I love doing arts.

Anything creative where I can just express myself has always been like a big thing in my life.

my name is Josh.

I'm born and raised in Edmonton.

Lived there my whole life.

no artist in my family.

I'm a pioneer that way.

But painting wasn't my original pursuit.

I actually really wanted to be an actor, Josh has always been creative, and while art was part of that, it was in junior high that he discovered drama and became convinced acting was his true calling.

Even so, he continued taking art classes, especially ones where he had creative freedom.

there's an Art 31 class.

I could just do five projects, self led, whatever I wanted, And I love the teacher.

He said, have you thought about doing the Whyte Avenue Artwalk, I got a little six foot section, and I didn't have business cards or a tablecloth or anything.

I just had art propped up ended up selling a couple paintings and I thought, wow, this is really awesome.

So now I can take that money and buy more art supplies with it.

As graduation approached, Josh faced a life altering challenge.

He was diagnosed with cancer the first the longer I sat with it more I realized I don't know how much longer I'm going to have So mine is will spend my time doing whatever I want with it, rather than maybe just trying to make the most money or do something that's really safe.

in 2013, Josh moved to Vancouver to enroll in film school.

But during a visit home that same year, he learned that his cancer had returned, this time in his stomach.

After 20 rounds of radiation, Josh was cancer free.

He returned to Vancouver to complete his final semester, and while continuing to pursue acting, he began experimenting with new artistic techniques.

This led to his first series of paintings inspired by the idea of an inner animal, a collection that even caught the attention of his dentist, who purchased the series for his office.

just eight months after returning to Vancouver, Josh's cancer returned, this time between his lungs.

So I had to do chemotherapy for that.

And that one totally kicked my butt.

Like they have a pamphlet of all the symptoms that you might get.

I got every single one of them.

After becoming cancer free a third time, Josh's passion for acting took a backseat as his identity as an artist began to take center stage.

And then I graduated and got an agent, and I auditioned and booked a couple small things.

in that process, I was just so broke living in Vancouver, So I was just on my social media being like, who wants to commission a painting for, like 40 bucks?

Josh decided to try something new.

After spotting a Craigslist ad asking for a ceiling mural.

and then that kind of snowballed into me doing more art, which snowballed into me wanting to change career paths and go back to school for practical art with graphic design.

I moved back to Edmonton, went to Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, And then at the same time, I got a job working for a marketing agency.

So I was a designer there going to school.

While attending school, Josh created a new and highly successful series of paintings, his take on the RCMP reimagined as the Royal Canadian Mammal Police.

Josh also developed skills in graphic communication, branding and advertising.

Tools that would carry over into his art.

He even began to explore writing.

I got an opportunity to design and publish books, And then I would get the manuscript design and do covers And my boss one day was like, hey, you're doing a lot of great art.

Why don't you write your own book?

And I thought what a great opportunity to reflect on my life, all the little nudge that pushed me down this path and the reason why I'm creating and why I love it so much, and then tell them as kind of fun, teachable moments I love doing anything where I can express myself.

And I think a little bit is A.D.D., as soon as I do something for a little bit, I get bored with it and I want to do something new, something exciting, something challenging.

I've cast my net fairly wide, like going from paintings to a mural is exciting because it seems like the new novel thing then once I've done a few murals, I'm like, I kind of want to go back to the studio.

well, now I don't actually want to work with my hands more.

So that's why I like the sculpture part comes in and then I just want to sit on my laptop.

why I love the design side too.

art for me, the variety that comes with it is like infinitely exciting because it's always changing and evolving.

And I think that's my favorite part of it This is the start of a big venture for Josh Harnack, aspiring artist in Edmonton.

I just saw 6000 paintings on Facebook Marketplace.

Welcome to this historic moment.

This is what I bought.

6000 of these.

Oh, my God, I transforming them into playful and imaginative new works.

playful stuff is my nature.

I really love kind of something more whimsical.

I really love to make people laugh, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to do film and TV.

and I try to bring some of that into my artwork where what I'm creating sometimes is a little bit more spontaneous, I don't necessarily always know what I'm going to paint, but I start by painting a bit of a blob and then just let the shapes kind of start dictating.

So I'm kind of like in the journey in real time, While Josh enjoys bringing humor and spontaneity into his work, he also finds meaning in creating art for his community.

moving forward, I would really love to do more art that is not just for me in my own practice helping the community and using my skills as like in service of.

for somebody to trust me in honor of, like a police officer who passed away in portraiture.

And then having to rise to that occasion make something really meaningful that will last in the community for the next maybe 20 or 30 years.

with support from the Edmonton Arts Council.

Josh recently had the opportunity to expand his skills during an artist residency in France.

I love doing residencies.

being an artist, you know, usually make a ton of money.

So if I can use art as a way of traveling and seeing the world and having that impact me and my artwork, there's nothing better.