AIKEN'S BLOG ツ

After seven long months, I’ve finally received by sample beer from Collective Brewing! Literally jumped for joy when I got this email telling me my piece had been accepted. You can find my artwork on their Hazy State beer, which is a session IPA.

Do I know what this beer brew is? Absolutely not, but it’s tasty and they made my piece White On Black look very good 👌. 

I swear one of these days I’ll finish a whole can of beer (I’m a total lightweight. Like mega lightweight. 😆)

Thanks to Collective Brew for the opportunity and to Ashley McKenzie-Barnes for forwarding this to me!

COVID-19 has made for some pretty strange times. I know I finally went out for the first time in two weeks yesterday to enjoy the festivities at Chinook Blast. Was so honoured to see my piece, Airborne, projected alongside 59 other amazingly talented artists.

It was such a great feeling to hear the excited chatter from the people enjoying the art and the artist themselves seeing their pieces projected. Gathering with so many people while trying out best to maintain a safe distance was strange, but I’m definitely thankful for this little sliver of normal during weird times.

Stay safe, stay kind. We’re almost there!

Back in December 2020, I had the amazing opportunity to hand paint some jackets for RIFF and their influencers Piper Courtenay, Dejan Stanic, and Braydon Chapelas.

To kick off the collaboration, I had the chance to speak to each of these tastemakers to get a sense of what they like and what they want customized on the jackets. After that wrapped up, I hunkered down in my home office and got to spraying. Thanks to the cold Calgary weather outside and short daylight hours, some (aka most) of this spraying had to be done indoors. 

Each jacket features the RIFF brand colours and an emoticon, a throwback to the predecessor of the modern day emojis. The concept was to go back to the basics but allow each influencer to choose the emoticon that best expressed their personality on the jacket. The influencers could also choose a phrase that best represented them and their personal brands.

I am high off of the spray paint fumes. Kudos to my boyfriend for tolerating the smell and mess I’ve unleashed on to the house + being an excellent jacket model 😌

Look!! Paper!! Seeing my stuff printed makes me so excited. Thanks for finally pulling through Canada Post 👌 

Writing accompanying my piece is by Randee Neumeyer.

Lots of cool artists and writers in this jam-packed, creative delight. Get your copy at select Indigo and independent retailers across Canada! Or y’know at SadMag.ca cause they offer direct 😉.

My mentor, Carson, is much better at running blogs. It never ceases to surprise me how often he updates.

Happy to share with you my first contribution to Sad Magazine, an independent Vancouver magazine filled with wonderful writing and art! This issue is called the Death Issue, and for those who know me I love skulls (I have a skull and lotus tattoo on my forearm). Totally right up my alley.

Happy holidays folks! Time to post my first holiday art of the year. I’ve restrained myself from playing holiday music in November this year, so I think I did pretty well.

My studio mate Leah, Annie, and I just wrapped up our latest project for Telus Storyhive! With the help of Leah’s excellent creative ideas, Annie and I created 2 designs each to add a bit of colour to the Storyhive team’s Zoom meetings and phone screens.

The second illustration features our office puppers (Miso, Sammy, Sunny) and another good boy from the Storyhive team.

Now that I’m stuck in a room for all hours of the day, I’ve saved so much time from the lack of commuting, office snacking, and showering. However, I’ve made up for this time by home snacking and increasing the amount of attention my dog receives. There can only be so many internet memes I can look at before I become bored and feel the need to do something productive–that is until I receive my new Nintendo Switch and Animal Crossing game in about 17 hours.

One thing I’ve been putting off is posting more on my blog. My mentor Carson has been fantastic at posting and sharing his work, and it’s been great to keep track of when and what happens during certain times of the year. We look back at the process of each project and have the opportunity to share behind the scenes look from a more casual and personal perspective. I always find it surprising how much I forget about a project. Long story short, it’s nice to have a record of things.

A project I’ve been really excited to share is a collaboration between Carson, Emily Rose (our previous all-star intern), and I. Last year, we were commissioned by a punk band called American Television to create a cover for their new album, Let It Burn. Inspired by Green Day’s Dookie album cover, we set off to do something unique.

The artwork is built from cardstock and sharpies, then photographed and pieced together to be manipulated digitally.

The actual vinyl is a stunning, vibrant orange. unfortunately, I don’t have the photographic skills to beat the quality of a mockup :’(.

Some of you may have already seen this from my Instagram, but I’ve had great fun helping Hubert Kang and his dream of a producer Amy Jones doing pre, post, and day of tasks for their amazing projects this past year. Amy’s ability to stay organized, delegate, and on time all while being fair, mindful, and kind to those on set has been a great source of inspiration to me. With my background in business, design, and dozens of other interests–the production seemed like the perfect job to try given how dynamic it is.

My friend Tim Hoggan, who works as a DP and director, referred me to a project he was working on for The Statistics–a band made up of two brothers from Prince George, British Columbia. Since the budget was small it was mostly a volunteer-based crew, but everyone was eager to help and make something cool.

Although the project was a hectic one, it was a great environment for me to test and learn more about producing given the small size of the crew. Fantastic time working with everyone, I can’t wait to see the final video! Enjoy some behind the scenes photos below from Solomon Hsu and the phenomenal guy who let us rent his camper van, Alexander Kopp.

The Team

Director / Kevin Cho DOP / Timothy Hoggan Producer / Aiken Lao 1st AC / Trevor Komori 2nd AC / Solomon Hsu Crew / Luke Strahm, Brian Johnson, Andrii Lyskov Van / Alexander Kopp