An image worth a thousand words
An interview with Christopher Rouleau
Image credit: Christopher Rouleau
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See this art on the city's map here.
Craig's Cookies is an iconic bakery known throughout Toronto. The hand-lettering, done by Christopher Rouleau in 2018, was hand-painted with One Shot enamel paint. See more of Christopher's hand-lettered designs and art projects on his website.
Asha Swann 00:05
If you've been to Craig's Cookies, then you'll recognize this next artist. On this episode of Toronto's Artery, I spoke with Chris Rouleau, an artist who specializes in making iconic hand-lettered designs. Chris and I also spoke about being creative during the pandemic.
Asha Swann 00:26
How long have you been doing art around Toronto?
Christopher Rouleau 00:29
I moved to Toronto, I think 12 or 13 years ago. So I guess technically, I've been doing art-related things since I moved here. But I think my first mural project would have been around 2014. But a lot of my work has been seen around the city in the last decade.
Asha Swann 00:48
And I also saw online that you do a lot of hand-lettering projects. How did you get started with doing art in this type of way?
Christopher Rouleau 00:55
I have always loved all things hand lettering, alphabets, fonts from even when I was young. I remember sitting at my grandma's table and just writing the alphabet, writing letters, writing my family members' names. I've always just really liked the analog process of writing and the unique ways that each person has different styles. But in terms of my hand lettering that we know now, I started really honing in on that skill, again, about nine or 10 years ago — I got my first brush pen, and I just started playing around tracing, just seeing how it felt. And then I did a couple of workshops where I sort of got to refine my skills a little bit. And then over I'd say, a couple of years, I advanced my lettering to a level where I felt comfortable making a finished thing and then offering it to the public at like public markets and things like that. And then eventually opened an Etsy site where I was selling hand-lettered goods, and now we are in 2023 and I'm still doing [it].
Asha Swann 01:52
What sort of impact do you find that public art or street art or community art, what sort of impact do you find that has on building community as a whole?
Christopher Rouleau 02:01
I think the world would be really boring if there wasn't public art. And I think of all the times that I've had the privilege to travel outside of Toronto, outside of Ontario. One of my favourite things about a city or country is the way the city captures its culture and its artists through public art. Not to say that, like the best artists of the city are necessarily featured, but every city has such [an] accute flavour of what type of art is happening in the city just based on their public art.
Asha Swann 02:29
And how do you find that the art scene in Toronto has changed in the years that you've been creating? Or since you've moved here, I guess.
Christopher Rouleau 02:36
If anything, I would say there's more public art, which is great. And I think anecdotally, I feel like the city is embracing, like, a multiplicity of voices from all different backgrounds, which really captures the diversity of the city. But especially in recent years, with Black Lives Matter and like everything around Indigenous rights, there's a lot more, not emphasis, but there's more Black and Indigenous artists represented, which I think is great.
Asha Swann 03:03
Do you have any hopes for how the next mayor should implement I guess, like new legislation to promote more local art?
Christopher Rouleau 03:10
I just hope that the new mayor sees the value in art generally, not just in public art, I mean, art galleries, art funding for colleges, universities and our art schools. But in terms of public art, I just hope that it's like you can say you love art, but like, we need the money, like artists need money to produce good work. I think of like all of the gigs I did in my younger years, where it was like basically working for free or like if I calculated the fee I was working for like pennies per hour. And it's like, artists; we got to eat. We really, like any other profession—we need art, we need cash, we need means to continue producing art. It's not cheap. Like even if you think of any painter or sculptor to buy the supply, just the essential supplies cost money, and everything is more expensive now. So I'm just hoping the new mayor sees the value in art and sees the sort of ever-changing profession of being an artist and not the difficulties. It's not like we're looking for handouts, but that just the inherent value of art and public art.
Asha Swann 04:10
Yeah, I definitely hope so too. Like I didn't really grow up here, I only moved out here for school, you see murals everywhere, which I think is so awesome. At least the last like two years, I would say I've seen a lot around here, which I really like.
Snowy
Image source: Christopher Rouleau
This sign, titled "Snowy," is part of a 2021 series called "New & Improved." The hand-painted sign series uses elements of wordplay mixed with nostalgia as the viewer questions their relationship with vintage signs in an ornate thrift-store frame.
Christopher Rouleau 04:22
I also love the art that sort of breaks borders and boundaries. Like I love a mural but I also love installations and like odd things that are like timely or like time specific, where they only last a certain amount of time. Even events like winter stations or some of the things that happen on the harbour, Front street art, chalk art, obviously like sculpture and three-dimensional things and then all of the new crazy digital things that are being produced. I just love it like I think Nuit Blanche and all the amazing digital projections and holograms and like everything—I want it all.
Asha Swann 04:54
Do you have any like bucket list types of places you'd like to do art either outdoors like a mural or something big like an installation?
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Christopher Rouleau 05:03
I know a bucket list item that is more client-focused is, I would really love to do the whole branding and identity for some sort of food retailer, where I can just go hog wild with hand lettering and make the store feel like an old-fashioned hand-lettered branding experience; kind of like Honest Ed's, but new. And then, like, I would love to have a high profile, high visibility mural that can last a long time. I mean, also any kind of collaboration with other artists where we can all pool our brains together and create something really interesting. I also have a thing for signs and public signage and vintage signs. So any kind of like sign restoration, or like public displays of old signs I'm all for, so anything like that would be amazing to have my name attached to.
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Asha Swann 05:45
Yeah, I think that'd be really cool. How did you find that the COVID lockdown impacted your creative process?
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Christopher Rouleau 05:53
It was challenging for many months. Yeah, there were some very dark months, some very scary months, and a lot of months of just having very, very little to no ambition to do anything, not even art, but like just basic day-to-day things. And with like, with so much uncertainty and the situation changing so much all the time. It was yeah, depressing, sad, hard. And I think there was a couple of moments where I thought like, "Is this the end of like me doing art-related things? Do I need to try to find something that is possibly more stable or salary job?" or some kind of thing like that, because the money kind of dried up. So once I got through the darkest parts of it, and like the world started to open up a little bit and clients started coming back, I sort of exhaled and started working on some new projects, and also projects I had just had on the back burner that had not been fully conceived. And then I guess I maybe just changed my frame of mind. And I saw the lockdown as an opportunity to hash out some of the ideas that had been sitting on the shelf.
So I spent a lot of weeks and months designing and painting new projects in like 2021. And I don't think — if I wouldn't have had the "free time," I say free time with air quotes, but if I hadn't had all of that extra free time, I probably would have never done those things. And it's some of my favourite work that I've made in the last couple of years. And I hope that me and you and the people we know in the world more generally are ready for whatever is coming next, like we're nimble, and we're ready to adapt quickly. Because inevitably, something else is going to happen, like is bound to happen. So hopefully, we're ready for the next one.
Asha Swann 07:29
Yeah, ideally, ideally, we'll be more prepared next time. Something else I was wondering about was do any of the outdoor projects you've done, whether they're murals or anything otherwise, does any of them stand out as being like really impactful, or something that you really, really love to work on more than any other projects?
Christopher Rouleau 07:49
In terms of public art, I've only done a couple of murals in the city. And only one of them I would describe as semi-public and the other one was for a retail. So unless you go to the retail store, I wouldn't call it public. But I did work on the King Street pilot project barriers, which was not a lettering project. And I wouldn't say that it's at the top of my portfolio. But I never expected that, well, I never expected that it was going to be accepted for one thing. And then I did not expect that it was going to go longer than the one year pilot that it was scheduled for, back in whatever year that was, I think it's been live for like five years now, six years. So it's kind of cool that something that came out of the blue that I designed quite quickly is now basically a permanent fixture on King Street. And I see it like all the time and people see it. And then when people find out I did it, they're like "What, really?" And I'm like, "Yeah." I hope I'm in the city of Toronto's Rolodex and they call me up to do something else. Ideally, something with hand lettering or sign painting.
Asha Swann 08:52
Do you feel like there's any advice that you would give to young artists who are looking to get into art in Toronto, and anything that you think upcoming artists should know?
Christopher Rouleau 09:02
It's a big question. It's a question I've been asked before. I think the most important thing for any artist or designer who's joining the gang and jumping in, I think the biggest advice is that really, really figure out what you love to do and do that. Don't waste time. I mean, there's no such thing as wasting time. But the sooner you figure out what you love to do, the sooner you'll be making the work you love. And then you'll basically be hired to do that type of work. It took me a little longer than it should have, like, I think I should have just embraced certain things earlier. And it's not like I would go back because I learned a lot with what I did. But one advice is figure out what you love and do that. And secondly, try not to get discouraged. There's always this feeling especially in 2023 now of like small fish in a big pond or just too many fish in the sea and it's like, "How how can I make an impression? How can I stand out? Is there room for me in this market?" There is. There's room for everybody but the people who will stand will be the people who are doing work that's different and interesting and on the fringe and on the edge. Try not to follow trends. Really find your true voice and let that voice speak as loudly as you can.
Asha Swann 10:16
This has been an episode of Toronto's Artery, a podcast about art in the heart of the city. For more episodes, and to see a map of the art we discussed in today's episode, head to torontosartery.com.
Thanks for listening!