I first heard of John F. Gerrard when I was a teenager, attending all-ages hardcore shows at the Carpenters Union Hall as he fronted the band Nikola Tesla. By the age of 15, he was touring internationally, opening for his favorite and one of the biggest hardcore acts at the time- Misery Signals, designing show posters and running the Calgary hardcore online community website roadbike.com which kept everyone up-to-date with which shows to check out every weekend (an era before social media). John F. Gerrard is a Calgary legend to say the least and as he grew older he expanded his creativity into the visual realm. Our creative paths paralleled as we both attended AUArts in the late-2000s and while we were in different departments - I was fascinated about the body of work he was building since his thoughtful and reflective nature is visually present in whatever medium he explored including charcoal drawing and painting. 

It was during these years of study at AUArts that John F. Gerrard went through his first serious psychosis, eventually leaving art school altogether for his mental health. As John learned how to live with psychosis, he continued to produce work- both visual exhibitions and bodies of artwork but also released a solo music project in 2016 as Francis Cheer. And while Francis Cheer’s musical genre and melodic sound is starkly different from the hardcore screams of Nikola Tesla, his talent for poetic lyricism carries throughout his music. 

In more recent years, his own experiences and empathy for others has led to a career as a certified mental health peer support worker and he weaves his creative practice into the exploration of mental health issues and self-care. When the pandemic hit, John began to reflect on his own creative journey living with psychosis and what began as a linear piece expanded into a curated book of chaptered writings, published in 2022 titled ‘We Make Clocks, Not Time’. The book journeys through philosophical questions, personal experiences, offerings of self-help and creative reflections in a beautifully-designed piece of literature. 

With close to two decades of creative projects and community work to his name, crossing disciplines and fearlessly exploring new territories, John F. Gerrard is truly one of Calgary’s creative homegrown treasures. 

You can find his book We Make Clocks, Not Time at Shelf Life Books