Kimberly Maitland is a Graphic and web Designer and owner of The Craft Design Studio. She lives in Whistler where she focusses her creative energy on the hospitality industry.
While Amber is relaxing in tropical Thailand (hopefully on a beach, cocktail in hand) I’ve just moved to the mountains! With all the unpacking and getting used to new schedules and routines, we’ve done our best to take some time to reacquaint ourselves with our new town.
Hosting the Olympics here 3 years ago brought a lot of growth and beautification to the public spaces, courtyards, playgrounds and neighbourhood parks up here in Whistler. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more beautiful playground than this one, made to look like a series of tree trunks, carved out with windows, doors, bridges and ladders… it’s like the deluxe version of Fred Penner’s hideaway!
It should be noted that I was not the only adult on the playground, in fact there were ONLY adults on the playground.
Every year around this time, Prior Ski & Snowboards host their annual Topsheet Competition where local artists submit original artwork to be used as the ski and board graphics for the up-coming season. The winners are chosen by the public and get a pair of skis or a snowboard featuring their designs and a bunch of soft goods as well. I went down to take a look and of the 25 finalists displayed, it was really hard to narrow down my choices for the top three.
(Artwork shown by Lorne Craig, Rafael Suter, Kiera Hawthorne, Rafaella Vas)
There were definitely some recurring themes; snow and mountains (obviously) but also lots of skulls, feathers, and totems of wild animals … not unlike the taxidermy and skulls we’re seeing in a lot of interiors.
Having just moved from Vancouver, seeing a lot of debate over unpaid internships and the unfairness of design competitions, I was expecting some similar dialogue. But there wasn’t any. Bragging rights and some slick new gear seemed more than enough for the competing artists and I’m happy to be living in a smaller community, less driven by the need to monetize everything. The artistic community here is a thriving and supportive one and I’m glad to call it home.