The first time saw a Wil Murray painting I was standing in Zak Pashaks home on the East side of Vancouver. In that same room was Kim Dorland's "Highway 1" and an empty space where Curtis Santiago's "I have a recurring dream" would eventually sit. Immediately I asked Zak who had painted this texture color explosion. He said it was a crazy cat from Calgary named Wil Murray and that he and I needed to meet. The first time I saw Wil Murray he was standing in front of a great big shit making machine... No really, he was. It was Cloaca-no-5 by Wim Delvoye. The machine was grand. As impressive was the hair standing in front of it. There are people in my journey I have met that I use the term "hipster" to describe, and I use the term with the utmost respect. One could place these people in any time period and they would be ahead of the curve, seeming to know whats around the bend while reflecting the past . Wil is that Hep Cat.
This past weekend was Wil Muthafucking Murray's weekend. I received notice from the facebook pigeon that he would be arriving in Toronto to attend a couple of art events where his work would be showing .Wil hit me up on the phone when he got to town extending an invite for me to come down to the events. The first was the RBC  Canadian Painting Competition, presenting the 2008 winner, the two honorable mentions, and the rest of the finalists. I arrived to find myself in a new arena . I had never been to an art event of this nature before, it was a true depiction of when the ideas meet the money, pinstriped suits shaking paint stained hands. It didn't take but a minute to spot the hair in fine form. He was smiling and charismatic in front of his painting, named "Sexe maniac maniac maniac maniac maniac". The artists' work was presented by regions East vs West. I took a few laps around each room and observed. The styles of work varied from heavy to lean, free to structured, technical to simplistic. A couple pieces spoke to me and a few left me wondering how they made the finalists list. It was on my second look through that I noticed that Wil's piece had won one of the two honorable mentions. Not surprised at all, as a lover of texture and bold use of color, Sexe maniac maniac maniac maniac maniac would have been my pick for the grand prize, had I not even known Wil. Seeing that honorable mention tag gave me hope that I could one day be up on one of those walls with a little something by my name. After stuffing myself and drinking far too much of the bankers' wine, we ended up at The Ossington for a celebratory drink, and I stumbled my way home.

Saturday night arrived with freezing rain on his arm. I was bundled and ready to venture forth, into yet another new experince in the Toronto art world. The word from Wil was that MOCCA was the place to be. The publishing house Magenta was releasing their book "Carte Blanche 2- Painting", and among the esteemed list in the book was Wil's name. Not only that, but he was to be shown as a featured artist at that night's reception. I walked into the MOCCA and the first thing I was impressed with was the amount of people in attendance. The who's who of the T.O. scene were out in full force. As we all know, most of the time the most interesting things in the room are the people, but tonight was one of those rare occasion where Art yelled back "PAINTING IS HERE BITCHES! BEHOLD". I heard the canvas' cries loud and clear. Having my mind blown time and time again as I circulated the large rooms about 4-5 times each, put so much in perspective: where I am as a painter and where I want to be. So many names I want to mention, but l will just make a separate blog and you all can check it out. Once again Wil's piece shone in a room of stars. I am very honored that this Hep cat thinks I'm on the right track with my work. Thanks Wil for letting me be a part of the Wil Muthafucking Murray weekend.