Yellowknife father of 5 wins big with painting featured on Northwestel Directory Cover

February 25, 2019
Yellowknife, NWT - A local father of 5 used his love of art and limited spare time to turn in a winning piece for this year’s Northwestel Directory Cover Art competition. Darrell Chocolate’s painting, Serene Fall Season, was officially unveiled this evening as the cover image of Northwestel’s 2019/20 phone directory for the Northwest Territories (NT).

For more than 30 years, Northwestel has invited northern artists to submit their work for a chance to appear on the covers of its regional phone directories. Winners are selected by Northwestel, in consultation with the local arts community, and each winning entry is awarded $3,000.

Chocolate, a Tlicho man originally from Gameti, now lives in Yellowknife and works at Ekati Diamond Mine. For Serene Fall Season, he used acrylic paint to recreate a view of Jolliffe Island in Great Slave Lake near Yellowknife.

“I just happened to be walking by the island and took a bunch of photos that morning,” says Chocolate. “I liked the scenery, the clear skies, the fall colours. Even the wind and the waves it made on the lake. It was beautiful.”

Chocolate enjoys taking photographs of local landscapes and turns his favourites into paintings when time permits – something he says is in short supply, with a full-time job and a big family.

“You have to balance time between family and work and art,” Chocolate explains. “I was pretty excited when I found out that I won. Eventually, I would love to be a full-time artist. I have thought about putting my work online and building a website. Maybe one day. For now, I need to provide for my family.”

Northwestel’s President, Curtis Shaw, says the company is proud to support the Northern arts community by promoting northern artists and their artwork.

“Darrell’s story is no doubt a familiar one for many northern artists,” says Shaw. “The North is filled with talented people who are creating art in their spare time while working to pay the bills. Northwestel is proud to support artists like Darrell, in the hope that they can further their art careers and keep creating beautiful artwork like this.”

Swap your directory and support local schools

The new 2019/20 directories will be available at directory pick-up locations throughout NT in the coming weeks. From March 4 – April 26, 2019, outdated phone directories can be recycled to support local students through Northwestel’s Directory Recycling Program.

Each year, northern students can collect outdated telephone directories for recycling to earn cash rewards from Northwestel to help fund school activities. Details about the program, including a list of participating schools, are available at nwtel.ca/directory-recycling.

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Contact:
Matt Wallace
Manager, External Communications
(867) 455-4209
media@nwtel.ca