Putting together a fitting tribute to honour the legendary lead singer of an iconic Canadian rock band would be hard enough for most artists, but to do it using 11,400 Canadian pennies makes the work of Airdrie artist Luke Carruthers even more special.  

Carruthers, who's originally from Moncton, New Brunswick, but has lived in Airdrie for the past ten years, calculates that he spent three years creating a portrait of Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie on his final tour before the rock legend passed away from brain cancer on October 17th, 2017.  

The way the beautiful piece turned out might make you think Carruthers has lots of experience working with pennies.  He says, think again.  "Nothing like this.  Nothing this unique.  I used to paint murals for a living when I was in university and I used to do murals in record stores of different rock albums and things like that, but nothing in this medium and nothing that took the kind of time to do something like this."

Carruthers says he first came up with the idea for a "penny portrait" before finding out about Downie's illness.  "Like a lot of people, I've been a Hip fan for as long as I can remember.  I was working at my dad's record stores a long time ago when I first heard them and I was just blown away by the unique sound that they had."

He says he came up with the "materials" he would need when he bought some pennies from someone that was planning to take them to the bank from a donation box at work.  He was planning on doing a "penny floor" in his basement at the time.  He let that idea lay before coming across a portrait of Abraham Lincoln that had been done in pennies and thought that he could do the same.  A short time later, he heard the devastating news of Downie's terminal brain cancer and his plans for one last tour.

 "I thought, yeah, okay.  This is what I'm going to do," Carruthers says.  Carruthers began mapping out the project and drew a sketch of Downie from the last tour to work from.  One of the most head-scratching aspects of the portrait was getting the pennies to be the right colour to make it.

"Originally I was just going to use the natural colours of the pennies but I wasn't getting the contrast or the effect I wanted.  I did some research and I tried a bunch of things, I tried vinegar, and dish soap and chlorine, trying to change the colours of the pennies."

Finally, Carruthers came across a sulphur product used by jewellers that turned the pennies black when they were soaked in it.  "Then I found some unique designs that were sort of forming underneath the pennies where air bubbles were getting caught and I was able to use those to get a lot more detail in it to look more like Gord."

Carruthers says when he posted pictures of the finished project on Facebook and Instagram for his friends to see, things blew up beyond his wildest belief.  "People were sharing it all over the place and now, people from across the country, and, in some cases, around the world, are reaching out to me and the support has been unbelievable.  So many passionate fans are coming out and saying how much they love it and how much they miss the band and miss Gord.  It's just been really great."

Despite the work, effort and time he has invested in the project, Carruthers isn't looking to profit in any way but through his own satisfaction.  He wants to share his work with other Tragically Hip fans. 

"A few public spaces have contacted me that were interested in taking it.  I've had a guy offer me $113 for it, so that was kind of cool," Carruthers laughs.  "I think ideally the goal would be to get it in a gallery or public space where people that are fans can go see it and enjoy it in person.  A lot of these people who are emailing me and sending me texts and sending Instagram messages are saying, 'you know, I'd love to see this in person.'   To me, that would be the ultimate thing.  That fans could come together and check it out and have conversations about the band and the music."

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