Stu Cowan: Artist draws on history for Carey Price's futuristic mask

Aug 31, 2023

Canadiens goalie portrayed as "half-human, half-machine goalie beast" on new headgear designed by Calgary airbrush artist Jordon Bourgeault.

It has been very strange watching the Canadiens’ Carey Price with a plain white mask during training camp, which makes him look like a beer-league goalie.

But don’t worry, Price has a new mask ready for the NHL season, which opens Wednesday when the Canadiens play the Maple Leafs in Toronto (7 p.m., SN, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio), and it’s very, very cool.

The new mask was painted by Jordon Bourgeault, the owner, operator and artist at JBo Airbrush in Calgary. It’s definitely not your typical goalie mask.

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Bourgeault said the basic idea behind his artwork on the mask was a “Montreal Canadiens Goaltender Power System circuit board.”

“It’s sort of the history of all the past Montreal Canadiens goalies and all of their information being pumped directly into the brain of Carey Price, which is sort of this half-human, half-machine goalie beast,” Bourgeault said in a phone interview. “That’s the idea. He’s a machine/man made to block pucks and he’s got all that past information helping him.

“My favourite parts are those historical elements,” Bourgeault added. “The circuit board, which says Montreal Canadiens Goaltender Power System, has Patrick Roy, Jacques Plante, (Georges) Vézina, Ken Dryden, and some of the wiring for that goes directly into the brain of Carey Price and also runs up to the camera eye. The camera eye is an acronym for Habs — which is Habitants Archival Blocking System. So he’s getting information from the past pumped to him to help him be this ultimate goalie. And in that camera eye you see the reflection of Rocket Richard. I just thought it was a cool way to tie in the Montreal Canadiens, especially since I knew there might be some haters out there because it wasn’t a giant Montreal Canadiens logo on the mask.”

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A post shared by Jordon Bourgeault (@jboairbrush)

While Bourgeault has painted a lot of masks, he has only done one other for an NHL goalie. When the Calgary Flames called up Reto Berra from the AHL during the 2013-14 season, Bourgeault was asked to quickly design a new mask and stayed up all night doing it.

“It was fine, but it was pretty simple compared to this (Price mask), which I got to put all the time and my heart into,” he said.

Bourgeault logs how much time each piece of his artwork takes and said he spent 250 hours working on Price’s mask, including the design, drawings, computer work, prep work and the actual painting.

The airbrush artist has never met Price in person and was surprised — to say the least — when he first received a message from the goalie on Instagram.

“I was like, ‘wow! This is pretty bad ass,’ ” Bourgeault said. “He had seen another mask that I painted with a similar theme, a biomechanical skull goalie mask.

“I think he was trying to track it down and just wanted to buy it,” Bourgeault added with a chuckle. “But I figured I’d try to sell him on getting me to do one and I could personalize it more toward him and the team. I just knew it was going to be for a big stage and it’s for Carey Price, so I went all out.”

Price and Bourgeault kept in touch while the mask artwork was being developed and the artist said the goalie was “awesome” to deal with.

Bourgeault grew up in an artistic family and eventually landed a job in automotive painting, which led him into airbrushing. He started his JBo Airbrush business in 2010, specializing in helmets, masks and motorcycles, but he has also done sneakers and things as small as frames for glasses and as big as a three-storey mural.

“I’m kind of an everything guy,” he said. “Even now in my lineup I have a couple more goalie masks. I do quite a few skeleton helmets for the Olympics and motorcycle helmets and some shoes. It’s nice for me to have the variety. I haven’t really pigeonholed myself to one market and that’s allowed me to be pretty diverse as well. But I hope to see quite a few goalie masks coming my way after this.”

Having his latest artwork on the mask of one of the best goalies in the world should certainly help business.

“If there are other NHL goalies that are wanting something done by me, it’s probably going to be that they come to me because they want those really crazy designs,” Bourgeault said. “If you want logos and stripes, there’s lots of guys already doing that.”

The Canadiens are in the all-Canadian North Division this season and will play five games in Calgary against the Flames. Bourgeault is hoping that will give him a chance to meet Price in person.

“He said he wants to go for a beer with me, which is cool,” Bourgeault said. “Obviously, it will have to happen when that becomes a possibility again (because of COVID-19). But he’s been really cool, man. So I think we will do a meet-up and chill at some time, which would be pretty great.”

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