Patriotic passion: Winnipeg artist Kal Barteski's collaboration supports a free press
Well before women's lib put her to good work, 'We Can Do It' Rosie the Riveter was flexing in a different setting: America's Second World War home-front mobilization.
And decades before 'Keep Calm and Carry On' started popping up on coffee mugs and Facebook profiles as a 'daily affirmation' in the face of the 2008 global recession, Britain's most iconically British slogan covered the streets of London after threats of mass German air attacks.
Canada's trade war with the United States is not an actual war. But it's inspiring some chest-thumping slogans and popular memes, from 'Elbows Up' to Winnipeg artist Kal Barteski's viral visual satires of the Tariffer-in-Chief south of the border.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Artist Kal Barteski has been creating poignant patriotic work in the wake of the U.S. trade war with Canada.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Much of her recent work in this patriotic vein has been less pointed and more poignant.
'I've been feeling passionate about how much I love Canada and Winnipeg,' says Barteski. 'And I thought, wouldn't it be cool if this (sentiment) was something the Free Press could take — and just go for it.'
Show your Canadian pride and strengthen Canadian journalism.
Buy stickers, mugs, t-shirts and tote bags in the Free Press Shop.
Free Press subscribers receive 35% off.
Not yet a subscriber? Take advantage of our 'Elbows Up' offer.
Barteski tapped the Free Press with a design idea and the project evolved from there. Tote bags, mugs and stickers bearing her 'Canada Proud, Manitoba Strong — My Free Press' design are now part of an offer to new subscribers and are available at a discount for existing paid readers.
'I believe in a free press,' says Barteski. 'And to me, there's something that will always be important and magical about tactile news. I have very fond memories of sitting at the breakfast table with my dad turning pages.'
Tactility is a big part of Barteski's esthetic. The unruly brushstrokes of her #kbscript — which she paints by hand — have become one of Winnipeg's most recognizable typefaces, swathing campaigns and projects around the city and well beyond.
She's worked with Lonely Whale, Lululemon, the Winnipeg Jets, Virgin Radio, United Way and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, to mention a few.
The recipient of the King's Coronation Medal also recently worked with Murray Sinclair's family on a series of prints, cards and posters celebrating the words and legacy of the late senator. (Proceeds go directly to the Murray Sinclair Memorial Fund at the Winnipeg Foundation.)
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
Barteski's works, which she paints by hand, have become one of Winnipeg's most recognizable typefaces, now featured on new Free Press tote bags and mugs.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS
'To know the truth, we must begin by telling it,' reads one of the pieces, a well-known quote by Sinclair from his time leading the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
Barteski's engagement with topical Canadian themes often sends her out of her Wolseley home and into the North.
Just as regionally iconic as #kbscript are her paintings of polar bears. Winnipeggers may recognize her work from Back Alley Arctic, a series of garage-door paintings along the back alleys of Canora and Ethelbert streets in Wolseley.
Barteski says these unconventional murals were practice runs for the SeaWalls Churchill mural fest. Organized by Barteski in 2017, with contributions from 18 other muralists, the project was the subject of the CBC Gem documentary, Know I'm Here, currently watchable at handcraftcreative.com.
Started, as its website describes, with the 'intention to educate and inspire a community to protect the oceans,' SeaWalls Churchill became as much an exercise in civic and Manitoba pride after disaster hit the community.
That year, Churchill's railway washed out, cutting off the town's only land access, and railway owners OmniTRAX announced they would not repair the flooded and damaged line.
By the fall of 2017, the town's famous 'Miss Piggy' plane wreck was transformed into Pat Perry's heart-rending Mayday piece, an ode to the town's perseverance.
Vivid scenes of port workers and arctic creatures — some in a social realist vein, others whimsical and cartoony — now blanket the town's pump house, old military radar bases and buildings.
Especially striking is Barteski's massive polar bear mural on the town's Polar Bear Holding Facility, which greets visitors soon after they get off the plane.
'As an artist, I feel excited and proud that images… bring people together. And I think when you bring people together, you amplify the feeling (of the work),' says Barteski.
It's an attitude that colours her current projects, such as her collaboration with the Free Press.
'I think that all of the stuff that's coming up in the news has really inspired people,' she says. 'Inspired us to shop local, to love local, to appreciate where we are and what we have.'
conrad.sweatman@winnipegfreepress.com
Conrad SweatmanReporter
Conrad Sweatman is an arts reporter and feature writer. Before joining the Free Press full-time in 2024, he worked in the U.K. and Canadian cultural sectors, freelanced for outlets including The Walrus, VICE and Prairie Fire. Read more about Conrad.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
37 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Book club to survey Sinclair's essays
The Free Press Book Club and McNally Robinson Booksellers are pleased to welcome Winnipeg author (and Free Press columnist) Niigaan Sinclair for the next virtual meeting on Tuesday, June 24 at 7 p.m. to read from and discuss his award-winning essay collection Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre. Published in May 2024 by McClelland & Stewart, Wînipêk compiles a year's worth of Sinclair's Free Press columns as well as other writing about how our perception of Winnipeg, and the ways in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens co-exist and survive, is a window into larger questions about colonialism and reconciliation nationwide. Wînipêk was a national bestseller, landing on a number of year-end lists of best books. Sinclair's debut collection also netted him the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction, news he was able to share with his father, Murray Sinclair, before he passed in November 2024. Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files Niigaan Sinclair In his review of Wînipêk for the Free Press, Matt Henderson says Sinclair 'takes the reader on a journey through the land, water and seasons, the underbelly and magnificence that is Winnipeg,' adding 'Sinclair identifies the overt racism as well as the legislative, calculated mindsets that have intentionally set out to destroy Indigenous Peoples and culture.' Yet Sinclair retains hope for the future of the city; 'Wînipêk is a portal into our violent past, our precarious present and the promise of tomorrow. It should be mandatory reading for all Canadians,' Henderson writes. Sinclair will join fellow Free Press columnist Jen Zoratti, McNally Robinson Booksellers co-owner Chris Hall and Free Press audience engagement manager Erin Lebar to read from Wînipêk, discuss the book and field questions from viewers and readers. Copies of Wînipêk are available to purchase at McNally Robinson Booksellers; there's no cost to join the book club or virtual discussion. Video of the meeting will be available for replay on the Free Press YouTube channel following the event. For more information and to register, visit Wînipêk
Winnipeg Free Press
37 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Sheer provocation
Neither Here Nor There, a liminal comedy from Sick + Twisted Theatre, will certainly divide audiences. That is by design: as guests walk into the auditorium at Prairie Theatre Exchange, they're given the option to sit on either side of a patchwork curtain, predetermining at least one dimension of the unconventional experience to come. Well before Thursday evening's hostess, the insightful, freewheeling Lara Rae, induces the first of many chuckles, the concept of choice is already introduced, the first steps down individual paths of desire to be trodden by theatregoers venturing together into the dark unknown of an original production. BROOK JONES/FREE PRESS Vivi Dabee (right) and Vivian Cheung are separated by a curtain, allowing the audience to see half the stage. Billed as a retelling of the legend of Tiresias, who was turned into a woman and stripped of vision after forsaking the Greek gods, Neither Here Nor There boldly challenges widely accepted narratives surrounding disability, gender, autonomy and desire. Starring a mixture of blind, low-vision and sighted actors, working alongside trans performers, the production is built with a mission to construct and then dismantle binary thinking, tearing down brick walls and replacing them with open windows. One needn't be a Classics scholar to feel included, because Neither Here Nor There, written by committee and directed by Debbie Patterson, is loosely professorial in style, best exemplified by Rae's hilarious, honest autobiographical asides about her transition and a registered therapist's (Gislina Patterson) impassioned stump speech about the true value of public bathrooms, given to a sex-obsessed Zeus (Tyler Sneesby), who, to be fair, has his fair share of mother-father-sisterwife issues to work through. There's a rich endowment of male appendage jokes, a treasure trove of vagina jokes and some achingly silly puns about French geography that might land les auteurs in writers' gaol. From start to finish, Neither Here Nor There is an oddly compelling and compellingly odd concoction that forces audience members to consider the bias of their own perspectives, and whether their sightline is as clear as they'd previously thought. Because the set is bisected by a sheer curtain, each audience member's field of vision is intentionally blurred. On one side is the ancient domain of Tiresias (Vivi Dabee), who was rendered blind and turned into a woman for seeing too much and angering the gods, becoming an oracle with the ability to communicate most easily with winged friends. On the other is Ty (Vivian Cheung), a trend forecaster with a power that could make even Zeus quake with envy: with a single phone call, she can make skinny jeans cool again. Both performers rest on chaise longue, which provides one of the best running, or sitting, jokes in the show. If a piece of furniture can exist at the nexus of chair and couch, can't we find our identities somewhere in the middle, too? The production, a tad overlong at about 100 minutes, is strengthened by all elements of design, which support one another in novel ways. Before the action begins, a digital assistant, voiced by sound designer Dasha Plett, describes the set, which includes Zeus's home on Mount Olympus and the office of Ty's tech overlord boss. Then Plett describes the colour, style and material of each costume, designed by Sarah Struthers, introducing the actors wearing them with a healthy dose of shtick. 'Lara Rae is five-foot-10, and unlike Cinderella, she can't find a single shoe that fits.' Taking surprising turns, which are usually fruitful and less often belaboured, Neither Here Nor There is ultimately a well-crafted forum for honest, intentional theatre, rooted in purposeful listening, curiosity and reconsideration. The gods will agree on that. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
38 minutes ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Fit for the pit
There are few things punks enjoy more than arguing over what or who is or isn't punk. If nothing else, In Too Deep: When Canadian Punk Took Over the World — a new book documenting commercially successful Canadian musical exports of the early Aughts, with varied ties to the punk world — should prove to be a spirited conversation starter. Just how far that conversation goes will depend on how crusty the punks involved in that conversation are. John Woods / Free Press files In January 2025, Sum 41 perform at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. If one grants that the artists featured in the book — such as Gob, Sum 41, Billy Talent, and Napanee, Ont.'s very own superstar Avril Lavigne — are at least influenced by punk, if not dyed-in-the-darkest-denim punk themselves, then one might consider this well-researched book a welcome addition to a growing list of Canadian music histories focused on relatively contemporary subjects. Overall, In Too Deep provides an insightful look at the music industry in Canada during the early days of the 21st century, and how online innovations such as file sharing, message boards and MySpace impacted the industry, for good or ill. While chapters on Billy Talent, who gained massive popularity in Europe, and Alexisonfire, who broke out in the American hardcore scene, cover much the same ground as the chapter detailing their careers in Michael Barclay's Hearts on Fire: Six Years That Changed Canadian Music 2000-2005, they do make for solid introductions for readers unfamiliar with either group or the punk scenes from which those Ontario bands emerged. Similarly, while devoted fans of any of these groups may or may not come across any information they were unaware of beforehand, those without much prior knowledge are provided insightful snapshots of the early histories and the big breaks of all nine artists profiled. Organized and written in much the same manner as Dan Ozzi's Sellout! — which detailed the DIY-to-superstar trajectories of American punks such as Green Day, Against Me!, My Chemical Romance and more — In Too Deep is a very readable, if only passingly critical, overview of the artists involved and an overlooked era in Canadian music history generally, where homegrown groups of misfits certainly made major international commercial splashes and commensurate influence on many big name mainstream artists coming up today. Commercial and mainstream, of course, being the operative words. In wrapping up the chapter on Sum 41, Bobkin and Feibel state that the group 'became Canada's first internationally acclaimed punk band,' although the statement isn't qualified beyond a list of sales achievements, and that the band's songs appeared in a number of Hollywood films. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. There are many Canadian punk bands, both predecessors and contemporaries of the artists profiled here, who may not have had the sales numbers to go up against Sum 41, but whose artistic and cultural impact is much more profound. Bobkin and Feibel do pay some lip service to these contemporary groups, with brief but well-placed 'Further Listening' sidebars throughout, which feature critically acclaimed local heavy hitters such as Propagandhi — whose debut How to Clean Everything is credited by Fat Mike with establishing Fat Wreck Chords' signature sound of the '90s, a style credited by the authors to have influenced at least half the bands featured here — as well as Toronto's Fucked Up, among others. In Too Deep But the legacy of groups such as DOA and Teenage Head are given just brief nods in the introduction, while punk pioneers such as SNFU and Nomeansno, who spent decades in the punk trenches and influenced countless bands along the way (and to this day), aren't given any ink at all. Which just goes to show, you can't please everybody all the time — especially not punks. Sheldon Birnie is a Winnipeg writer and the author of Missing Like Teeth: An oral history of Winnipeg underground rock 1990-2001.
