Thirty-two year old Julian Garner started drawing and painting seriously close to 15 years ago in his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario. Influenced by the skateboarding culture of that time, he attributes most of his inspiration of those days to an old friend and fellow artist Heath Cairns (*then of Ottawa, now residing in Montreal) who challenged him with fresh ideas, forward thinking and a dry wit. Other positive artistic influences include Derek Mehaffey, Jimmy Gobiel, Craig Driscoll, Gene Pen don, Dan Buller, Robbie Eccles, Felix Berube and a growing number of others - mostly of Montreal and Ottawa area.

   Julian also finds great inspiration from his adorable three-year-old daughter, Isabel. Julian describes his work as “an emotional reaction to every day life”. This style is reflected in his ever-changing street and graffiti style of painting. He sarcastically depicts the juxtaposition between the prettiness and the hideousness of our world and culture with his sometimes lovely and sweet but often odd and sinister cartoon-ish characters and gloomy streetscapes. He also somehow begs us to find the beauty in the ugliness of people and life, and to embrace the demented. Presenting it to us as just plain silly, thereby turning melancholy and macabre into funny and ridiculous.