A few years back when we were still living in Toronto I went to Pages book store, when it still existed at Queen & John, and asked if they had any books about Hamilton. We’d already been crushing on Hamilton big time, and I wanted to indulge in our fantasy of moving to Hamilton by giving Steve a book about the city for his 31st birthday. The store clerk looked up at me in a bit of shock, and then clarified again whether I really meant a book about the city of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, really?
The only book in the entire store about Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, was a graphic novel titled Hamilton Sketchbook by David Collier.
I could not have asked for a better gift for Steve and introduction to life in Hamilton. I was so happy to have had the luck of stumbling upon such a gem of book.
After having moved to Hamilton, at an art crawl about 2 years back, I met David Collier at Mixed Media. He was selling and signing Part 2 of the Hamilton Sketchbook. I ended up buying this copy for another present for Steve.
There’s something really cool about reading about places you’ve been to and places you’ve lived in. I love the down to earth feel, and day to day life depiction of David’s work.
Today as I rode by Mixed Media on my way to work I noticed a poster by David in the window. Prints for $10 Hamilton Light Rail Transit.
I heard that David recently designed the album artwork for relatively new Hamiltonian Luke Doucet and The White Falcon‘s latest album Steel City Trawler, which is a tribute entirely to the city of Hamilton.
For a great read about Luke Doucet’s recent move to Hamilton, and more details about his album (produced by Sloan’s Andrew Scott) and about David Collier read the National Post’s article here.
Luke Doucet and life partner, fellow musician and singer-songwriter Melissa McClelland will be playing a show with their new band White Horse at The Hamilton Place Studio on September 30th with Frazey Ford.