While tree planting six years ago, Jasper artist Jessy Dion read a historical novel about prehistoric times and ever since he’s been enraptured by the subject, each year creating two or three new paintings depicting Neanderthals, mammoths and other prehistoric creatures.
The book was Jean. M. Auel’s The Clan of the Cave Bear.
The Quebec native said it was so enthralling that he “ate the book.”
“I had never been like that before, I couldn’t stop reading, and then I started sketching different scenes, not from the book, but scenes that inspired me and I started researching more and what I discovered was a really, really cool, crazy world and it was real life, not even fiction—that was even cooler because I could relate.”
His first painting was of a Neanderthal hunting a mammoth with spears.
“It was supposed to be a series on just hunting techniques and hunting scenes, but I started finding it a little too heavy, so sometimes I would just not paint the hunters and just let the animals live.
“It’s become more about different scenes of prehistoric times,” he said of his series of paintings and sketches.
Dion will be displaying the series, titled “Legendary Prehistoric Times” at the Jasper-Yellowhead Museum and Archives throughout the month of March and will be hosting an opening Friday, March 4.
“I will have at least 10 originals, and I will also have a few sketches of my preliminary work before I start painting the first draft on paper.
“I realized that people want to know how things start, so I’ll have some of those drawings, and I’ll also have two drawings from when I was five or six years old, just to show that my interest didn’t really change over time.
“I just found them in my stuff in Quebec and I thought it was the funniest thing, so I think I’ll show it as well.”
This will be Dion’s first solo exhibit in Jasper, but it’s likely that Jasperites have seen his work in the past, whether it be in a joint exhibition with artists from the Jasper Artists Guild or at events, like the annual Chili Cook Off, where Dion has shown off his mixed media skills with intricate costume designs—an Ent tree inspired by Lord of the Rings and a goat man inspired by Pan’s Labyrinth.
If that doesn’t ring a bell, he’s also the innovative artist behind the polar bear snow sculpture that appeared last winter, after a car broke the fence in his front yard, and he’s also the guy who made a realistic bear costume for Parks Canada.
“I do so many different things; it keeps me out of boredom,” he said with a laugh. “I’m a perfectionist and I dedicate my life to something—then it turns out to be a year or two, but I still dedicated my life for that year or two, and then I do something else. It’s kind of like switching universes. I just try something else, and then sometimes I just go back in my mammoth world.”
With his exhibit, Dion said he hopes to create a connection between today’s world and prehistoric times, so viewers can see that modern civilization isn’t that different.
“We have the same feelings, we act the same way, we have similar goals—raising family, surviving and being prosperous, exchanging stories with other societies, other clans—I hope people will see that connection with their current life.”
“Legendary Prehistoric Times” will be on display at the museum from March 3–28. The opening is March 4 and will have snacks prepared by Coco’s Cafe.
Dion invites the whole community to join him.
Nicole Veerman [email protected]Ěý
