Alberta Indigenous Artist to Perform at IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships | The Canadian News

Six months ago, Jason carter He was checking his emails when he almost deleted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“There was an email from Hockey Canada that I thought was spam, but when I looked a little closer I realized it was legitimate,” Carter said.

It was good that he took that time to look a little closer. Hockey Canada asked if you would be interested in creating player of the game awards at the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championships.

“It really means a lot to me as an artist to share my work, as well as to a wide audience,” Carter said.

Carter was commissioned to hand paint 150 hockey stick bases. I wanted to create an empowering design and it has always been on the bears and their meaning. The grizzly bear you chose is talking to the Northern Lights.

“I was trying to capture a feeling of that moment of triumph from the player winning the game.”

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As the players trained for the championship, Carter spent his long hours painting for more than 12 hours a day for three weeks.

“Painting these sticks was a real chore,” laughed Carter. “In the sense that I didn’t realize how much work just the preparation was going to be.”

Carter had to sand the base of each bar and then paint a base coat. He chose blue and took several layers.

“It was a huge process.”

When Carter started painting, he said the biggest challenge was his teeth.

“I got these little silver or white ones, to do that with a little brush.”

“I love painting large and to scale, so that was the biggest challenge.”

As the days passed and Carter continued to paint sticks, he said he began to think about the players who would receive them and how much that meant to them.

“I hope the player of the game receives his baton as a representation of his time in Canada … and his representation of his hard work and perseverance.”

That perseverance is shared not only with the players, but also with the artist behind the awards.

Most of the pre-tournament games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Team Canada will only play on December 23.