Wilf’s World

Video Transcript
Note: All WP Saskatchewan video transcripts are edited for flow and readability.

(Wilf) “I love this studio, It’s a sandbox for me. I feel like that child in the sandbox, and I get to play with it every day.”
 
(Wilf) “The process is unbelievable. Like, I can’t imagine not, you know, having a real job. The cool thing is that you don’t know where it’s going to take you. And I still have that feeling today. Everyday, I just start with an idea and let it play.”

(Wilf) “Don’t, don’t grow up. You know, that’s the beauty. The beauty of me, is that I’m still that boy in grade two, I really am. And I don’t want to grow up, in terms of this part of my life anyway.

(Narrator) “In his world, Saskatchewan artist Wilf Perreault, subscribes to an ideology where playing is work, work is making art, and not growing up is a good thing.”

(Wilf) “So, I get to play with it every day, and it feels like it’s different every time I play. And, you know, you don’t want to walk down the same path all the time. So, for me, I love it every day.”
 
(Wilf) “What amazes me is that I can remember when I first started painting back alleys. It wasn’t really about the back alley, it was more about the reflections. Because my perspective was more looking down, on reflections, so that it was more abstract. And, I never thought that I’d be painting back alleys for over 50 years. Haha.”

(Narrator) “Wilf proves that “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” by showing others a different perspective on Regina’s back alleys, a subject many may not have considered art-worthy.”

(Wilf) “They’re different, every piece is different. And do I have a favourite piece? No, I can’t say that. No. You know, if somebody said, ‘Well, can you do another painting like that?’ ‘No, I can’t, I can’t even copy myself’, which is kind of amazing.”
 
(Wilf) “This studio… I’ve been in this studio since 2000, so it’s been a little over 23 years. This used to be Joe Fafard’s studio. Every time I would visit Joe, I would say, ‘I love this studio’, every time, and that one day, I walked in the studio and said, ‘Oh, I love this studio’, and he said, ‘You should buy it’. I never thought of that.

To me, this is a dream studio where I can drive into the studio and hide, literally. And, it’s pretty cool that I can, you know, escape from the other reality. I come in and I have no clue what I’ll be doing. Like this morning my priority was playing with white frames. This is so dark and heavy ((while showing frame examples), I love it, but when I saw that this morning, I walked by and I saw this, and then I kind of like that. You know, now, you look at this black frame over here. It’s nice, and the painting’s great, I like the painting, but what happens is that you’re always trying to do something different, all the time. And I love that. I love it.”

(Wilf) “Well, I think, a younger artist, like any artists that I’ve ever met or taught, they’ll ask, ‘Well, where should I go with this?’ And I said, ‘Well, I think the most important thing is to follow your heart more than anything’. And if it feels right, and if you’re inspired by what’s going on, and you want to work at it every day, that to me, and hopefully to somebody else, where it’s not about work, but it’s more about play. And you want to work really hard at play. I think probably that’s the most important thing for me is I look forward to getting back to what I do. And tomorrow morning, I’m looking forward to coming back tomorrow morning. And, I don’t look forward to leaving this studio, and it’s a good feeling to have that feeling. I don’t look at my watch that much. It’s not about the time, it’s about the work, and play.”

(Narrator) “For children, imagination and creativity comes naturally, and unlike most people, Wilf has held firmly onto these traits, which directly influence his ability to play with his work every single day.”

(Wilf) “Normally I would walk down the alley and take photographs or take photographs from inside the vehicle, I’ve done that. I’ve got a 12ft ladder up there, and I used to go down the alley and take photographs from the 12ft perspective. Then I got a drone, so I could go a little higher. I’ve also taken lots of photographs from, I’d go to the airport and I’d hire a plane for an hour. The painting I’m doing here is from the old SaskTel building, on the corner of College and Albert, looking down on the cathedral area. And I love that perspective, and I’ve done lots of paintings from that building. The wonderful thing is that I take lots of photographs, thousands of photographs. So, you know, I usually have a pile of photos. The wonderful thing about using a photograph, it’s a starting point. And, after a while, I don’t even know what the photograph looks like. And sometimes it’s very difficult for me to find the photograph. Because, what you want to do, is take it somewhere else, so that it becomes you.”

(Wilf) “I do sign the work, but it’s, very, very insignificant. The work should be important, I think. I could sign a huge scribble, you know, and it would be a distraction.”

(Wilf) “The wonderful thing about art is that, it’s kind of like music, or watching a movie. And, if it’s a good work of art, you should feel something, because it takes you somewhere else. I think it does. I know for me, it takes me somewhere else. It’s magical. It is magical. It surprises me totally, and that’s what I want every day, is a surprise. And sometimes the surprise is not so good but I love the process, and it’s an up and down process. The creative process, there is no straight line, or going up or down. It’s definitely, up and down, and it’s a very hilly experience. What I love, is to take a work that died in front of my eyes and resurrect it. That is the best feeling. When a painting dies in front of my eyes, I put it away. I work on one painting until it feels like it’s not going forward, or forward fast enough, then I put it to the side and I start another one. And then if it doesn’t, if it’s spinning its tires, it’s not a good feeling, I don’t like it. So I can just, you know, start another one. I know when the work is getting close to being finished, when I’m starting my new relationship already, and this relationship is ending, and it’s kind of hard, in a way, to finish that relationship, because you’ve  been working at this and, you know, it’s going to live on its own without me being there, touching it. And so, when that relationship is not going forward or it doesn’t, you know, it’s kind of bored a little bit, it’s kind of like having a girlfriend and then all of a sudden, okay, then I have another girlfriend and then another. So, it’s a relationship and I love it. I love the relationship I can have with the work. And, so I have a lot of girlfriends.”

(Interviewer) “Do you have a muse that gets you inspired to create every day, like what gets you in the studio every day?”
 
(Wilf) “Umm, wow, ‘do I have a muse’? You know, what motivates me? It’s pretty amazing. My wife Sandy was definitely the most important influence of my life. And, she still continues to inspire me today. More than when she was alive, actually. The wonderful thing about being an artist is that, it’s more than you. Like, I feel like I’m part of a team, and I’m a player. Maybe I’m the quarterback, yeah, I’m the quarterback but I feel like I’m part of a team. And I love that feeling of being inspired by Sandy, and many, many people, that have touched my life. And, everybody pops into my work day, every day. So it doesn’t feel like I’m by myself creating it. The work I do feels like, it’s more than me. And I love that feeling. And, so I’m trying, you know, I’m trying to celebrate all those people. Right from elementary school, Miss Gates. Grade two. She was amazing. She must have seen something about me, in terms of art. And she sent my work to the exhibition in Saskatoon. They had an art display of elementary school art, and she chose my work to go there. When I went there with my parents, it was a moment that, you know, you saw your work on the wall, with all these other works, and it was a pretty amazing feeling. That’s my memory of how art became important to me.”

(Wilf) “You know, when time flies by, it’s great. It’s awful, but at the same time it’s great. Because as you get older, time is flying by every moment. Well, after Sandy died, I think every moment is precious, more than ever. And so, I’m trying to enjoy every second of my day.”
 
(Narrator) “With numerous projects at various stage of completion, we can only look forward to what things may come from Wilf’s sandbox of an art studio.”

(Wilf) “I honestly do not have any goals. All I want to do is do the best work I can, that’s my goal. But I had a show at the McKenzie Art Gallery, in 2014, and I had an installation there that was, a room 360 degrees. So it’s 5ft high by 150ft. And Claude Monet, is an artist, was an artist in France. And at l’Orangerie in Paris, there’s an installation, two rooms, about 150ft in each room. So now I’m competing with a dead artist. So, my goal if this is a goal, is to kick his ass. So I have to do 220 more feet of canvas, and I think, well, I’ve started already, so I started that project, but that’ll take a few years.”