Pinups and Canadiana, indeed! Today I’m talking to Vancouver based artist/illustrator Ryan Heshka, a proud fellow Canadian, about his sassy, pulp-inspired work. There are mean girls, “Mystery Twins”, and so much perfect found paper I can hardly stand it … we also covered important topics like underage drinking in barns on the Canadian Prairies. You can listen right up there under “The Wood Gang”, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

Ok, let’s kick things off with a few of my favorite gals:

Yes. I love these! I told Ryan I pictured him being a comic-obsessed kid when he was little. Apparently I was right, and here’s proof… two of Ryan’s “early” works, followed by a more recent piece:

Ha! So cute, so funny! Well, given his love for Batman, it’s not surprising that these masked ladies eventually showed up in his portfolio. Batman + babes =

Oh, the bubblegum… those two might be my favorite set of Ryan’s “Mystery Twins”! Up next, we were talking about a few of his pieces where text, from the found paper he uses, shows through into his work:

So, so, so good. And I can almost smell that old paper from here! Mmmmmm.

There were two pieces I wanted to hear the story behind… they’re the first two below. They kind of led us into a Canadiana tangent, so I put a couple of those here too {note “Rolanda” on the jacket of the Blue Bird on the right}:

Ah yes, makes me proud to be Canadian… I was never Miss.Canadiana though. Well, something to work towards I suppose.

Ok, now Ryan’s books! He’s done a few: “Welcome To Monster Town”, “ABC Spook Show”… but this one has to be my fave:

Smoking, drinking, and stealing bras. Yep, mean girls being mean. If you want your own copy of “Mean Girls Club”, you can find it here.

Oh, and I always like to know what an artist’s studio looks like, so Ryan sent these along for the post. Check out his amazing view of that Vancouver sky:

Wowza! His cat doesn’t seem impressed though.

And finally, after all of that pinup / Canadiana action, I felt like this was the perfect painting to finish with:

Yep, there’s even a beaver. Thanks so much to Ryan for taking time out of his very busy, sleep-deprived day to do this with me; thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting this episode; thanks to audible.com for making my new book into an audio book! To preorder a copy for FREE {or to pick up any other book you might want} just use my link: audibletrial.com/JealousCurator. And as always, thank YOU for listening! There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. Martha Rich  / Mark Todd  / Esther Pearl Watson
2. Kate Larkworthy Illustration, NY
3. IKEA Ribba Frames!
4. Corn & Apple Festival, Morden Manitoba