ARTICLE

YGARTUA ART CHRONICLES PODCAST

PAUL YGARTUA, HIS STORY, HIS ADVENTURES AS A NOMADIC CANADIAN ARTIST

I never imagined that I would start writing a blog about my father even though I have always imagined showing the world his work. Writing doesn’t come as naturally to me as creating art. I suppose it isn’t that surprising after all, since I spent my entire childhood around a painter who would paint at least 8 or 9 hours every single day. That is my father, Paul Ygartua. My mother Joanne Ygartua, would spend all her waking hours figuring out how to promote my father’s work. So why am I doing this? Simply because I realized while looking at a few of my father’s published books on his work a few years ago, that these books talk about his genius and demonstrate to a certain extent how varied his work is but none of them talk about the actual man behind the work. The Story. And at the end of the day, it’s a person’s story we are curious about, not what other people think of him. As it turns out, this is not only his story though, it is also my mother’s story. I know that she is happy being the wife behind the scenes, but I feel the need to share her part in it as well. So it is not only the story of an artist but also a love story, my favorite kind.

So head over to the blog to start the adventure… It’s one that will take you around the world and back and into the world of an artist couple striving to live the best possible life devoted to art.

And head over to the podcast to listen to Paul and Joanne tell their story from the beginning… I promise you, it won’t be boring!

Tala Nicole Maillot Ygartua

William Davey, 1950, photograph taken by William Davey

William Davey, Paul’s father-in-law and lifelong patron of the arts, was an entrepreneur, a photographer, and a poet. He wrote these poems and asked Paul to illustrate the book for the World Expo that was held in Vancouver in 1986.