started doing, uh, stage designs net for, um, Bass Coast music festival years ago when it was in up in the Squamish valley. And it's it's, I think it's in its 13th year now, um, coming back next year. And, uh, a lot of the, the art that we do is large scale art and we almost create environments for the festival goers. So anything from like a, a 40 foot pirate ship, that's basically made out of reclaimed lumber and reclaimed material and upcycled material and that to like a, a 30 or 30 foot spaceship that was made out of, uh, styrofoam, that was all recycled styrofoam. And I think for the, for the missiles on it and the, the, the, the ray guns on it, um, I used lamp works and crutch crutches from the ReUseIt Centre, uh, repurposed, a bunch of those, what else have we made tentacles, giant tentacles that went through at the festival grounds? Um, my crew actually is right now as we speak, my crew is down in Fort Lauderdale and, uh, they're building some art there. I opted out this year because COVID, but, um, you know, a, a few of our other crew went down there to, to do the build this year. Yeah.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yeah. It's, uh, it's really interesting if anyone has a chance to, um, to Google the Guild Art Collective a, to take a look at, so some of the installations that they've done, they're just, um, amazing. So, um, it must be really inspiring. Yeah.

Dave Petko:

They're really

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Do that.

Dave Petko:

It's a really fun crew. It's a really fun crew to work for. And I mean, it it's really almost mind boggling how we build things just from scrap material, you know, um, uh, for the Pemberton Music Festival the last year we built the, the entrance gate trees and they were actually fabricated with a, a steel frame inside. And then we took side cuts from, uh, sawmills and actually wrapped the outside to of the steel, um, wrapped the outside to make it look like trees. And yeah, we did probably seven or eight installations for the Pemberton Music Festival for the last year. Yeah. It was really fun.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Well, and, and you say also when, when we spoke earlier that you are inspired by nature, uh, you spend a lot of time out there. So what are the, what are some of the images that really capture your imagination that you want to, you want to portray in your art?

Dave Petko:

Uh, well from like undulating landscapes to, uh, with like little ponds in'em and reflections of the moon and stars to, uh, deciduous trees and evergreen trees, um, yeah, little mushrooms throughout the little landscapes. Yeah. Inspire people to, I guess, go out in nature and explore, because there's so much to it, you know, and, you know, the, the more detailed, like the, the closer you get to it, the more expansive it is.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

It's interesting that you should, uh, mention mushrooms. I, uh, just spoke with Christina Nick, who yeah. Is a mushroom, um, art mushroom forger, uh, with another artist, Hugh Kearney. I don't know if you know, Hugh as well. So they both, they both mushroom forage together and she's thinking, Hmm. Maybe, um, a mushroom themed art show. Um, how about that?

Dave Petko:

That would be fun. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, my girlfriend and I were out foraging yellow foot Sean trails just this morning. So we got enough for a couple dinners. Yeah

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Know, um, I'll send you my phone number. Um, all right. So, uh, first of all, I want to wish you a belated happy birthday. So belated happy birthday. Thank you. You have a show coming up, um, at the Maury Young Art Centre.

Dave Petko:

Yes. Yeah. My first of my first art exhibit of 2022, uh, it's gonna be January. I think the second week of January is the, the opening date. Um, and that's going to run January and February into, I think, into March, just by a week. And then, um, in March I have another exhibit at, uh, the Beaumont gallery at the Beaumont State Studios in Vancouver. So a bunch of different work for both for the Whistler show, I've produced 29 brand new paintings. And for the Vancouver show, I'm working on 13, hopefully 14 pieces. Yeah. Brand new. They kind of tie in together as well. If you go to the Whistler show, the Vancouver show, you'll recognize some elements on that. And it's yeah.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

I think you said that the, uh, theme of the Maury Young Art Centre one is Starry Nights, is that right?

Dave Petko:

Starry Night. Yeah. That's the title of it. Yeah. I've yeah. They all, all of the pieces have, I guess phosphorescent pigment in them. They'll start with a layer of that. And then I build up using washes, um, to create the pieces. Yeah.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

And, uh, and the Beaumont one, um, what's, what's the theme that you're working with there?

Dave Petko:

Uh, I really don't wanna say right now, but it's, if you go to the, like the Whistler show, the, the Whistler show is almost like where you're walking through a forest into a city and outta the city again, into the forest. So the Vancouver show is gonna be more city and more, I guess, man-made environments as opposed to natural

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Well, that, uh, that sort of ties into, uh, where we, where we are and where we live. Yeah. Um, of course,

Dave Petko:

Exactly.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Um, one of the things that we talked about too, um, earlier was that you knew Chili Thom.

Dave Petko:

Yeah. Yeah. I knew Chili knew Chili. Um, I've lived in Function Junction and Chili had his student here and then he had his gallery here right around the Olympics. So I go visit Chili every now and then and give him tips if he was stuck. Yeah. Hang out with him, hang out with him. And,

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

And Kelsey. Yeah. So what I've been talking about with other, uh, Whistler artists is other artists. And so, you know, I'm really interested to hear about, uh, your connection with Chili and also any other artists that, uh, that you you've worked with locally. Yeah,

Dave Petko:

Yeah. Um, well, uh, my connection with Chili is I never painted with Chili, but I, I did, you know, go by his studio when he was painting and hang out with him. And if he was stuck, he'd sometimes ask me for, you know, my, my, if I had any, uh, anything to say about it and to give him any pointers. So I'd do that. And I curated art shows for a few years, probably seven years with my production company, Blind Mute productions. And, uh, we would host, um, basically any artist that wanted to be in it. And we would invite specific artists and Chili was one that I would always invite. And he would always, he would his produce artwork for the theme. So if the theme was kitten and bunny kittens and bunnies, or, um, feelings, that sort of thing, uh, he would always produce artwork for the, for the theme. And it was really interesting to see what he came up with to see what came out of his, out of his head, through producing and curating the art shows. I got to know quite a few of the local artists in town and the visiting artists as well like Taka Sudo, and Frescia Van Mandalay, um, Stan Matwychuk, Dave Bands. Um, Arne Guttman, The Incredible Amoeba. Uh, yeah, it was quite a collective, you know, a, a collective bunch and a very creative collective bunch as well. And just, uh, to put those art shows together, you know, you almost vibe off each other's energy and really cool to see what everybody was doing. Um, Julie and I had kind of a unique style when we first started painting and, um, very, almost similar as well. And there's other artists that had similar styles too, but you know, that they were creating like in totally different spaces and environments and yeah.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yeah. That's, um, uh, that's quite a list of artists. And it's really interesting because just recently I've been speaking to one of Whistler's first artists, uh, Isabel MacLauren, and then Christina Nick, and just to see how much the art community, the art making community in wooer has expanded, and even in all forms of art music, um, as well as visual art. Um, so I, I think that we're, we're super lucky to, um, um, to watch this grow.

Dave Petko:

Yeah, totally.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

You, you've also been a part of the B Grade Horror Films.

Dave Petko:

Yeah. Yeah. I've, I've done work for Feet and Chili. Um, I used to curate the art show for the lobby and, um, that started out with doing group shows. And then I would work with, say my friend, Arne Gutman, who's a really good photographer in town and artist in his own. Right. And, uh, the incredible Amoeba, Scott Johnson, um, and we would create all of the pieces for the, for the lobby. Um, and I was also in, uh, some B Grade Horror Movies, maybe the first three years that it started. And I didn't really know what I was getting into or what I was agreeing to do. Um, friends would be like, Hey, we want you to be in our little movie that we're making. I'm like, okay, sure. And that led to say me getting my head smashed into like a barbecue grill and it grilled, um, animated films being made of me. Yeah. Really, really fun and creative endeavors. You know, I remember walking through Function and seeing, uh, Feet Banks and Chili Thom filming one of the movies and they had, they had smoke machines going and Chili dressed up as Green Jesus. And it was really fun. Yeah.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yeah. The Green Jesus, I I've seen that film. That's a, that's a good one.

Dave Petko:

Yeah. Yeah. It's fun.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yeah. Awesome. Um, okay. So now you are a really, uh, diverse artist as far as the mediums that you use. So you are a tattoo artist, you paint, um, you sculpt, um, you do digital, you do small, you do big, you do 2D, you do 3D. Tell us about how all of this has evolved and you know, how you, how you change over time and, and add all these things to your, to your, your talents,

Dave Petko:

To my repertoire

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Repertoire,

Dave Petko:

I guess. Yeah. Well, I started, um, sketching and I, you know, always keeping sketch books. So I probably have about 25 or 30 of them. Um, and that led to painting some of the sketches. Uh, and I guess the painting led to tattooing and the sculpting just came about because it was another medium and I wanted to make different things that, um, you know, I guess, uh, like my little critters, um, I started sketching critters, and then I started sculpting'em and I have a toy designer friend in Squamish that I worked with last year to produce a series of small critters and, uh, limited edition critters. And I think I, I put those for sale on Instagram and they sold out in like 20 minutes or so. Um, the large scale art installations with the Guild that started out from, um, making some art for a party that Liz and Andrea and Andrea were creating. And, uh, they invited me to make art for the very first Bass Coast. And then I think the second or third, they asked me to do a, uh, to create a stage environment. So I did one of those and yeah, just, I've never really stopped, you know, I've just always tried to keep my, uh, my style evolving and trying new things. You know,

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

I think that, um, uh, a lot of people would like to know where they see your, your art. Of course, we know you you've mentioned the, uh, the piece, um, in Whistler Olympic Plaza, which is, uh, kind of a, uh, a digitalized almost, uh, representation of the Whiskey Jacks, uh, bobcat. Um, what else is, what else is in there?

Dave Petko:

Uh, there's lupins, uh, there's a Raven and, uh, black bear.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

And do you have any other murals around town that people, uh, go and check out?

Dave Petko:

Uh, there's one on a CCAN behind Happy Pets in Function

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yesterday?

Dave Petko:

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I done one on the naughty bur in Squamish, downtown Squamish for the mural festival there. Um, I think that's really about it. Uh, no, I've, I've painted at the skate park as well, uh, uh, critter. Um, and I think this January, February, I'm gonna apply for a bunch of mural festivals around North America to see if I can do some more large scale artwork, two dimensional artwork. I really had fun with the, the one in Whistler here. So I, I would like to do more.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

It's a beautiful piece. I really love it. Um, and I feel that we're very fortunate to have that in our lives every day that we can see. Yeah. And that's an important thing about having public art is to also introduce people to artists here. And I hope that, um, it creates connections, more connections for you. And you've also been, um, uh, working on some of the art pieces that have been gone up for, uh, for donation. Um, so the, the chair series, um, I'm thinking of the, um, the Whistler chairs, what other ones, um, lifting

Dave Petko:

The community, lifting the community, and then the Adirondack chairs I've done a, probably four of those or so I think I, I did my first one and I had a fun time doing it. Um, I put off public art, like creating public art for a very long time. Um, like painting live. I put that off for a very long time. I was so nervous for the first time I did it and I'm like never again. And then I agreed to do the Adirondack and I did it and it turned out really lovely. And, uh, I had such a good time. I agreed to do another one. And I think that one was part of a competition between like seven artists, all creating live. And I came in first place. So I'm like, okay, I'm gonna keep doing this. Then I've kind of got out over my fear of making like live art. I think tattooing helped with that, you know, getting over my fear of making art in front of people or on people. Um, hopefully next year I'll do some more. Yeah.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yeah. Great. Well, I, I will confess that I was one of the judges for the, uh, Adirondack chairs. Oh,

Dave Petko:

Done. No,

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

No, obviously I'm a big fan, big fan. Tell me about your piece for lifting the community.

Dave Petko:

I worked with Liz Thompson on that and my girlfriend and Tony Kong. She helped out as well. Uh, Liz's partner, Phil helped out a bit as well. And, um, we made a swing set out of our chair and we included some wire, wire mesh kind of ravens. And I think we are the only group that didn't change the chair at all. We didn't paint it. We created a nest out of the chair with reclaimed wood and, uh, uh, yeah. Um, our whole thing was that Whistler is a place where people come and play and what was kind of the first thing that people play on when they're kids is a swing set. Um, and the nest represents community and home and the ravens, well, they're all over Whistler. And, uh, yeah, the Ravens are out playing in the sky. And if you're on the ski hill on the chair lifts, you see them swooping around and flying around and having a, a great time. And

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Yes, they're in, uh, First Nations culture is considered the trickster too. Yeah. So, so that was a project that used old Catkinner chairs, um, from Blackcomb and, uh, was fundraiser for the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation. Uh, I'm so glad you told us about this chair because okay. Again, so it was a good thing. Uh, it wasn't judged and, and I wasn't a judge cuz that was my favorite chair and it was placed uh, by the Audain. Um, if anyone remembers, yeah, we, I sure do. Yeah.

Dave Petko:

We partnered with, we partnered with the Audain. Uh, we, we didn't really have a choice with who we partnered with, but when we found out it, the Audain Museum, we're like, yes, this is amazing. So we had a brainstorm session, like everybody involved, not with the Audain and kind of what could we do. And, and then we had the meeting with the Audain, um, and they were kind of saying like, we'll give you free rein to do whatever. And if it's abstract, that's fine. So Tony came up with the idea of a, of a swing set and the story behind it and the little write up and everything and it just, everything came together really smoothly. It was a joy working with that crew and working with the Audain and um, so happy with the placement of it by the Audain looking at Whistler Mountain. And a lot of people that I talked to, they said, oh yeah, I've sat there and swung and hung out, looking at whistler mountain and yeah. Really enjoyed your piece so

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

Well, it was, um, it was a very inspiring piece and it was, I, I just love hearing about the imagery that you used in it and, and what the representation was and, um, really appreciate, uh, hearing about that story. Um, so it's incredible how fast time goes, uh, when we're chatting. But yeah, I really am grateful to have had this time with you, David, um, get to know you a lot better. And, uh, I, I know Tommy as well, and I now know that your dog's name is Frank. Um, so I out and about, um, thank you very much. And we're looking forward to seeing your upcoming show Starry Nights, uh, the Maury Young Art Center and that's running January 8th to March 6th. I have the dates in front of me and so, oh,

Dave Petko:

I do not

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

SOS. Yeah. So, uh, we're looking forward to that. Congratulations again, on being whistler arts champion for 2021. It, uh, it just means yes, there it is. I show it is

Dave Petko:

Yeah.

Councillor Cathy Jewett:

The, uh, crystal. Yeah. So, yeah, congratulations and all that. And it just sounds like you continue to be prolific and a, a really, uh, important part of our earth community. So I thank you for that.

Dave Petko:

Thank you, Cathy. Yeah, it was a pleasure talking to you.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

I'm so grateful, uh, Cathy decided, and to take us up on the offer and, and do these episodes because they, they bring, I think so much richness to the, uh, conversation about arts and culture in our community. And there are things that I don't have sort of a finger on the pulse of. So it's nice to have, uh, a voice that's not ours in the conversation to be able to listen into it.

Cole Stefiuk:

And I think it's really, it's really important to highlight the arts. I, I think I said this when we did the first Jewett episode with Isabelle MacLauren, but you know, whistle's known for just, you know, being such an amazing destination and being such a big sports town with the Olympics and everything like that. And it, sometimes people don't realize just how, how amazing the art scene in Whistler truly is like when you get here and, and you see all the amazing, all the amazing art around town and of course with Cathy doing all these amazing interviews with the artists, uh, it's a cool perspective on something that doesn't get all of the light in this town for, you know, of a reasons.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Yeah. I'm sad to be getting to the end of the Jewett episodes. We've got one more after this one. So tune in for that, but please remember that at the Maury Young Arts Centre until March 6th, you can see Starry Nights, uh, that's Pepe's, uh, presentation of a bunch of his art that is, um, it, it lights up like you, you go and, and experience it with the lights off, cuz it's all, um, painted in, um, uh, rich phosphorescence and stuff like that. So just go and see it before March 6th and Cole. And I really want to invite listeners to share your ideas with us, uh, uh, about people that you'd like to be have on the Whistler Podcast, or if you yourself would like to come on and chat with us. We'd love to talk to you. I'm at facebook.com/mayor Jack Crompton or at Jackson Crompton on Twitter and Cole is just all over the air waves and on the internet.

Cole Stefiuk:

Yeah. Yeah. Find this air streaming and uh, yeah. Call in if you've got any questions.

Mayor Jack Crompton:

Exactly. All right. Uh, as, uh, I've said before, he's cool. I'm Jack this is the Whistler Podcast. Thank you for listening.