Magical mystery beards and special twigs: take a look inside Jay Dart's wild imagination
Who is your alter ego? Meet the purple bearded lumberjack behind Yawnder
Where does your mind go when you think of a fantasy land? We found out where this artist's daydreams take him (besides his own home, about an hour outside Toronto in the hamlet of Ashburn).
Jay Dart, a self-described "drawist," envisions a land of lumberjacks with multicoloured facial hair and psychedelic trees against a landscape of snow. But it isn't just his own vision quest that helps Dart get trippy ideas -- he draws inspiration from his purple bearded alter ego named Jiggs.
"It's not really my choice when I hear him," says Dart, "It's just that voice you can tune into when you tune everything else out."
Watch the video:
The land of Dart's dreams, that houses Jiggs as well as an entire cast of other characters, their magical mystery beards, a twig library and some "geistwood" logs, is called Yawnder.
And recently, that universe has expanded. After Dart's two-year-old son began drawing his own toddler scribbles alongside his dad, the artist found that he needed to build a new part of Yawnder, informed by his son's colourful drawings. The result? An alternate world that lies through a mysterious door in the woods, where Dart's travelers can embark on further adventures. Of course, that land is called "Beyawnder."
In this video, you meet Jiggs and travel through Yawnder and Beyawnder. Wear a jacket - preferably plaid.
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