Bus Roots
The story behind my 2025 Art Bus!
Hello drawing book readers! Today, instead of looking through the pages of my old sketchbook journal series, we’re going to talk about… a bus!
Last year, I heard that the City of Calgary was looking for artists to create work that would be displayed on some buses in their fleet. I had to apply!
I wanted to do this project because my son really likes buses. Thanks to him, I’ve learned a bit about buses myself! We even wrote this series of comics for The Sprawl a couple of years ago, about the vehicles in the Calgary Transit fleet. Yes, it sounds totally boring, but it was really fun.
I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the seven artists!
The bus launch happened this week, and it was really fun to see the buses in real life.
This project was overseen by the wonderful folks at Calgary Arts Development (CADA). Artists had to pick from a list of suggested themes, and I picked “Share stories of your community.” Actually, I think a lot of the non-bus-related work I do, also fits that description.
I like to make art that gets people curious about where they live! My design shows a Calgary Transit bus making its way through a bunch of well-known city landmarks. A bus ride is an opportunity to be an explorer in your own city, and to learn about the place you’re from. That’s why I called my piece “Bus Roots.”
Some of the landmarks were inspired by The Sprawl’s “Curious Calgary” zine project. I chose landmarks that (I hope) are pretty well-known to Calgarians, but if some are unfamiliar, I hope that might inspire folks to investigate and find out more about them.
Public art… that celebrates public art!
Some of the landmarks in my bus design are public art pieces. I guess I’ve been interested in making art that celebrates iconic Calgary public art works, for a long time. Back in the 90s, I was asked to suggest a concept for a mural that was supposed to end up on a downtown office tower wall. The mural didn’t happen, but I still have some of the concept sketches, which showed a bunch of familiar Calgary sculptures hanging out together. Maybe, if readers are interested, I could write a newsletter about that mural proposal, sometime. Anyway, that’s another story.
The public art pieces that show up on my 2025 Art Bus, are: Conversation by William Hodd McElcheran, Travelling Light (colloquially known as “the big blue ring” by German-based artist collective inges idee, and Jumping Trout by Violet Costello and Bob Thomasson. The artists were kind enough to give me permission to draw my versions of their work on the bus. It was a great experience to be connected with them. I hope the bus project gets more Calgarians thinking about those iconic Calgary landmarks!
The people on the bus
Some of the people I drew on the bus are real people. I drew my mom. She lives in long-term care and cannot get out to ride on a bus, but she was enthusiastic about this project. (She has dementia, which means she often gets words mixed up, these days. She kept asking me, “How’s the canoe project going? I mean, how’s your submarine? No, I mean, your… locomotive?” She thought these mix-ups were just as funny as I did.)
I figured that an Art Bus was a good spot to include some Calgary artists. Here are two of them: my brother, musician Matt Masters, and my friend Allara Gooliaff of Three Left Feet Movement Creations!
And, I also included my fifteen-year-old niece, who is a talented violinist! She doesn’t live in Calgary, but she was visiting while I was making the design. I hope she’ll come back soon!
Inside the bus, on the overhead panels, there are some smaller versions of the exterior images, along with the names of the landmarks. On one of the panels, there’s also a QR code that links to more information about the landmarks. You can also find this on Calgary Arts Development’s page about the Art Buses. You just have to scroll down and click on my name.
How did the artwork get on the bus?
Artists submitted digital files, which were printed on vinyl and then applied to the buses in the same way advertisements are placed on them. My design started with this sketch!
Find the buses online!
At last, we come to the best part of the project: www.transit55.ca! Well, I’m kind of joking, but on the other hand, I have loved this mysterious website for about a decade, and I have never had a better excuse to tell everyone about it! The site uses GPS technology to track all the buses in Calgary (and a few other cities). You can take a look and see which route the art buses are on, in real time! It’s a great way to catch a glimpse of the buses in the wild!
If you want to try it, here are the numbers of the 2025 Art Buses.
Dr. Hali Heavy Shield: 8338 and 8215
Josee La Guita: 8263 and 8231
Mao and Chris: 8238 and 8247
Moey Blanco: 8244 and 8324
Presley Mills: 8289 and 8272
Sam Hester: 8276 and 8260
Sydonne Warren: 8249 and 8331
You can also find out a bit more about the project and the artists (including some short videos featuring interviews with each of the artists), here.
Did I mention I’ve been drawing Calgary buses, for quite a while? While we’re talking about “sharing stories of your community,” why don’t I throw in this 2016 piece from Swerve Magazine: an old “Guide to Summer Transit Adventures.” Well, summer is almost here… so go out and ride a bus!
Safe travels!
Congratulations Sam! Great art, and really enjoyed reading your story about how bus art came to life.
Wowzers! Totally cool, and well done Sam! We're going to be in CGY in a few weeks and hope we see your bus!