Avenue Magazine Calgary

Art is a word with many meanings. For some, it creates a mental picture of paint on canvas, plaster sculpted into form or musical notes arranged into melody. But art — creative ideas turned into tangible things you can intake with your senses — surrounds us every day.

For one Calgary family, the Lukasewiches, creative talent has led them down very different artistic paths, but they have all arrived at success.

“I’m stunned that my kids are making a living doing what they love to do,” says Lori Lukasewich, mother of the family of five. “They are all using their artistic skills in a broader field than fine arts.”

Perhaps it is no surprise that her three sons, Carl, 33, Micah, 29, and Noel, 27, have each followed in the artistic footsteps of both their mother and their father, Luke Lukasewich.

Lori and Luke met while they were students at the Alberta College of Art (before it tacked “and Design” onto its moniker) in the ’70s. Today, Lori is a respected realist painter whose finely detailed still-life oil pieces of everyday objects were recently on display in a solo exhibition of new paintings at a show entitled Omnivore — Beauty as Food at Art Central’s Axis Gallery of Fine Art. She’ll also be the focus of a solo show, entitled Marg’s Museum at the Red Deer Museum in October.

Luke, meanwhile, is a sculptor who works primarily in reconstructing and mounting fossilized skeletons. His pieces can be found worldwide, including at Drumheller’s Royal Tyrell Museum. Luke is also a metal sculptor — he, along with artist Bob Stowell created
the metal relief train sculpture that can be found in the underpass just west of the Palliser Hotel. Over the years, each member of the family has assisted with Luke’s natural history exhibits, says Lori, just one of the many ways in which art was always present in the Lukasewich household.

“Since I was a kid, I was always drawing,” says Carl, who is currently an art director with Calgary-based media company Critical Mass’s Chicago office. This eventually led him to ACAD like his parents, where he earned a degree in graphic design. Carl naturally gravitated towards the arts, but says he was interested by the opportunities available in design. “I was leaning to the graphic side of things . . . and I wanted there to be some sort of job at the end,” he says.

Carl has also helped to create websites for companies like Rolex and Dell. Before settling into his design career, Carl developed his musical talents, playing guitar in a number of Calgary bands including Vailhalen, Shecky Forme and XL Birdsuit, something he started to do when he was in his teens.

Neither Lori nor Luke are musicians themselves, but are great appreciators of music and that has influenced all their children, especially Micah.

A DJ, producer and performer of what he describes as “a vast array of electronica, dance and down-tempo music,” Micah has produced singles for some of the biggest labels in the dance music industry including Global Underground and Audio Therapy. He also operates his own independent label, Ruhnsong.

“Music has driven me in everything that I have done,” says Micah, who began producing music in his teens. “I taught myself how to use all of the tools and forced myself to learn how to do it.” Micah continues to live and perform in Calgary, but also travels around the globe, last year performing in London and throughout South America, culminating in a New Year’s Eve party in Chiapas, Mexico, for a crowd of 2,000.

Youngest brother, Noel, was able to turn his lifelong love of drawing, video games and science fiction into a career as an environment artist with Edmonton’s world-renowned software company, BioWare, creating 2D and 3D levels for its sophisticated games. Noel also worked on the award-winning role-playing game Mass Effect and is presently on the creative team generating sequels to it. Like his parents and older brother Carl, Noel attended ACAD and while still a student was able to work on some projects with BioWare as part of a work/study placement that led to employment right out of school.

Noel says that while he and his brothers acted like typical siblings growing up and had their battles, now “me and my brothers have a lot of fun . . . we’ve really found where we all fit creatively.”

And while it could be argued the family has art in their genes, when asked what advice she has for parents who would want to foster creativity in their children, Lori says: “Creativity comes in all kinds of forms; you have to give them freedom and trust it is there.”

And her three talented sons confirm that they were always encouraged to follow their own noses. “They never pushed me, they just let me do what I want.” says Carl. Noel echoes his brothers’ sentiments. “I think we do have talent but we definitely nurtured it. It was enhanced.”