JANUARY 2011

Next up on our employee profile is our creative hardworking framer, Kerry (Bleek) Swinney. Kerry is our American import, lured to Canada and Denbigh FAS with the promise of better beer and medical. His Canadian wife, Mia, could have had a hand in it as well.

Kerry was born in Oregon but brought up in Washington State, mainly on the Olympic Peninsula. He went to Art School at Northwest College of Art in Poulsbo, Washington where he fine tuned his artistic talents. Kerry started his framing career in 1989 working for a number of galleries and frame shops in the Seattle area before moving to Canada 16 years ago. He “loves being around so much great art and working with such an amazing team which provides constant inspiration and fun”. Being extremely detailed-oriented and exacting are attributes that are reflected in all of his framing projects.


Kerry has framed everything from a tiny fortune cookie saying to a 12 x 12 foot canvas, and everything you can imagine in between.


Kerry is also very active in art outside of his work life, mainly through audio art. From a very young age, while traveling around the US in an 18-wheeler with his dad, he became obsessed with radio. He can name the call signs of stations all around the continent, appreciates the fuzzy crackle of a far-away a.m. station, has an extensive collection of radio taped by his dad and himself, and he loves hearing new (and odd) music from radio stations on the net. In fact, the only thing he likes more than radio is his dog Polly!

His favourite radio hobby, however, is making it himself. He has, for over 10 years, hosted a radio show on UBC's CITR radio. This has taken a number of forms, but currently “DJ Bleek” hosts Exquisite Corpse Radio, featuring the oddest and most interesting experimental sounds and music out there.

January 17th is always a big day for Kerry. In 1963, Robert Filliou established this day as Art's Birthday, and CITR celebrates with 24 hours of Radio Art. Kerry curates the event involving audio artists from around North America creating sound collage and other experimental weirdness live on the air. He gets no sleep, but it is definitely his favourite day of the year.

Drop in at the frame shop! Kerry will be happy to make your art look its best. The radio's always on, and he'll happily show you a picture of his dog!