Creative Hands latest project for mural artist - September 7th Issue

Courtney Taylor

Cariboo Advisor

“Pick a subject and have no fear.”

Wise words from lakecity artist Dwayne Davis, he says a lot of people say they ‘can’t’ when it comes to art, but he thinks an artist needs to think they can and just do it.

“When my youngest son helps with the mural it’s great,” said Davis. “He has absolutely no fear.”

Davis had always been artistic, and says his earliest memories of drawing are at age two.

“I became pretty right-brained pretty early.”

When he was younger, Davis thought his career would be something in the arts, but that confidence wavered here and there when he was in school.

“I would spend lots of time drawing, I drew a lot of comics,’ said Davis. “When I was younger I though I might become a comic artist.”

Over the years, Davis has done lots of different types of work all art related. Everything from sign design, window painting, leather and vinyl work to working on large-scale murals, which is his current gig.

Davis is in the middle of his titled ‘Creative Hands’ mural on the side of the Central Cariboo Arts Centre, and it’s coming along nicely getting into the detail work.

This mural came to life because Davis’ proposal to the Central Cariboo Arts and Culture Society was chosen, he said he has had the idea floating around in his head for quite some time and is glad to have somewhere to put it.

Many of his other murals around town were part of the Communities in Bloom projects. The very first one done back in 2000 on the side of the Kondals building was thanks largely in part by Sue LaChane-Watson and Kevin Goldfuss from the Communities in Bloom committee according to Davis.

“It really snowballed from there,” said Davis.

When asked if mural painting was what he thought he would be doing for work when he younger, Davis recalls that in Grade 7, they watched a video about guys painting large murals and it always stuck with him.

“Also, Michael Angelo was/is my hero,” said Davis. “Something like the Sistine Chapel is something I would love to do.”

He also thanks his art teacher, Mr. Abbott, for guiding him to art and teaching him a lot.

“I knew a lot more than the other kids in my first year of art school,” said Davis.

Davis took a two-year program at Okanagan College, and finished in 1986, and has also taken desktop publishing courses, and graphic design classes.

He is all about art, and he has raised his children that way as well according to his 20-year-old son Stephen Davis-Gossling.

“He raised me to be an artist, though I am more of a story teller,” said Davis-Gossling. “I can’t help but do anything but art.”

“The bigger the paint brush the happier I am,” said Davis.