Red Pheasant Cree Nation artist brings Indigenous designs to Country Music Week

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“We were at that for a week and a half,” Chipak said. “We would have been done sooner, but we ran out of blue.”

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Colour planning and restrictions make up a good number of considerations Chipak has to take into account as an artist.

He said his next project will take him to Ottawa, and he’s already calculating how much paint he’ll need to use for a 90-foot mural.

“You kind of have to, like, think about what it’ll look like, and you think of square footage and this and that,” Chipak explained.

“It’s a lot more in math and science than I ever thought art would be,” he quipped.

Chipak said a lot of his work up until this point of his career has been digital, mostly for clients’ sizing convenience. He said having more opportunities to create physical art – like in the form of the mural now displayed in Gather Local Market for the CCMAs – has been fun.

“Nothing beats that kinesthetic connection to getting your hands in there rather than drawing on a screen, so to have opportunities to do murals, it’s slowly growing and I’m appreciating it a lot more,” Chipak said, adding excitement that it has come with more opportunities to travel.

Soon, the artist will go to Ottawa for his next project – a mural that will be completed by seven different artists from across Canada to represent different styles and the different parts of the country. Chipak is excited to represent Treaty Six and the prairies, while also having the opportunity to tell his own story and what his part of Canada means to him.

Designing for the CCMAs

Chipak’s involvement in Country Music Week came when Discover Saskatoon approached him to create a bandana using one colour. Other than that framework, Chipak said the design was left up to whatever he thought would look cool.

“I got to talk with them more and figure out what the team needed or what they were looking for. It was connected a lot to the land in the past and the rich culture that Saskatoon has surrounding it, so I just wanted to bring that out in (the) best way I could,” he said.

The design begins with roots and water at the bottom of the art, with Saskatoon’s skyline at the centre base and a large guitar taking up much of the vertical middle. Chipak said both sides of the mural, divided by the guitar, represent the story of Saskatchewan’s past, with the bison representing the prairies and the pelicans representing Saskatoon’s focal animal.

“I wanted to represent both, and then have some beautiful floral in there, and can’t go wrong with the prairie lily,” he shared.

While the bandanas are bordered by Saskatoon’s bridges, Chipak left that part out of the otherwise-nearly-identical mural he painted inside Gather Local Market, largely because of the scale of detail that would have been required to add them within the condensed time period he had for the project.

“I really wanted to focus on the story that was within the bridges on the bandana, and I thought that came out really great,” Chipak said.

Chipak also joked about a lighter reason to exclude the bridges on the mural.

“I’ve been telling people all day I didn’t want to paint any bridges, because a semi might hit it,” he said with a chuckle, referencing the eight vehicle collisions with Saskatchewan overpasses so far this year, mostly in Saskatoon.

Having his work represent Saskatchewan for the CCMAs is “surreal” for Chipak.

“It’s insane how these opportunities grow the more they get closer to the date,” he shared.

Chipak said it’s been “insane” to see how well his art has been received, with people holding his bandanas walking past him and recognizing him as the artist.

“I think this was a great way to celebrate Saskatoon and to be a host for the CCMAs, and I think what’s special about this is it’s showing opportunity for other artists to get their work out there and tell their stories,” he said.

“If someone else had this opportunity here in Saskatoon, they would have a totally different story. So I’m excited for the opportunity to come again for someone else.”