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words:: Colin Field
While some of his art deals with serious topics,
Rob Saley doesn’t take his art too seriously.
His series of birds depict realistic birds on an
abstract background. But don’t let the images of
birds fool you; he’s no birder.
“This piece is called
Songbird
,’ he says.
“Because I don’t knowwhat kind of bird it is.
I did observe it. It came tomy bird feeder, and
it’s singing here, so I know it’s a songbird.”
Depending on which genre of Rob Saley’s art
you’ve seen, your opinion of himmay vary
greatly. If you’ve seen his Bucketfish work
you’d think he’s a cartoonist. If you’ve seen
his landscapes, you’d think he was the next
generation of Group of Seven–inspired artists.
Art has always been a passion of Saley’s
and waking up to the easel was always the
goal. But his professors at art college didn’t
encourage it.
“I hadmy teachers telling me I needed a
marketable skill,” he says; “that one percent
of painters or less make it in fine art. I was
discouraged at art college, so I went through
communication and design at OCA [Ontario
College of Art]. I went through that for editorial
illustration which is a job that has since
disappeared, more or less, but I trained for
advertising andmagazine illustration so I’d
have a backup skill.”
But for Saley that skill wasn’t really necessary.
Teaming up with friends and fellow artists,
he headed to Italy. “After art college five of
us went over to Florence for a school year
just to see if I could take the four years of art
instruction and whittle it down to the essence
of what it was,” says Saley. “And also to see
if I could wake up every day without being
told what to paint and be inspired. We were
total bums. It was wonderful. I got harassed by
the Vatican police, calling me a ragamuffin for
my long hair and patches on my knees. I got
thrown out of a number of small towns for not
having my passport.”
Those years were the early days of what would
become the Drawnonward Collective.
“With Drawnonward we always work outside of
the established gallery system; we rent our own
space. Between seven of us we got good at
divvying up jobs. But we’re on a bit of a
Artwork has been cropped.ALL IMAGESCOURTESYROB SALEY.
THEARTOFROBSALEY
ARTIST
PROFILE
