Local Artist Creates Unique Work of Art for Toledo Walleye Hockey Club
3/18/2009 - John Pepe is part of an elite club of talented artists. He is a goalie mask painter. He was kind enough to paint a promotional goalie mask for the Toledo Walleye Hockey Club and also kind enough to answer a few questions about his unique hobby.
Toledo Walleye: How did you get started painting hockey masks?
John Pepe: I was working for a large sports equipment manufacturer in Canada when I found out they were looking for someone to paint their pro goalie masks. I had a fine arts background so I jumped at the opportunity, although I had no idea what I was doing.
I was lucky enough to meet and strike up a friendship with Frank Cipra, designer and painter of some of the best known pro goalie mask art in the world, who taught me many tricks of the trade.
After a while, I left the company to paint masks full time. I continued for the next 12 years or so, painting hundreds of masks during that time for pros, juniors, Olympians, MTV and others.
TW: For those that do not know, who is Frank Cipra?
JP: Frank has painted masks for Curtis Joseph, Ron Hextall, Robert Esche, Grant Fuhr, Jeff Hackett, Rick DiPietro, Andrew Raycroft, there's far too many to mention. If you have watched a professional hockey game in the past anytime in the past 15 years or so, I guarantee you've seen his work.
TW: Did you ever play hockey?
JP: I was working in Montreal when I started out. I knew I would never be a hockey player so painting masks was my way of making a living in hockey.
TW: What brought you to the Toledo area?
JP: My wife is from Toledo and so when we had a chance, we moved back to the area. I wanted to do something for the local team but unfortunately, it was just around that time that the Storm was in their last season.
Since that time, I have scaled back to painting to more of a hobby so that I have more time to spend with my 18 month old son. I still wanted to do something for the local team so I decided to get in touch with the Walleye through their website. Nick Vitucci contacted me soon after and we exchanged a few emails. I was given the freedom to do whatever I wanted with the paint and came up with a simple design incorporating the team colors, the logo and the Walleye script.
TW: Is this a job for you or more of a hobby?
JP: Right now, I have two very young kids so I have all but completely stopped painting for a living. I'm more interested in finding some computer design/ graphic design jobs so that I may work from home until the kids get a bit older.
Painting masks is very time consuming. It can take two weeks or more to paint a mask depending on the design. In my experience, I'd say that the average paint job takes about a week and a half.
TW: How many hockey mask painters are there?
JP: When I started out, there were maybe five or six artists who worked full-time custom painting goalie masks exclusively. These days, there seems to be more every year but the most successful ones are still pretty much the same ones that were around ten or twelve years ago. It's a tough line of work to get into.
TW: What goalies have worn your masks?
JP: I have painted masks for pros in the NHL, ECHL, AHL, IHL, CHL as well as several Elite leagues in Europe. Past clients include Craig Anderson, Sean Burke, Scott Clemmensen, Tom Askey, J.S. Aubin, Sebastien Caron, Curtis Sanford, Chris Mason, Petr Skudra and many others.
