Jesse Gouchey (he, him)

Co-Founder, Artistic Director, Lead Artist and Workshop Instructor

Jesse Gouchey (he/him) is a self-taught, award-winning Cree Métis muralist, painter, animator, filmmaker and Animation Concept Art graduate from Vancouver Film School, who now lives and works on the traditional, ancestral and unceeded Coast Salish territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations, commonly known as Vancouver.  

Jesse mixes modern media with Indigenous culture. His wide range of skills includes aerosol, illustration, paintings, graphic design, bleached art apparel, photography and animation. His main focus is on large-scale spray-painted murals and commissioned paintings. Jesse is best-known for bringing wild animals and nature to life through paint. Over the past decade and beyond, Jesse has been teaching mural and painting workshops with groups of all ages with Indigenous communities across Western Canada.  

Combining mural skills and animation to make a unique style of stop motion, Jesse teamed up with Co-Director Xstine Cook to create a piece entitled, 'Spirit of the Bluebird'. This short documentary featured the story of an Aboriginal woman that faced injustice and was murdered in 1999. In 2011 and 2012, this award-winning film screened at TIFF, Imaginenative, APTN and over 100 film festivals worldwide. 

Jesse’s recent work on another impressive stop motion mural animation which took him over 7 years to paint, 'Johnny Crow', again with Co-Director Xstine Cook, speaks to historical oppression and racial injustice to Indigenous peoples. In 2021 and 2022, 'Johnny Crow' was circulated at many international film festivals, and also took home several awards.