Behind every farmers’ market trader is a story that brought them here. Roger Quesnel’s story was life-changing.
When he was only 26 years old, he broke his back during a ski patrol rescue.
Six months later, following rehab, another massive accident led him to re-evaluate everything. “I went down to Mexico to play this ball tournament thinking I was healed. I was surfing when I broke my neck.”
Until then, he had run his own silk screening shop as well working as a paramedic. “When I got knocked out at 26, I instantly became retired. What are you going to do with all that time?”
Exploring art, he says, felt quite natural, and illustration and wood carving formed parts of his rehabilitation.
He is now a highly skilled illustrator and sculptor with a huge variety of woodwork from tables and eagles to headboards for four-poster beds.
He’s also accomplished in wood burning with burl – the gold of the wood world, he explains. “Burl, when polished, has imagery within it if you look at it long enough. I see landscapes and all sorts of things… each one is different.”
The Olympics were a huge inspiration for his pen and ink drawings and, for a month at a time, he studied each rock and glacier from Sechelt to Mount Currie, documenting every crevice and crease until he had a collection of more than 70 drawings. “I thought a document of all the glaciers would be cool just in case, when the next Olympics come, we don’t have any at all.”
Quesnel also sees characters and stories within the landscapes, such as the Viking in the Chief – only visible when the light strikes at exactly the right time. Or the Mother of the Wind with her pregnant belly in the Mamquam Glacier. “Everyone has their own stories of the imagery they find… and everyone always has a favourite mountain.”
His illustrations are collated into a book called the Mistery of Squamish, which reveals, when coloured in, the story of how the witch and the tortoise beat the Chief and the hare in a race (another Olympic inspiration).
Mistery is a purposeful misspelling to capture the idea of mist.
He has been a regular at the Squamish Farmers’ Market for more than 10 years, so he’s now ready for the next step: “I’ve decided to rent an indoor space to show art full-time.”
He already sells at the Squamish Adventure Centre, and his new gallery on Third Avenue will provide the space to show a greater range of work as well as his larger pieces. “Everybody always wants to know where else they can find my work… so I thought I needed somewhere to represent everything I’ve accumulated.”
“I also do art eagle watching. Being born and raised here, I know all the back roads where the eagles are… I know all the secret places. It’ll be great for photography.”
Quesnel’s stand, the Art of Rogic, will be at Squamish Farmers’ Market at Squamish Elementary School throughout the winter season and also at the Brackendale Craft Fair this Saturday (Dec. 13).
To view his gallery call 604 849 2029 or visit his stand.
