| ARTIST BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | Don Mabie, also known as Chuck Stake, has been performing, drawing, assembling, trading, and mailing art since the early 1970’s. Mabie’s illustrative mixed-media drawings combine hand-created text with fragments of images, collage, and abstract elements. His work is reminiscent of the psychedelic rock posters and underground cartoons of the late 1960’s.
Mabie adopted the name Chuck Stake in 1972 when he became involved with correspondence/mail art, and soon after founded his Chuck Stake Enterprizes in Toronto. He continues to use this name with correspondence/mail art, as well in the Artist Trading Card (ATC) scene. Mabie has been an active contributor and proponent of the ATC movement, which was first initiated as a project by Zurich artist M. Vänçi Stirnemann in 1996. Mabie attended the early ATC sessions in Zurich, and brought the idea back to Calgary in 1997. Monthly ATC meet-ups were held at The New Gallery, and continue to be held throughout Canada and around the world today.
Mabie graduated from the Alberta College of Art + Design in 1969, and did post-graduate work at the Instituto Allende, San Miguel de Allende in Mexico in 1970. After living in Toronto and travelling throughout Europe, Mabie came back to Calgary and began working and teaching at the University of Calgary, and then the Alberta College of Art +Design. He was co-founder of The Parachute Centre for Cultural Affairs in Calgary, spent a decade operating The New Gallery (then, Clouds ‘n’ Water/OFF CENTRE CENTRE) and continues to exhibit extensively. In 2001, Mabie received the ACAD Board of Governor’s Award of Excellence for his lifetime contribution to the arts.
In 2006, Mabie and his partner, artist Wendy Toogood, retired to Nakusp, British Columbia where they both continue to create and exhibit art.
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