BY VICKI GILHULA
Renowned designer Bruce Mau spends a lot of time in airplanes these days flying back and forth from Toronto to Vancouver where his exhibit
Massive Change: The Future of Global Design is currently running at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
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BRUCE MAU |
He flies to New York City regularly. And he has clients around the world.
Yet, Mau, 45, the son of a Sudbury miner, remains very much down-to-earth.
Although he was interviewed by Time and Newsweek, he didn?t have an attitude when talking to a reporter from his hometown.
His public relations person promised a 30-minute interview. Mau generously gave more than an hour of his time.
While he could have name-dropped about the famous architects, writers, entrepreneurs, curators and academics he has worked with, he didn?t.
Rather, in a soft-spoken manner, he talked about someone who has had a pivotal influence on his life: Jack Smith, his former art teacher at Sudbury
Secondary School.
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Jack Smith shared his experience and knowledge with art students at Sudbury Secondary School. Smith?s daughter Arlene Lalonde now teaches at the school. Mau hopes to collaborate with her on a project for students. |
Mau remembers one of his final assignments. He was printing the four-colour commencement program on a one-colour offset lithography press, one colour at a time.
?Jack came into school to help me on Father?s Day. I said ?don?t come in??but he came in (to help).?
His experience in Smith?s class was ?awesome.? His teacher had a way of pushing and challenging him. Mau didn?t ever expect to have that kind of experience again.
The graduation program for the Class of ?78, part of Mau?s portfolio, impressed the admissions people at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD).
Mau grew up in the Flour Mill, Val Caron and in Wahnapitae. A middle child, he has four sisters. His dad worked at Inco.
In the 1960s Sudbury was a place suffering from jet lag, he says.
As a frequent flyer, Mau knows how disorienting changes to the body?s 24-hour clock can be.
?Men worked in the mines?and changed shifts every two weeks. They worked in the dark doing terrifying?unhealthy work.?
In the days when almost everyone?s father worked at one of the two nickel giants, shift work had a negative affect on family life, he says.
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MASSIVE CHANGE opens in Toronto in March. |
Mau?s mother and father separated when he was about 12.
He described Sudbury in those beer and bingo days to Toronto Life writer Gerald Hannon in June 1998, as a place where ?there were only three activities: drinking, hockey and fighting.?
He told Hannon he realized at a young age Sudbury was not the place for him.
Mau spent four years at Garson-Falconbridge High School taking mostly science and technology courses.
?At the last minute of my last year, I was in the electronics lab. I made a radio, and I thought this is really not what I want to do? I should do something in the arts.?
His guidance counsellor said getting into art college would be difficult because Mau didn?t have a portfolio.
?I said ?I am 16 years old, it can?t be too late. My fate can?t be sealed.??
The counsellor suggested Mau talk to a teacher at Sudbury Secondary School about getting into the special arts program, a one-year program, at Sudbury Secondary School.
That teacher was Jack Smith.
?I noticed Bruce had tremendous talent?he was quite advanced,? says Smith, now 85.
The program was an introduction into the arts and included classes in ceramics, typography, photography and printmaking.
Smith, a worldly character, had operated a print shop and worked as a sign printer in Toronto before becoming a teacher. He brought life experience and a hands-on approach to learning to the classroom.
?After all this time, years later (I realized) I basically built my studio (Bruce Mau Design) as that kind super-cross disciplinary experience that I had with Jack Smith?printmaking, typographic, photography?I?ve built the situation I had with him,? says Mau.
One day shortly before Christmas in 1977 Mau told Smith he had to drop out of high school.
?He had tears in his eyes,? said Smith. ?He said, ?I?m going to have to quit school. I?ve turned 18 and I?m told I have to get a job??I think his stepfather was hard on him.?
They went to talk to Bob Tyler, the guidance counsellor at the school.
?Bob got him an allowance, and he got a room on The Kingsway,? and he was able to finish school.
Mau?s friends in the special art program?all 12 of them?planned to go to OCAD in Toronto and live together in a big house.
Mau was the only one accepted. He considered staying home and going to Cambrian College with his friends.
?My friend Karen (Rossi) was absolutely furious with me. She said, ?you have to go!? ?
Bruce Mau?s design firm is located on Spadina Avenue. He employs 35 people including architects, city planners and product developers.
The windows of the back of the loft studio overlook OCAD.
Mau was bored at art college mostly because it was a repeat of what he had learned from Smith. He dropped out of the college in his second year and found a job as a graphic artist at Five Finger Studios. He opened his studio in 1985.
Although he did not graduate from OCAD, it has not hurt his career. He smiles as he proudly displays the honorary diploma he received from the art college.
Mau received the Toronto Arts Award for Architecture and Design in 1999. In 2001 he received a honorary doctor of letters from Emily Carr
Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver.
Mau met his wife, Bisi, in Paris in the late 1980s.
The down-to-earth father of three girls reportedly drives a mini-van.
What does he do for a good time? He enjoys reading and spending time with his family. He took his wife and children to Killarney this past summer, a place he remembers visiting on a school survival trip.
?We had a totally incredible experience,? the world traveller says.
Smith?s daughter Arlene Lalonde now teaches art at Sudbury Secondary School.
When he can find the time, Mau says he hopes to ?do something with her? that will benefit her art students.
More information about Massive Change is available at www.massivechange.com. Mau?s website address is www.brucemaudesign.com.
Coming Up
Sunday: Bruce Mau has thoughts about rebranding Sudbury. Read this article>>
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