{"id":279917,"date":"2026-02-04T08:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/279917\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T08:17:17","slug":"revelstoke-painter-puts-emotions-of-ski-injury-to-canvas-in-debut-exhibit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/279917\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelstoke painter puts emotions of ski injury to canvas in debut exhibit"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jacques Moeder fractured his pelvis skiing through the trees below Revelstoke Mountain Resort\u2019s Ripper Chair on March 11, 2024, his pain, fear and disappointment were excruciating.<\/p>\n

Two years later, these moments have become part of a 12-piece gallery at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre (RVAC) this winter. The 38-year-old local painter from Strasbourg, France, has used acrylic, chalk, bark and even his own ski jacket to make sense of his emotional journey recovering from his injury.<\/p>\n

After being sighted by other skiers 100 metres from the chairlift on Mount Mackenzie, and extracted by ski patrol, Moeder found himself bedridden at the Queen Victoria Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I would not be home that evening,\u201d he recounted. \u201cThe doctors told me it would be 12 weeks \u2014 so a good time for painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ: Revelstoke\u2019s 24-7 makerspace returns with new home<\/a><\/p>\n

Moeder, whose artist name is Jah-ck\u00f4, and who since eight or nine years old has had a knack for caricature, comics and portraiture, had never publicly displayed his work. But he asked friends to bring his art supplies to the hospital bed so he could put his flurry of emotions to paper, drawing on his artistic inspirations from cartoonist Manu Larcenet, filmmaker Michel Gondry, sculptor Jean Tinguely, Studio Ghibli animator Hayao Miyazaki, and more.<\/p>\n

By the time he walked out later that year, he was ready to paint a full series depicting his crash, emotional rollercoaster and recovery. And having kept his artistry out of the public eye for decades, Jah-ck\u00f4 decided that \u201cafter this time, I should not (just) keep it in my sketchbook.\u201d When he contacted RVAC about housing his series, the answer was a resounding yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was such a big step for me,\u201d he said, describing it as an \u201cinteresting feeling to see my art hanging, with proper light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until January, after spending months painting and crafting, Jah-ck\u00f4 hadn\u2019t even had enough space in his home to put up all 12 instalments on his walls.<\/p>\n

Now, his Story of a Crash collection on display in the Sophie Atkinson Gallery since Jan. 8 has taken viewers on a chronological journey from the moments Jah-ck\u00f4 was getting dressed to ski that fateful winter day, to his safe arrival and peace of mind at the hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually invite the person (watching) to come and help me,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

Along with fixed paintings and the original jacket, helmet and goggles he wore during the crash, two interactive canvases allow visitors to rewind his tree collision and the moment of relief as help arrived. Jah-ck\u00f4 said these components that people can touch and \u201cbreak the fourth wall\u201d with have brought a lot of positive feedback from gallerygoers.<\/p>\n

For Story of a Crash as a whole, \u201cI think it\u2019s about the five steps of grief,\u201d he summed up, referring to the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. That said, there were other emotions he experienced, too.<\/p>\n

Feeling blessed for three other skiers to have come to his aid, at a time when Jah-ck\u00f4 feared he\u2019d die alone in the snow, he commemorated them by painting the hands and wings of a guardian angel bringing their group to the rescue. Jah-ck\u00f4 remains grateful to them, as well as to the resort\u2019s ski patrol.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe luck I got was being so close to the chairlift,\u201d he reflected, describing being \u201creally happy to get off the mountain.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ: Revelstoke museum seeks help identifying Japanese-Canadians in new exhibit<\/a><\/p>\n

In an athletic town where numerous locals have lived through ski, snowboard and mountain bike crashes, Jah-ck\u00f4 hopes others can find solace in his exhibit, and use it to make sense of their own emotions, from injury to recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really feel that all of this helped me to recover,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I recovered really well because I accepted my trauma and did something with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jah-ck\u00f4\u2019s exhibit will remain on display at RVAC until Sunday, Feb. 8.<\/p>\n

Though these pieces aren\u2019t for sale \u2014 \u201cif someone wanted to buy one, it would be like ripping a page out of a book\u201d \u2013 he\u2019s eager to find more opportunities to showcase them, including in other B.C. mountain towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverywhere where there\u2019s a ski resort, this could be an exhibit,\u201d reasoned Jah-ck\u00f4, who\u2019s continued skiing himself the last two winters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jacques Moeder fractured his pelvis skiing through the trees below Revelstoke Mountain Resort\u2019s Ripper Chair on March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[135470,1484,307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60,135471],"class_list":["post-279917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-art-exhibit","tag-artist","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-skiing-and-snowboarding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}