For some a picture can be worth a thousand words. For Don Mabie, the thousand words makes the picture.

Sometimes known by his moniker Chuck Stake, Mabie is an artist who has refined his art of using words and word-styles to draw viewers to his works. His use of typography in his work spans back forty years.

“The very first time I started using words I’d heard the Beatles lyrics ‘we live a life of ease’, and I really liked the shapes of the words live and life, so I did a whole series of drawings [on the words],” says Mabie. That was back in the '60s and he has yet to give up what some may refer to as a '60s letter form — big block, smooth letters. From starting with those two simple words, Mabie has created drawings which include whole paragraphs and short phrases.

He says another profound influence was listening to Bob Dylan while attending art college. “Initially he was the protest singer. I thought in my naivety, that if I used words in my work that I could get across a message to the viewer,” says Mabie.

His experience has varied over the years. He’s been involved in correspondence mail art for over 30 years, sending and receiving pieces of art and connecting with people he’s never met before. He’d taught at the Alberta College of Art & Design for 15 years and he’s shown his work in galleries across the world. He was also present during events which reincarnated the now-popular Artist Trading Card movement.

Mabie had been in Kassel, Germany, with his performance art group named The Nomads. Members were from across the globe and Vanci Stirnemann, the one credited with bringing back the trading cards, was part of The Nomads. “I would be sorting through my hockey cards [during long meetings],” says Mabie. “They really don’t have a card culture in Europe. [Vanci’s] a real hockey fan too. He got fascinated by the cards and started buying them ... he really liked the format and then decided to make his own cards.”

This was followed by a gallery showing of the cards. Stirnemann told his artist friends, Mabie included, to have their own trading cards ready by the end of his exhibit. The meeting spawned a movement.

Mabie has shown his work in Australia, all over Europe and in many galleries in Canada. He lived in Toronto for a time as well.

He says while in school and shortly thereafter, he was very involved in galleries. Mabie also attended a graduate college in Mexico where he showed some of his work. “I was quite obsessed with showing all the time,” he says. “Now, not so much.”

There was a recent exhibition of many of his artist trading cards at a gallery in Kassel, Germany. It was the third instalment of a series called Poetic Position, focusing on art which uses words to get its point across. In the last gallery, Yoko Ono had an exhibit.

For Mabie, drawing is much like any other part of life. If he doesn’t bend to his own artistic whim to create, he’ll get antsy. “I like the act of drawing, just sitting down with a piece of paper and making marks and creating something,” he says. “It’s never-ending. No matter how much you think you know, no matter how much you’ve seen, no matter how much you’ve made. Artists never retire, they die.”

He can remember elementary school teachers telling him to focus more on his work instead of drawing. Whenever he let his creative juices surface his marks ultimately suffered. For Mabie, drawing has always been enjoyable. “The word ‘art’, if you trace it back to what it actually means, is ‘to make’,” he says. “The act of making, it’s the most fun you can have legally.”

Mabie and his spouse Wendy Toogood are currently working on opening a gallery on their own property. They’ve built a studio and hope to set up, on an informal basis, a weekend gallery which will open in the summer. Mabie says they would like to call it the ‘Museum of Ephemera’ because of his endless collection of art. One of the first showings, he says, will be of art sent to him via correspondence. The friend who sent the work is now deceased, and Mabie would like to pay tribute to him. “I’m going to put up all the post cards I’ve received from him. Probably about 500-1,000,” he says.

To get involved in the Nakusp artist trading card movement, join Mabie on the last Sunday of every month at the Broadway Deli. He says a small group, with some members coming and going, has been meeting for the last five years to trade cards.