About the Festival

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Here is some background on the Squanderer Mural Festival from the organizer Stan Matwychuk:

“I am foremost an artist. I am however a wearer of many hats. My name is Stan Matwychuk and I enjoy inciting creativity in all that I do. Living in Sea to Sky Country resonates home to me. Presently, I have put down roots on Squamish and started a small business called Homebase Studios. I have lived here for a little over 6 years. The small town feel of downtown Squamish enchants me. Its eclectic nature is what first got me. You see Squamish is a town just like any other in BC. It’s trying to redefine itself after a bludgeoning sprawl of natural resource industry, which still has strong roots.

As we approach the 21^st century, Squamish is a demographic melting pot. Sprawling highlands real estate, Big box stores claiming highway brain space, and commercial real estate land jockeying for the oceanfront has worlds colliding as well as people commuting out of town to bring home the bacon.

I believe in a creative space that we all draw from when we have that “ah ha moment”. It is this creative space that I reside to create the projects and designs that are the focus of my art. It is my belief that art has the ability to in cite new thoughts. Creative ways of thinking when approaching old ideas brings about redefinition of oneself and growth by default. I am by no means right in my beliefs but it is my truth.

Art in the public context has always intrigued me. Some people view art at most as an intimately selfish action. However, it is the act of selflessness in the creation of art and those ideas acted upon therein that are of interest to me. Art in public unifies a geographic space and an idea in time into a dance of creative expression. This art form expresses the values and ideals that have defined its course through its growth from an idea to a tangible idea.”

Photo of the organizer

An Artist for most of his life and a jack of all industry trades finds Stan Matwychuk of Homebase Studios a well rounded hands on creative and community collaborator. With 10 years invested into the Howe Sound Corridor Stan finds lifestyle and work intertwined into seamless experience.
Stan has recently moved to Squamish in the last year and has hit the ground running. He has worked with corporate mega-brands like CTV and VANOC as well as finding time to teach art classes to the youth in the corridor through studio classes and high school programs. He has facilitated the Fields Community Mural Project in Downtown Squamish on Winnipeg and Cleveland Avenue. He has also branded and immortalized Grilled Fromage Diner. He runs and operates the Artist-run centre Homebase Studios at the end of Second Ave. Here artists and the community reciprocate the need for each other and incubate creativity along the way. From elder to youth Stan has always allowed time to teach and inspire for the arts. Stan represented the studio at Live at Squamish as well as throwing Squamish’s first Culture Days Block Party,which was a pan-Canadian arts initiative.
In Whistler Stan sat on the lots 1/9 Community Dialogue for the Celebration Plaza Plan before, during and after the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. He has also collaborated with Mike Tyler and the new Whistler Public Library to create the Donor Wall/ Book Drop Off. Furthermore, Stan also spearheaded the first legally commissioned mural in Whistler with local artist legend Chili Thom and aspiring youth artist Devin White on the Terry Rodgers Bridge.
Stan has always brought community and collaboration to the heart of all of his projects and believes that creativity will allow for new ideas and momentum.

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