Collection: Ovila Mailhot

Ovila is a Coast Salish graphic artist and designer, originally from British Columbia. From the day he became a graphic designer and artist 6 years ago, Ovila has been extremely successful while getting his creative hands into multiple channels and roads.

Ovila gets his creativity from an art filled bloodline from his family. While his father was a painter, his mother was a writer. Ovila’s sister is a New York Times best seller writer.

Ovila started off his career as an industrial painter for about eight years, but after being laid off as a part of a company closure, he knew he had a lot of creative energy to vent. So, he started experimenting with art, from culinary, to guitar and then back to a sketchpad and a pencil. It was comic books that really inspired Ovila to draw and appreciate art. That’s when Ovila started combining his art from movies and comics with his Northwest origin style and learning more and more about Coast Salish art and history. With his designs first picked up for apparel design, Ovila now shares his designs across multiple companies, including book covers, but most importantly on his own website merchandise.

Ovila focuses on the Triagon, Crescent and circle symbols, while keeping his designs as a combination between both contemporary and traditional. These symbols are important to Ovila as the circle represents the circle of life, the crescent resembling the phases of the moon which represent the phases of life. And finally the Triagon, which has 3 points and a central point representing number 4. Number four ties into many elements in the Indigenous culture. Prayers happen in 4 directions, 4 stages of life, infancy, adolescence, adulthood and being an elder. 

You can also see traditional plant medicines in Ovila’s designs including, sage, sweet grass, tobacco, and cedar. 

Support your local artists by following their social media pages: