Family experiments with different art

Posted on: Staff Writer

From edition: March 2 2018 Strathmore Times

By Miriam Ostermann, Associate Editor

Twenty-eight-year-old Ty Dahl (l), who has Down syndrome, started painting after he lost his job and recovered from viral pneumonia. With the help of his stepfather, Kevin Ellis, the abstract paintings receive a design etched on top using a laser. Dahl already has had more than 60 purchases. Miriam Ostermann Photo

Twenty-eight-year-old Ty Dahl (l), who has Down syndrome, started painting after he lost his job and recovered from viral pneumonia. With the help of his stepfather, Kevin Ellis, the abstract paintings receive a design etched on top using a laser. Dahl already has had more than 60 purchases.
Miriam Ostermann Photo
When 28-year-old Ty Dahl returned home from the hospital after spending the month of December fighting influenza B and viral pneumonia, his stepdad Kevin Ellis scrambled to find something to keep him busy – settling on a few canvases from the dollar store and some paints.
Dahl didn’t stop painting and canvases started piling up. So Ellis, owner of All Custom Engraving & Designs, experimented by imprinting designs on two of the paintings using his Trotec Speedy 400 CO2 Flexx laser that’s set up in his basement.
Ellis couldn’t have known at the time that Dahl’s newfound hobby would not only become a new fixation for Dahl, who has Down syndrome, but garner much attention in other communities and jumpstart a business venture.
“The original intent was for something for him to do, especially when he was at home when he was sick, rather than just be bored and watch TV all day long,” said Ellis. “It gives him something to do and he just lives for it. He’ll just sit there all night – hardly watches TV.”
Ellis posted a few of the engraved canvases online and the family became overwhelmed with an outpouring of responses, resulting in over 60 purchases. Dahl had previously been employed at other businesses in Strathmore but was laid off – the family was told – due to minimum wage increases.
Dahl is a client of the Advocacy in Motion Society in Strathmore, which keeps him busy during the day, but the young artist doesn’t waste any time when he gets home: he turns on his iPod and starts painting at the easel that was donated to him by a woman from Drumheller.
“I think it’s pretty awesome,” said Rebecca Dahl, Ty’s mother. “He’s always liked to do crafts. But this … we have people as far as Saskatchewan, it’s unbelievable how many people.”
She added that people have approached the family to show his art at shows and markets.
Ellis had previously used his engraver on wood, glass and metal, and had wondered about other surfaces. It takes him 15 minutes to engrave a design onto a canvas, where the laser chips off the paint until the original canvas shows through.
When asked what he is saving up for, Ty replied “a vacation.”
Dahl sells his 11 by 14 inch acrylic paintings for $25 and is also taking custom orders. For more information visit Ty Dahl Abstracts on Facebook.