CTV Barrie graphic designer’s healing journey catches the attention of The Tragically Hip

CTV graphic artist Steve Wishart treated a rare and incurable eye disorder by creating artwork that caught the attention of one of Canada's most iconic bands.

A Barrie, Ont. graphic designer, who spends his days at the television station on the hill, has found himself at the centre of an unexpected story that caught the attention of one of Canada’s most iconic rock bands.

Steve Wishart, a longtime graphic artist with CTV News Barrie, was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder that can cause muscle weakness and double vision. The diagnosis, he says, upended his daily life and made it difficult to do the work he loves.

“I was diagnosed with a rare disease called Myasthenia Gravis and basically what would happen is I would see double,” he said.

While the diagnosis was a crushing blow for Wishart, who spends his time creating, he made the decision he wasn’t going to let it define him and took matters into his own hands.

“And for my own therapy, what I tried doing, was going back to drawing,” he said.

What started as a personal coping strategy soon grew into something much bigger. Wishart created a typographic illustration of a polar bear inspired by The Tragically Hip’s song “Gus: The Polar Bear from Central Park.”

The entire drawing is made up of the word “Gus,” written thousands of times. Under normal circumstances, he says the project might have taken around 20 hours. This time, it took him about 40.

But despite his diagnosis, Wishart remained determined to finish what he had set out to do.

“I did it basically by putting a patch on one eye and drawing, then putting a patch on the other eye and then drawing, and exercising my eyes to move as I drew,” he explained.

When the piece was completed, he reached out to The Tragically Hip to see if the band might be interested.

“It took a couple of tries and they eventually got back to me,” he said, noting the response was more than he expected. “They wanted to make a lithograph of it and do a limited run of 150 prints and have me sign it, and then they wanted to do a T-shirt run,” he shared.

“Being able to know that they’ve seen the art and they actually approved it and they liked it — and liked it enough to use it — was enough to raise my spirits quite a bit.”

The band decided to showcase Wishart’s illustration during a polar bear awareness campaign, and the artwork now appears on the official website as a limited-edition print.

In a statement on The Hip’s website, Wishart described the piece as deeply personal, reflecting how his own condition left him feeling confined, not unlike the polar bear at the centre of the Hip’s song.

And then more good news followed.

Wishart said his medication has been working, his vision has returned, and he’s now back in the CTV News Barrie control room full-time. While the condition isn’t curable, he says he’s grateful for the progress he’s made.

“It took time and art to kind of make me aware that there’s more life to keep going and keep pushing,” he said.

With files from CTV’s Mike Lang