ARTIST FEATURE KEALY DONALDSON
Phil Vaillancourt
All My Relations
With paternal relations to the Mik’maq Nation and hailing from Maniwaki, Quebec, Phil Vaillancourt started creating images at four years old; he loved to draw and it showed. As his passion grew for Art, he struggled in structured classes and decided to focus on it through his own eyes, on his own time.
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As a Tattoo Artist, Vaillancourt embraced and studied Polynesian styles and art forms. Art and culture from Hawaii to New Zealand heavily influenced his own personal style and are great examples of Polynesian styles. 2015 emerged and Vaillancourt decided to spend a month in Hawaii to truly study and understand their culture and tattooing. At this time, he was selling his drawings for tattoos and decided to learn how and entered into an apprenticeship in 2016. He poured years of drawing and studying Polynesian styles and finally got a green light from Polynesian tattoo experts. As fate would have it, his first tattoo client
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