2024 Calgary Stampede poster revealed
Lloyd Templeton, 22, of Calgary is the winning artist
A 22-year-old Calgary artist and illustrator has won the 2024 Calgary Stampede Poster Competition.
Lloyd Templeton won the competition for his poster titled Wîchîspa Skadabi Odâginabi, which means "Celebrating the Calgary Stampede" in the language of the Stoney Nakoda.
The poster offers an up-close view of the Stampede parade. Stoney Nakoda teepee holder Duane Mark is shown riding in the foreground, while a group of participants and spectators fill the downtown parade route behind him.
As well as appearing in the poster, Mark, who is a Stoney language and cultural instructor, also helped Templeton come up with the title of the piece.
"Duane actually explained to me, which I thought was quite beautiful, that the spirits and the ancestors can't hear the prayers unless they're in the Stoney Nakoda language. So preserving it is very, very important," said Templeton, who is a recent graduate of the Alberta University of the Arts.
"I thought, if I happen to win and share my piece with the world, I'd really like to share a little bit of Duane's work with the world as well."
Vivid memories
Templeton, who said he still has very vivid memories of the Stampede parade as a young boy in Calgary, wanted to convey some of that excitement in his poster.
"I wanted you to really feel the energy and excitement and anticipation. The parade is the official kickoff to the Stampede, so the anticipation and excitement is through the roof on parade day," he said.
This is the third time Templeton has competed in the poster competition and he said the experience has helped him develop as an illustrator and painter.
Templeton has been honoured for his artwork before. In 2017, when he was a 16-year-old high school student, he created a video featuring his watercolour paintings depicting the battle of Vimy Ridge and won a contest to travel to the site of the historic First World War battle.
As the winning artist of the Stampede competition, Templeton receives the $10,000 Dustin Peers Memorial Scholarship, funded by the Brandon Flock Foundation.
The Brandon Flock Foundation provides an additional $10,000 in scholarships to the top eight in the competition annually, making it one of the largest art scholarships in Canada with $20,000 distributed in total.