What started as a joke between a local artist and a former boss has ended in a colorful mural project in a dark, dank basement of a local business.
Local artist Stan Matwychuk has painted murals on the patio, lobby and the production basement of the Howe Sound Brewing Pub.
”The idea was to elevate the company culture and give the brewery and staff areas some life and colour,” Matwychuk says.
It all, however, started with a joke when he was discussing the pandemic with the former owner of the pub, Dave Fenn.
Matwychuk had been serving as the brewery’s “night watchman” while staying at the hotel for a few weeks.
“I joked that if this pandemic was to go on for too long, I would end up painting murals in whole place just to keep me sane,” he says.
However, he admits that the project was therapeutic as he set about to transform the basement, a typical grey-walled concrete bunker, with colorful themes.
“The production team spends 40 hours a week down there, and some colour and design was a personnel retention strategy as well as a “cool” project that would raise the company culture,” he says.
He ended up painting four murals in the basement, patio, pub area, the lobby and the office.
The art project has kept him level-headed during the uncertainty of the pandemic, he says.
He is now working on an art project involving a chairlift from Whistler Blackcombs Catskinner Chair.
The project is a collaboration between Arts Whistler & the Whistler Community Foundation, and will be on display throughout Whistler.
