“I don’t need any new trees to be cut down to do my work. There is enough material already on the planet,” he says.

And Gary is doing his bit for Greenpeace. An acclaimed illustrator whose work has been published in Rolling Stone and Esquire magazines and shown at the Whitney Museum in New York, Gary has produced a limited edition print in support of Greenpeace’s campaign to save the great Boreal Forest. He is generously donating the proceeds from the sale of the 95 prints in English and the 20 in French to Greenpeace. Sales are expected to soar this July when the print in published in the prestigious publication, Communications Arts Illustration Annual. Taxali's Boreal art was one of just 200 illustrations selected out of over 5,000 submissions.

Gary thinks Greenpeace is “a good thing. “The awareness the organization raises and the issues it brings to public light is very necessary,” he says. And while he wouldn’t call himself an environmentalist, he is concerned about the environment.  The idea that ancient forest is being cut down to make toilet paper makes him feel “horrible and embarrassed”. It also makes him want to do something to save the forest.  So he did what he does. He made a print with a point.

Written in typography influenced by 1930’s graphic design and advertising, “Save the Boreal” is slashed across the top of the silkscreen in bright red and with a flourish similar to the logos of baseball teams. It is an important message for us all, he says. “No sane person wouldn’t see saving the Boreal as important. It’s a no brainer.”

Typical of Gary’s style, the hand pulled print reflects a more innocent era in the past. Pop icons and cartoon characters fill the frame, and the scratches, scribbles and doodles are all part of the design. A personified evergreen with a grim expression is depicted falling. Cut down like the trees logged in the forest, the character casts an ominous shadow, which highlights the tension.

Gary likes the esthetics of earlier times when advertising was “very hopeful.” He compares the quirky characters that used to represent oil companies with the slick commercial seen on television today.

“Now they are just dishonest with their images of exotic fish and clean water trying to appear green, which is just lying to the public. There used to be a sense of hope even on the part of corporations. They were not as calculated as they are now,” he says.

In the 60's, the aim was to get someone to the moon and there was a sense of intrigue and mystery back then, he says. “Now kids are cynical about space travel and wonder if the money couldn’t be better used on Earth. Instead of putting a man on the moon, the aim is to put a man in an apartment.”

The Boreal print also includes hand written notes: NOW penned in pencil and circled for emphasis as a call to action; the word peace running over the edge - a subconscious scribble as someone would doodle while talking on the phone.

Bits of wallpaper add to the texture of the print and give the viewer a sense of the familiar. Gary likes to work in layers to give a sense of depth and texture. All adds up to an appealing print that in style takes us back in time, but in context warns us of a dangerous future once the forest is gone.