Kris "KUPS" Kupskay is standing in one of seven mangled, rusting train cars that are scattered near the Cheakamus River, remnants of a derailment in the late 1950s.
Behind him, the weathered face of an old man, long white hair and beard blowing in the breeze surrounded by little pink flowers, is spray painted on the wall.
Moments earlier, a tourist who happened to be hiking the woods near the wreck in the pouring rain, stopped to chat and, upon discovering Kupskay is the artist of the stunning piece, asked him to pose next to it for a photo.
He happily obliged.
"Congrats man," offers the visitor's friend, who introduces himself as a longtime local, while the pair climbs out of the container. "I've seen your work around town. It's really good."
Despite having moved to Whistler only a year and a half ago, Kupskay's highly stylized, bright, vivid characters are everywhere. Most recently, the former Maple Ridge resident, who works both in spray paint and acrylic, largely depending on the season, was chosen to paint a 60-foot mural on the side of the Whistler Museum depicting several images of local lore.
"There are stereotypes. Some people think you have to be in a gang to spray paint," he says. "There have been more than a few people who, when they met me, were like, 'I thought you'd be more hardcore, dude.' Anybody can paint. It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like."
As if to drive home the point, he gestures at a pineapple incorporated into the sleeve tattoo winding up his arm. "I love Hawaii and pineapples and the beach and surf," he adds. "Pineapples and tikis are starting to show up (in my work). Little drink umbrellas and waves, it's my new focus."
Kupskay took the Pique on a tour around Whistler recently to hunt for these hidden tropical trademarks and check out some of his spray paint art spots.
The train wreck
Kupskay helps an ill-prepared journalist in new leather boots down slick rocks, through narrow mountain bike trails and across train tracks until he hits the first train car covered in bright tags and bigger, more complex pieces. The rest of the cars are spread out among the trees, creating cavernous, pop-up galleries of sorts. "It's cool, but it's a shitty canvas," Kupskay explains. "They're all broken and ripple-y and water damaged. No matter what, your painting is going to flake off in six months to a year anyway."
He might not have painted here in a while, but he's left evidence of past visits — namely, a curious character in tropical garb. "This guy's got a little tiki drink umbrella and he's got a pineapple neck tie," Kupskay points out. "He's just a fun character and I kind of dressed him up. He's on holidays, you know?"
Whistler Museum
As part of his proposal for the project, Kupskay dragged his roommate and a video camera out to the blank wall at the east side of the museum. "I made this cheesy video of me describing as best I could what I was going to have where as I walked along the wall and I attached that (to the proposal)," he says. "I was under the impression that even if they thought it was cheesy, they'd still think it was more effort put forth."
Cheesy or not, it worked. Commissioned to paint historical images, he opted for the Blackcomb glacier, local icon Myrtle Philip with a rainbow symbolizing her famous Rainbow Lodge, along with her pal Teddy the Bear and the original Creekside Gondola. A train chugs through the bottom of the piece. In total, it took five days and 46 cans of spray paint.
Bounce
Walking by the indoor trampoline park in Function Junction, Kupskay spots someone inside he knows who works at Prior snowboards. They chat while people take turns jumping off a ledge, onto a trampoline and into a pile of foam blocks. Above them is Kupskay's surreal painting: an image of Winston Churchill with a distorted face in a pineapple hat, gesturing his cigar towards a nightmarish island of skulls, bones and volcanoes. Black and white, save for a bright splash of orange, it's his strangest and most compelling mural. Bounce gave him free reign to paint whatever he wanted, he explains.
"One of (Churchill's) famous lines was, 'Never give up' with his whole Second World War speech," he adds. "I drew on this haunted whimsical island. I was still focusing on characters. I was on a push to do something more technical, smaller in different places. Then I picked the composition to go with the character I wanted to do."
Whistler skate park
"Welcome to my gallery," he jokes as he walks into the desolate, rain-soaked park. His pop culture images are plastered on features throughout, from a deadpan Jay-Z with his brim pulled low to Kerry King, Slayer guitarist, mouth agape and brow furrowed, at the top of a bowl that snakes downhill.
This is the first place in Whistler Kupskay painted. "Even when I started doing canvas, I was drawn most to portraits because in my opinion, they're the hardest things to do and the most criticized and recognized," he says. "Then spray paint, to be able to do that and make it as big as you can, that's another thing."
His biggest hit to date: a cartoon image of Marilyn Monroe, eyes batting seductively, lips slightly parted. "By the time I (finished) this I turned around and there were 10 people watching me like, 'Hey, this is really cool what you're doing,'" he says. "I was surprised to see dirtbag skaters say, 'I like that feminine Marilyn.' It gave me the idea that if I was going to be in there I'd probably want to keep doing stuff they'd appreciate."
