| The first time I saw one of Tim Huesken’s gig posters, I was crossing the street and became so enthralled that I walked right into a garbage can. You could say his artwork had a direct impact on me.
To date Huesken has drawn more than 30 posters for the Calgary venue Broken City. Sometimes his posters are a play on words, twisting the meaning of a band’s name into a brilliantly demented illustration. Other times, an idea is hatched from something scribbled in a sketchbook. However, all his designs contain cartoon characters, vibrant colours and a wild sense of humour that have made his posters a hot street commodity for lovers of the subversive.
"I don’t usually think about the posters until I sit down and draw them," Huesken says. "My fear when starting this (was) that there will come a point where I’ll sit down to do a poster and be blank. I rely more on my process. I go through my sketchbooks and rearrange ideas and draw mostly from my imagination. I dunno – it just kind of falls out of my head like that."
The hand-drawn posters are scanned and coloured using Photoshop, and take anywhere from three to 12 hours to complete.
Huesken has always mixed his love of music with art. His family owned a chain of record stores in the late ’70s and early ’80s and he grew up listening to KISS, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. He soon developed an obsession with heavy metal and by age 10, was drawing the cartoon escapades of a fictional band called Extinguisher.
"I was a pretty sick kid and spent a lot of time in and out of the hospital until I was 11 – which, I think, was part of the reason I spent so much time drawing because I wasn’t able to be very active," he says.
A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design (ACAD), he originally wanted to focus on animation. After graduation, he found it difficult to assimilate back into the real world.
"Art school is really a cocoon," he explains. "I went through a sort of disarming phase where I came back down to earth slowly, and painfully let go of my desire to create large abstract paintings and instead found satisfaction in drawing what I loved so much as a kid, such as robots, skulls, rocketships and monsters."
Huesken has elaborated on those childhood muses, which have become the focus of his eye-catching gig posters.
"Zak (Pashak, owner of Broken City) and I agreed that his posters should be colourful and direct. The less text the better," Huesken explains. "Doing them in colour makes them more expensive, but our intention was to create an image for the bar and make sure that people knew he had bands playing there."
With any sort of street art, theft is considered the highest form of flattery and Huesken’s posters are no exception. Sometimes his work is ripped down by savvy art connoisseurs just minutes after it has been stapled onto a signboard. Although he hopes people will wait until the day of the show before "collecting" them, Huesken is flattered that people think enough of his work to steal it.
"These high school guys were trying to be so discreet and looking over their shoulders," he says, recalling a group of kids pilfering one of his posters. "The one kid rolls up the poster like it’s an important document and puts it in his coat. His friends were all patting him on the back. He probably put it up in his room. That is beyond cool."
In addition to the posters, Huesken has designed band logos for The Neckers and The Agriculture Club as well as illustrating The Cripple Creek Fairies comic book The Fist! His artwork even adorns the menus at Broken City. Huesken is currently working on his biggest project to date – a trading card game that will be going to print next month. He’s also attempting to make a short animated film about the trials and tribulations of two record store clerks.
However, there is nothing he loves more than making gig posters.
"The local music scene is everything to me," he says. "When I go see a live band, I get so much energy and go home inspired with so many ideas. It’s kind of a spiritual experience for me really. Music in general, is what drives me."
CELEB TOP FIVE
Tim Huesken’s Top Five suggestions for people who steal his gig posters:
1. Stealing is wrong. You’re all going to hell. See you there.
2. If you think your sleight of hand is swift enough, steal them directly from Broken City. That way there’s no staple holes since they usually tape them up (but please don’t steal the framed ones because Zak framed those himself and that’s just disrespectful – you know who you are).
3. If you’re crossing the street to steal a poster, please look both ways and watch for cars.
4. Beware of paper cuts! We’re using thicker paper now… dangerous like shark’s teeth.
5. Feel free to buy me a gin and tonic. This is a good suggestion. Please take note of this suggestion before all others. |
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