![\"\"](\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/bhum\/wp-content\/uploads\/Pascale-Arpin-2-1-400x227.jpg\")
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From article “Hail to The Humanities: Carleton Grads Conquering Diverse Fields”<\/a> By Dan Rubinstein Pascale Arpin\u2019s career also bridges art and commerce and it sprung from the College of the Humanities, but the similarities end there.<\/p>\n If you live in Ottawa, you\u2019ve likely seen Arpin\u2019s work. Although she does illustrations and paints canvasses and has brought film and TV props and sets to life, her niche these days is custom sign painting and hand lettering \u2014\u00a0a traditional style that adorns the windows of about five dozen local businesses, including hip spots like Little Victories Coffee<\/a> on Bank St., Crows Nest Barber on Wellington St. and The Third in Hintonberg.<\/p>\n Pascale Arpin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI followed a winding road to get to my current obsession,\u201d says Arpin, who is arguably the city\u2019s foremost practitioner of this intricate, ornate old-school craft.<\/p>\n \u201cI always found it aesthetically pleasing but didn\u2019t know how to do it. It looks like something you can create effortlessly, but you really have to understand the brush stroke and technique.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Carleton\u2019s Humanities program, she says, \u201chelped me understand the world and why the world is the way it is today.\u201d Moreover, as a francophone, it also gave her a nuanced grasp of English, which has been critical throughout her career.<\/p>\n After graduating, Arpin was awarded a scholarship to pursue a master\u2019s degree in Sociology but instead moved to Iqaluit, where she lived for six years and did a series of jobs, from early childhood educator and youth arts programmer to a position with the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association.<\/p>\n Although she was learning a lot about the business of arts, Arpin didn\u2019t want to settle into a desk job, so she returned to freelance illustration and began working in film as a set decorator, scenic painter and props master. Wanting to be closer to family, she eventually moved back to Ottawa and dove into her own creative work.<\/p>\n A fateful trip to Minnesota in 2017 to take a workshop with renowned sign painter Mike Meyer<\/a> led to her passion for hand lettering and techniques such as gilded windows, in which a mix of gold leaf, gelatin and water is painted onto windows to create an eye-catching mirror-like effect.<\/p>\n Pascale Arpin brings her talents to Mighty Fine Bakehouse<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s aesthetically pleasing and fits the belief system that the companies that hire me are trying to uphold,\u201d Arpin says about bringing this look to Ottawa-area businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re supporting local artisans and quality signage over cheap vinyl products. It\u2019s a local economy of businesses supporting one another.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The connections Arpin made while working with Meyer, who she has continued to learn from, led to a meeting with Hollywood filmmaker Tim Burton in Las Vegas. Burton was struck by her work and hired her to fabricate and paint pieces for a multimedia exhibition<\/a> he was working on for the city\u2019s Neon Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a big turning point for me,\u201d she says. \u201cIf Tim Burton liked the way I paint, then I needed to paint more.\u201d<\/p>\n Arpin also recently illustrated a comic book written by Carleton Cultural Mediations PhD student Cara Tierney<\/a>, \u201cPhantomtits<\/a>,\u201d which tells the story of Tierney\u2019s real-life experiences navigating the medical system as a trans person seeking surgery.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of fascinating things,\u201d says Arpin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWhat I do now is so different from what I studied at university, but for me everything has been cumulative, and you always benefit from having more knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Pascale Arpin, Artist From article “Hail to The Humanities: Carleton Grads Conquering Diverse Fields” By Dan Rubinstein Photos by Yuli Scheidt and Courtesy of Pascale Arpin When Tim Burton Likes the Way You Paint Pascale Arpin\u2019s career also bridges art and commerce and it sprung from the College of the Humanities, but the similarities end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[41,48,40],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nPhotos by Yuli Scheidt and Courtesy of Pascale Arpin<\/p>\n\n\nWhen Tim Burton Likes the Way You Paint<\/h3>\n
![\"Pascale](\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/humanities-grads-diverse-fields-1200w-5.jpg\")
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