‘Peg o’ our hearts Graphic artist's nostalgic, iconic images of city, province from days gone by on T-shirts, pillows and other items have proven to be crowd pleasers at craft shows, online and in retail stores By: David Sanderson Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021 Last Modified: 8:01 AM CDT Monday, Oct. 25, 2021 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/10/2021 (1446 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Craft-sale season is back and for a spell there, veteran silk-screen artist Roy Liang was concerned his latest brainstorm, a zippered pouch bearing an image of Laurentien pencil crayons (Soft Peach! Roan Red!) was going to date him more than usual.

Sure, the 51-year-old founder of steeped-in-nostalgia biz Winnipeg North of Fargo has fond memories of the Canadian-made pencil crayons, a back-to-school staple when he was growing up in Gimli. But would shoppers under a certain age even recognize them, he wondered?

Liang, whose yesteryear line numbers holiday ornaments that pay homage to a bustling Portage Avenue, circa 1960, and throw pillows emblazoned with a shot of a 1959 Eaton’s Christmas catalogue, needn’t have worried; moments after unveiling the Laurentien-inspired pouches on Instagram, he was inundated with messages from some of his more youthful followers that read, in part, “OMG, I need one of these,” “Love, love, love” and “These are awesome, just bought two.”

“It was the same thing a few years ago when I made magnets showing off the front of the old Winnipeg Arena,” says Liang, seated in a backyard gazebo, where his and his partner’s 12-year-old Jack Russell terrier Walter is resting its head on another of his creations, a pillow boasting the motif of the shuttered, downtown Bay store as it appeared in more glorious times.

“I asked myself whether anybody in their teens or 20s would even know what the Arena was but that didn’t turn out to be the case at all; a bunch were like, ‘Wow, is this ever cool,’ when they spotted it at our booth. So yeah, it’s always affirming when an image I choose resonates, whether it’s from 10, 20 or 50 years ago.”

Liang, whose online Etsy store (www.etsy.com/ca/shop/winnipegnorthoffargo) is well-stocked with “local nostalgia for all ages and eras,” credits English fashion icon Dame Vivienne Westwood for what has become Winnipeg North of Fargo, a tag he settled on five years ago after tripping over that precise phrase on a century-old, promotional pamphlet that invited people in the southern U.S. to consider a move to Manitoba’s capital city.

In 2006 Liang, a University of Manitoba alumnus, was living in Osborne Village, working full time in the health-care field while moonlighting as a clothing designer. He’d already made a bit of a name for himself under the moniker Dumb Chauffeur, a reference to a song by ‘80s new wave darlings Soft Cell. In an effort to branch out, however, he signed up for a silk-screening class being taught at the Exchange District’s Martha Street Studio.

“I always loved photography, as well as working with textiles, and wanted to do something in that regard,” he explains, mentioning some may also remember him as Firewood, the banner he went by prior to Winnipeg North of Fargo. It was while debating what that “something” might be that he was reminded of a Westwood biography he’d read, in which she discussed ensuring there was always something recognizable or familiar in her clothing, so a customer would immediately know it was hers.

“It occurred to me the most familiar things in life are those you drive or walk past every day, be it a road sign, statue or interesting-looking building,” he continues. “You don’t think they’re ingrained in your mind till you see them somewhere unexpected and one day I said to myself, ‘Why not silk-screen those images onto whatever and see what happens?’”

Liang chuckles, recalling the reaction of passers-by at a church craft sale in the fall of ‘06, when they eyed a swath of goods stamped with the iconic Confusion Corner insignia; you know the one, with arrows pointing this way and that. The first question out of their mouth was, “Err, why is the Confusion Corner sign on a T-shirt?” Their second question: “How much?”

Buoyed by steady sales, Liang began packing a camera everywhere he went, pretty much, to document whatever he thought would look good on a top or a tea towel That included a road sign along Highway 8 indicating precisely how far away Gimli is (an important marker when he was a kid as it indicated he was halfway home from Saturday piano lessons his parents drove him to in “the city”), the wooden arch that welcomes cottagers to Victoria Beach and the grand, east gate at Riding Mountain National Park, the latter well-known for its twin turrets.

He also began digging through historical journals, which is the reason visitors to his booth were soon able to purchase garbage mitts adorned with — who needs a stinking GPS? — a 1908 Winnipeg street map and totes showing off mementoes of Grand Beach’s boardwalk era (“Midnight Dance 50¢”).

“I still keep my eyes open. We were recently in the Killarney-Boissevain area, where I stopped to take a pic of a Deloraine sign I thought looked rather cool. But there are certain things I won’t do, like BDI (Bridge Drive-in), which has been done to death, or Kenora-Lake of the Woods, mainly because there are people out that way who are doing it already, and are doing a phenomenal job,” he says.

Tara Davis, owner of Tara Davis Studio Boutique at 246 McDermot Ave., has been carrying Liang’s line since 2011, when she opened the first version of her gift shop in Nelson, B.C. As one of the few retail outlets where Winnipeg North of Fargo is available 12 months of the year, she continually welcomes shoppers keen to see what he has up his silk-screening sleeve, lately.

“I don’t even ask, I just take what he brings me, everything is so great,” says Davis, pointing out a shelf reserved solely for Winnipeg North of Fargo merchandise. “Besides being so creative, he’s also very funny. His Transcona purses (bearing a black-and-white shot of former mayor of Transcona Paul Martin next to a sign reading, “Welcome to Transcona, the Hub of Eastern Manitoba”) come in two styles, one with pink flamingos on the underside and another with Cheezies, which I’ve since learned are what’s known as Transcona shrimp.”

A couple years ago, a visitor to Davis’s store was poking through Liang’s goods when she began tearing up. Davis approached the woman asking if everything was OK, to which the woman replied, “Oh yes, better than OK.” It just so happened a pillow imprinted with a photo of the Winnipeg Jets, taken during the team’s World Hockey Association days, included a shot of her father, a former Jet.

“She said she didn’t have many pictures of him from his playing days, and bought everything I had with that picture on it,” Davis says, smiling at the memory. “That’s the kind of reaction people have to Roy’s stuff all the time. Maybe not always as personal, but still they’ll be, like, ‘I remember when…’ if they spot something with this or that on it.”

Liang’s clientele, which includes expat Winnipeggers from every corner of the globe, aren’t the only ones who get wistful over articles carrying an image of Garbage Hill, the Gimli Viking monument or — our favourite — a single fishfly. Turns out Liang is a contemplative sort, too, who often pauses to reflect on days gone by.

“There was a point in my life where everything I was turning out was made with materials and supplies purchased within a two-kilometre radius of my apartment,” he says, reaching over to scratch Walter behind the ear. “My fabric was from Mitchell on Main Street, my ink came from a spot in the Exchange and whatever I needed for my sewing machines I got from a place on Portage (Avenue). Now, every last one of those spots is gone, which is such a shame.

“To me, that makes it even more important to commemorate things from the past, so they can continue to live on, even if it’s just on a tree ornament or cushion.”

david.sanderson@winnipegfreepress.mb.ca