Daryl Vocat is a Toronto based silk screen artist who kindly provided me with permission to use a cross section of his Boy versus Bear graphic for one of the first banners for this site.  Here’s a short Q and A that’s been sitting in the drafts folder for donkeys…

Whats your name and background?

My name is Daryl Vocat. Right now my background is the other side of my bedroom. Or do you mean like my father is Swiss and my mom is Ukrainian, but they both grew up in Canada? Or do you mean like I went to University of Regina and did a Bachelor of Fine Arts, and I also went to York university here in Toronto and did a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Whats your work process?

My process tends to change depending on what I’m working on. Usually I start out by keeping ongoing lists of images or ideas that I want to play with at some point. When I actually start making the images most of the prep work is done on computer. Sometimes it starts by taking photos and then manipulating them into something I can screen print. Other times it’s more a matter of finding illustrations and scanning or redrawing them in different ways, it’s rather like collage. Once I have everything prepared I get prints out of the different images I am work with and turn them into screen prints.
What inspires you?

I find inspiration in different places. Sometimes it will come from listening to music, watching a movie, or reading a book. Sometimes it comes just from observing something in the world and wanting to translate it in some way. I see a lot of what I do as a translation or collaging of different bits of pop culture.

What’s your day like?

My schedule seems to change all the time. Right now I have a part-time technician job at a printmaking studio. I also jump around between little writing projects, teaching screen printing workshops, working on my own images, putting together gallery applications, and being really lazy and hanging out with the cat.