Cameron Tomsett's Hip start to a career in art

Thursday, April 15, 2004 - 07:00

Local News - Four months after he graduated from Sheridan College’s art program, Cameron Tomsett was downtown at the Sleepless Goat Cafe when he saw a familiar face.

Sitting in the Princess Street coffee shop, having a little lunch, was Tragically Hip guitarist Rob Baker.

Tomsett stared at him and wondered if he had the guts to do it – could he interrupt the famous musician and invite him to his small art show?

Could he? Should he? Would he?

Collecting all his confidence, Tomsett nervously walked over to Baker and told him he had an art show just two doors down in a small space behind Wayfarer Books, and he would love it if he had time to check it out.

“Knowing who Rob Baker is, and knowing the band has used Kingston artists before, and Rob Baker is obviously an art fan, I thought he might like to check my work out,” Tomsett said.

Fast forward seven months.

Tomsett, 23, is at his parents’ Bayridge-area home, clutching a large mug of coffee. He’s drained it but the caffeine isn’t doing much to shake him out of his grogginess.

It’s 10 a.m., and Tomsett went to bed six hours earlier. These days, there’s no time to sleep – he’s got to have his work ready for the Tragically Hip’s video shoot this week.

In less than a year, Tomsett has gone from a straight-out-of-art-school, struggling-to-meet-ends-meet kid, to a bleary-eyed, exhausted artist working with one of the most popular bands in Canadian history.

The cover of the new Hip album is Tomsett’s painting, In Between Evolution, a mostly yellow, orange and brown creation that is a collage-like work of 27 drawings combined.

And when the local rockers were searching for a name for the new disc, they thought, Why not also use the title of Tomsett’s painting?

In Between Evolution – The Hip’s 10th album – hits stores June 29.

Tomsett gets credit for both the artwork and the title, but that’s not all.

Things usually happen in threes, right? Tomsett’s work is also the inspiration behind the video for the Hip’s first single, Vaccination Scar. The tune has already been released to radio stations.

Tomsett has created characters that will be props and animated creatures.

The characters don’t have names. The only time Tomsett named them was when he scanned the images into his computer and needed to give them file names. They’ve got labels like Weird Guy 1 and Weird Guy 2.

Tomsett wanted to keep In Between Evolution and the album cover under wraps until closer to the album’s release date in June but for a sneak peek, the Hip have put a portion of Tomsett’s painting on www.thehip.com.

Baker said that after Tomsett asked him to check out his work, he finished his lunch at the Sleepless Goat and walked over to the studio. He was instantly drawn to Tomsett’s work.

“He deals with weighty subjects in a playful, off-hand manner, and though he is as serious as a heart attack when it comes to his art, he doesn’t seem to take himself or much else too seriously,” Baker said yesterday.

Baker was so impressed with Tomsett’s work, he immediately told his four bandmates about it and thought maybe, just maybe, the band had found itself some unique cover art.

When the Hip were in Seattle recording tunes for the new album, Baker had Tomsett send his portfolio to the States so the band could look at his work.

Truth is, the band’s first impression of Tomsett’s work wasn’t so hot.

“The folio was underwhelming. It didn’t have the ones that wowed me,” Baker said. It seems the digital images didn’t capture the brilliance he saw that fall day on Princess Street.

Later, when the Hip were back at their recording studio in Bath, Baker once again pushed for his bandmates to check out Tomsett’s work.

“I said, “I’m really hot on this guy Cameron and I think we should have another look,’ ” Baker said.

Second time was a charm.

“Everyone was blown away,” he said.

The plan now is for Tomsett to do three different pieces for the album’s cover – In Between Evolution, a prequel and a sequel. He’s also doing a piece for the back cover and is planning on doing a portrait of the band.

Baker said Tomsett’s work will get a lot of camera time in the Vaccination Scar video while the Hip boys play a minor role.

“We had talked as a band that we were getting tired of seeing our old tired asses up on the TV screen,” Baker said with a laugh.

Baker said the band wasn’t scouting a Kingston artist but it’s nice that Tomsett is a Limestone City product, too.

Other local artists have won attention, praise and awards for their work on Tragically Hip albums.

Ian Hodkinson, who has taught art restoration at Queen’s University, did the art for the 2000 disc, Music@Work.

Baker first saw Hodkinson’s work at a Kingston gallery and asked if he’d like to be involved with an album.

Five years ago, local designer Andrew McLachlan won a Juno Award for best album design for the striking yellow-and-black cover of a piece of old electronic gear for Phantom Power.

And sometimes, the Hip get one of their own to do the artwork. Baker did the watercolour painting for the cover of the band’s 2002 disc, In Violet Light.

“I don’t think it’s an ongoing concern where [Tomsett] is from but the fact is, I live here, so do three of the other guys ? It is a great added bonus, even an inside track, but it is not a prerequisite,” he said.

Baker knows his art. This is how he described Tomsett’s work: “At first I couldn’t detect any overt influences, but now I see Arshile Gorky with a dash of Gary Larson and a pinch of Dr. Seuss – only the classics.”

Gorky was an abstract expressionist and Larson created The Far Side cartoon.

Tomsett admits his collaboration with the Hip almost didn’t happen because he nearly shied away from approaching Baker the day he spotted him at the Sleepless Goat.

“I wasn’t sure if I should talk to him because I didn’t know if it was an invasion of privacy, but I did talk to him and I’m pretty glad I did,” he said.

“I was very nervous. It was about a 20-second conversation.”

Tomsett says if his career ended today, it wouldn’t be so bad. How many people can say they were the personal artist for The Tragically Hip?

“I don’t know where to go from here. This is a good start and it would make a good end,” he said.

“I would be perfectly happy if this is all I got the rest of my life.”

Though he bumbled his way through his first chat with Baker, Tomsett said now everything is cool. The rockers are just like any other clients.

Well, sort of.

“I’m not too nervous around them. They’re really, really down-to-earth type of guys,” he said of vocalist Gord Downie, bassist Gord Sinclair, drummer Johnny Fay and guitarists Paul Langlois and Baker.

“There’s no ego with them, which is really cool.”

Tomsett was a Hip fan before he got the go-ahead to do the album. He admits he doesn’t own every Hip disc and he points out that an early album like the fan favourite Road Apples came out in 1991 – when he was 10 years old.

Like every good born and bred Kingstonian, Tomsett can list at least one gotta-love-it Hip song.

“I have a fair share of their albums and listen to them quite a lot. I am a fan of their music,” he said.

His No. 1 song pick is Springtime in Vienna from the 1996 album, Trouble At the Henhouse.

Tomsett was born in Kingston and has an older and younger sister. He went to Lancaster Drive Public School and Bayridge Secondary School.

He doesn’t ever remember a day he proclaimed, “When I grow up I want to be an artist! but he recalls always being the guy who was good at art.

“In elementary school, kids would ask me to draw cartoon characters for them for school projects or just for fun and it kept going from there.”

In one of his final years of high school, he took a special concentrated art program at Queen Elizabeth Collegiate and Vocational Institute.

Karen Peperkorn taught Tomsett at QECVI.She immediately started singing his praises when asked what kind of student and artist he was back in his high school days.

Peperkorn said Tomsett’s talent was obvious from Day One. Plus, she said, Tomsett is a leader and he’s mature but he’s also a funny guy who has a great sense of humour.

“When Wallack’s wanted to hire him, I said, ‘He walks on water, what else do you need to know?’ ” she said.

“I can’t tell you how much respect I have for him. He deserves the best. He’s a hard-working, strong, genuine person. To have him as a friend would be a real privilege.”

After high school, Tomsett moved to Oakville to take a three-year art program at Sheridan College.

After graduating with a degree in illustration last spring, he moved home to Kingston.

Although it was tempting to live in Toronto, Tomsett thought moving home was the best idea – he could live with his parents, get a part-time job at Wallack’s Art and Drafting Supplies and work, work, work on his art.

He has taken over his parents’ basement and turned it into his studio. It was so packed with pieces and supplies for the Hip video shoot, he wouldn’t allow anyone a peek of his workspace yesterday.

Tomsett did, however, mention a keepsake in his studio. Neither of his parents, Phillip or Janice, is artistically inclined but Tomsett knows where he got his talent.

His grandfather, Selwyn Cooke, was an architect in Gananoque. Though he died when Tomsett was just a child, some of Cooke’s drawings are hung in the makeshift basement art studio.

“He was a very good craftsman. I think my talent may come from that –if you can call it talent,” Tomsett said.

Tomsett was nervous doing his first-ever interview this week. At first, he didn’t make eye contact and nervously wrung his hands and punctuated many sentences with, “That’s not really what I’m trying to say, but you know what I mean.”

Much of his nervousness disappeared, however, when he started talking about his drawings and paintings.

On his Web site, under his bio section, he said, “Confidence is more important than skill.”

This is a guy, after all, who less than a year after graduating from art school has racked up a pretty impressive portfolio. He has not one but two album covers coming out this spring.

As well as working on the Hip’s disc, local rockers Mystic Caravan hired Tomsett to design a cover for their sophomore album, Fly, due out soon.

When he heard the band was working on another disc, he called the musicians and pitched the idea of creating a cover for the band’s new record.

“There are a few album covers that have withstood the test of time. [The Beatles’] Sgt. Pepper’s really stands out to people,” he said.

Tomsett admits it’s going to be pretty cool when he walks into a music store and sees two album covers with design credits to “C. Tomsett.”

“I try and keep everyone’s image separate but the one thing that will unify them is my drawings,” he said.

He also just won an award from American Illustration. In November, the organization will post Tomsett’s work on its Web site at www.ai-ap.com.

Tomsett will likely hold a show in Kingston once he finishes his work with the Hip. Anyone interested in seeing his art now, can visit his online studio at www.tomsett.com.