07
I had the pleasure of meeting with local artist Patrick Ennis one rainy Edmonton evening. Walking into his apartment, I was immediately drawn in by the various pieces of artwork prominently displayed along his walls. He quietly tells me they are all for sale and then offers me a cup of coffee. I'm struck by not only the artwork itself, but by the sheer amount of beautiful pieces he has displayed, and for sale. In the living room I spot three more stacks of finished paintings leaning against a wall, and he tells me to feel free to check them over.
A bit awestruck as I flip through them, I realize that this man never stops creating. Patrick himself has a quiet sort of presence. One could mistake this for shyness, but he speaks so openly and candidly with such a warm sense of humour, that you get the impression that instead of being shy he's just a very grounded and humble individual. After I claim my cup of coffee, we sit down in the living room so I can ask him a few questions. To my delight he readily opens up about his love of art.
Q-So tell me what is your hometown is it Edmonton?
P-No my hometown is a little town near Ottawa called Perth, but my father lives here so we kind of bounce back-and-forth between Ontario and here, much like most of the people in Edmonton it seems.
Q-When did you first move to Edmonton?
P-I have been here about nine years now.
Q-How old were you when you first started painting?
P-Well I used to draw a lot, but then I actually had an art mentor that got me into painting when I was around 24. So I just drew pictures previous to that and I was pretty much doodling all through grade school.
Q-What was it about painting that hooked you?
P-Well I actually had an art mentor who was the Poet Laureate Ottawa, Patrick White. In my hometown I was one of the few punk rock kids that really stood out amongst the other children while cause I guess I was weird. He was mainly a poet pre-painting as well and one of his conditions to mentor me was that I had to be sober. That gave me some incentive as a young punk rock anarchist to kind of clean myself up. He ended up giving me some lessons on the basics, and I just sort of ran with it, and I've been doing that ever since.
Q-So can you tell me what it was that you first loved about painting?
P-Initially my Artman tried a lot of landscapes and I loved how you could create the illusion of three dimensional open space by rubbing paint on a board, at the time it really blew my mind how you create depth with just colour.
Q-I've noticed that you were constantly working at creating new pieces I always see you posting new art online.
P-I think it's half inspiration and half necessity. People ask me what inspires me to paint, and I usually tell them it's coffee.
Q-You seem to get out to quite a few different festivals. Is music a big influence in your paintings?
P-I do really enjoy painting to music. It's always a blast for me.
Q-Are there certain bands that influence you more than others?
P-If I'm at home and just painting or something, I'll probably rock the Talking Heads because that sounded so "get up and go". I usually throw music on to get psyched up to paint.
Q-Tell me a bit about some of your art being put on clothing.
P-Yeah lately there's been a lot of good things happening. There is a company called "Acidmath Apparel" and they view some of my images on the clothing. The clothes are kind of like sportswear, but the whole image is part of the fabric itself as opposed to it being a laminate or a stick on kind of thing. It's very much activewear.
Q-Do you do prints of your paintings?
P-I have actually been reluctant to do prints as I'm not really a capitalist and I don't like the idea of walking around with a bunch of photo copies to sell to people. I would rather just keep painting. If I did prints I could live off the prints and stop painting, but then I would no longer be creating. The definition of an artist is someone who creates, as far as I'm concerned. On the flip-side at some point, I would like to retire and not be 85 trying to sell my paintings to people.
Q-So you just got back from Astral Harvest are there any other festivals that you are set up at?
P-Actually, I just did the "Reign Bough Fiddle" and before that was "Zion Noiz". This is actually my fourth year doing Astral Harvest and it's a pretty big festival for Alberta. I think something like six or seven thousand people showed up. I really enjoy the high energy and I'd say that psychtrance is definitely a favourite of mine. I definitely enjoy the company of the folks there, and they seem to really appreciate my style of art.
Q-Tell me about your punk rock influence?
P-I started going to this thing in the interior called punk festival. It was an annual thing, literally a four day slobber knocker of punk bands. I think the record at one of them was 300 bands in four days. It was nonstop punk rock and this will go on four times a year over the course of 10 years. I think I must've seen thousands of bands there.