Add a stunning accent to your home or office with these museum-quality prints, designed to brighten and transform any environment. Each print is made just for you when you place your order. You’ll receive a tracking number as soon as it’s shipped, ensuring you can follow its journey to your door. Please note that the colors you see on your screen may differ slightly from the final print due to variations in monitor settings. While a photo can never fully capture the beauty of the artwork, I do my best to represent it as accurately as possible online.

• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%
• Paper is sourced from Japan
 
Prints come tightly rolled and shipped in a triangular tube.
 
ABOUT THIS PRINT:
 
My original artwork, 'The Journey,' was showcased in 'That Night in Toronto' exhibition at the Mayberry Fine Art Gallery. This extraordinary event paid homage to Gord Downie of the iconic band, Tragically Hip, featuring a collection of remarkable tribute paintings and sculptures. Meticulously curated by the renowned Jealous Curator in collaboration with the Mayberry Fine Art Gallery, this tribute showcased the talent of ten Canadian artists chosen to participate in this profound commemoration.
 
Information about the painting:
My Tragically Hip painting was hugely inspired by the song, New Orleans is Sinking and Gord Downie's monologue, The KillerWhaleTank during the live version of the song ‘" Orleans is Sinking’. The monologue is about Gord working for a huge aquarium as part of the clean and scrub crew for a killer whale tank that is home to two famous killer whales, Shamu and Bartholomew. You can read Gord Downie's monologue below:
Monologue:
I had a job before this, I had a job before this. Ultimately, it was that job that drove me into this. I worked at an aquarium, an aquarium with lots of money from the government so it was HUUUGGEE! I uh, I was a clean n' scrub man we called each other in the C n' S union. I scrubbed the inside of the killer whale tank. Then after a while the boys in the C n' S or clean n' scrub, we just sort of made it one word: the killer whale tank, the killer whale tank uh, the killer whale tank uh. I'm going into the killer whale tank. Uh, yeah. I got along with these two big beasts so well, it was like they knew me they looked at me with their hundred-year-old eyes and it was like they knew me. High, I'd put on my SCUBA gear, my mask, my regulator, {breath} and I'd fall into the tank with nary a sound, maybe a pfft. And then I was underwater. Sometimes, I'd jump out, right in front of the window when people are expecting a killer whale and they see a human, they get spooked. Spooked. Anyway, I'd do that. But I was in the water this particular day, and unbeknownst to me, Shamu and Bartholomew, their relationship had grown stale, seems I was going in there so much and looking so good, Shamu took a shining to me, and they're so smart those things ya know they've got all these human emotions, love, lust, GREED, hundred-year-old eye jealousy. Bartholomew was LIVID. Unbeknownst to me I can't hear a goddamn thing underwater. He came up he was bumping up against me a lot. The stale, killer whale, bumping up against someone so pale and frail. How was I to know the killer whale whose relationship had gone stale, well, he brushes up against me sometimes, skin's like sandpaper I say "Hey man, Bartholomew what's up? What's up? What's going on big fella? What is it? What is it? I, I don't wanna steal your mommy, and I sure don't want to take the place of your daddy, I only want to be your friend." And he circled around and I thought we were all patched up and I was scrubbing and he took me- he came up, he came up, he came up, he ripped my left arm off. I mean the killer whale, they're beasts of the deep, they're I mean they're quite docile and friendly in captivity but somewhere along the line, the thousands of years of breeding just snapped and he took my left arm, man he took my left arm, took my fucking left arm. "Wha-What is it Bartholomew?" I spoke to him in a language he could understand, as I came back.' "Gord Downie"
 
I was also inspired by the lyrics "Picking out the highlights of the scenery" from the song ‘New Orleans is sinking’ which I took as an opportunity to "highlight" some of the other songs, and albums throughout the "scenery" of the painting. You can read them below.
I chose the square-shaped canvas to mimic the shape of a music CD or record album. Gord Downie was an avid supporter of the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper charity. The charity, "helps to create a swimmable, drinkable, fishable future by connecting and empowering people to stop pollution, protect human health, and restore habitat." Downie's most common motif in his songs is water. He once wrote about singing "for the whole sea," Literally dozens of his songs mention water at least in passing. New Orleans is Sinking: “Under skies all smoky blue-green” hence my color choices, and “Saw a little cloud that looked a little like me”. You can see Gord's face and hat in the cloud. I also have some imagery from the New Orleans is Sinking, music video, such as all the TVs and Mike the Goldfish fish which is in a glass mason jar. The trolley train, houses, and lighthouse with the red roof are all referenced from the city of New Orleans. The Hundredth Meridian: The middle of the painting, in the distance, is the “hundredth Meridian”, which is “Where the great plains begin”, which continues to connect with the “Paris of the Prairies”. “Driving down a corduroy road” we come across a horse who has left some “Road Apples” on the road. We also see a "Ferris wheel rusting off in the distance” as well as some “garbage bag trees” on the right of the painting. Other songs that were included were: Gus the Polar Bear from Central Park, Nautical Disaster, Secret Paths, Bobcaygeon, Wheat Kings, and Pretty Things. You Can See a Couple Walking on the Corduroy Road. The man is wearing a small crown. I have Dire Wolf, which is across from a hen house, that alludes that there could be “Trouble at the Henhouse”. In "A Head by Century' We see a couple climbing in a tree. As the song goes….“first thing we’d climb a tree”... “and that’s where the hornet stung me”
Extra tidbits of Information: The bus is the tragically Hip’s tour bus, the bison above is about the 100th meridian, and The man fishing is the hockey player Bill Barilko from “Fifty Mission Cap” who went missing on a fishing trip. In the song Bobcaygeon, “I saw the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time” I painted the big dipper in the starry sky above. At the very top of the painting, we see the Hip performing on a stage.The Shark in the Tank alludes to the Jaws t-shirt Gord Downie is seen wearing in photos and on stage. The juxtaposition of the Killer Whale tank transforming into the ocean was symbolic of how we keep these beautiful animals in tanks when they should be out in the open ocean living a life of freedom, hence why I wrote Killer Whale tank on Shamu’s stomach and included the song lyrics “This is our lives” which I see is how they now have to live out the rest of their lives, stuck in a little tank performing for people. I also painted Shamu, with a white heart around her eye. This represents the love Shamu has for Gord, which is referenced in his monologue. We also see Bartholomew holding Gord’s left arm in his mouth.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with me at: brandymasch@gmail.com