We are Gert and Gary Garbe. I have been nicknamed Gert since a bully in grade school found out that ‘Gertrude‘ is my middle name; named after my Maternal Gramma. It was bittersweet because although it was to be an act of shame, I was proud of my new nickname! My real name is Kendra, which I never liked, especially because my Mom called me Ken and I really disliked that. Plus I‘ve always loved my husband‘s name and Gert rolled together nicely with it …. So Gert ‘n Gary Garbe we became. So that‘s the names … now the ART.
Gary has been a journeyman carpenter, civil engineer technologist, and building inspector for many (many) years. He‘s been involved in building his whole life. On the other hand, I have only recently discovered my artistic side. Five years ago, I began painting rocks at the lake for something to do while I sat in the sun on hot afternoons or beautiful evenings. One day someone asked if they could buy one. It was a Blue Jays emblem. This was particularly exciting for Gary as he was starting to wonder what was becoming of our deck both at the lake and at our home as they were slowly being covered with painted rocks. I launched Gert Rocks on Facebook and sold many rocks over the next year. One day someone asked me to paint their pitbull on a rock. They had a photo of the dog. My response was, ‘‘Not bloody likely!!‘‘ I had never painted anything in my life other than clipart type pictures on rocks. But I took the picture and without the pressure of the client thinking I was going to do it, I just thought I‘d see what I could do. WELL! I shocked myself! I had never taken an art class in my life, nor had I shown any potential in drawing stick men, happy faces, anything that required me to conjure up something in my head. BUT, give me something to work from, and VOILA!!! Now we‘re getting somewhere! So off the rocks and onto the Pet Paintings, still using the Facebook page ‘‘Gert Rocks‘‘. To add a little extra to these paintings, Gary started building me barn board canvasses to paint on. The Pet Paintings took off and for the past 3 years I‘ve been primarily doing these. In 2021 I won the James Weir People’s Choice Award for one of these pet paintings. Over the past year or so we‘ve branched off into many different things but the one we‘ve really embraced is the RESIN ART! Together, Gary and I have completed amazing wall art. But we‘ve also refinished coffee tables, dining room tables, and countertops! We are just in the process of moving from SK to Alberta so we will primarily be serving the Calgary and surrounding areas.