Jon Claytor is a Sackville-based artist, painter, and writer. He co-founded SappyFest independent music and arts festival in 2006 and opened Thunder & Lightning Ideas Ltd. in Sackville, New Brunswick in 2013. He was born in San Francisco and has lived and worked in Moncton, Sackville, Halifax, Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. 
Jon Claytor’s work ranges from oil painting and watercolour to filmmaking, graphic novels and comics journalism. He was nominated for a Juno Award for the cover of Gord Downie's “Battle Of The Nudes.’
Recently, Jon has found graphic storytelling to be his passion and true calling. His memoir, Take The Long Way Home was published by Conundrum Press in 2022 and has written many illustrated interviews for the CBC. He has recently finished a fictional graphic novel about growing up among monsters in a small maritime town called Nowhere. Currently he is working on a book about the toxic drug supply affecting rural New Brunswick with harm reductionist Ashley Legere. 
Jon holds an MFA from York University (2012), attended Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University (1991), and holds a BFA Mount Allison University (1998).  

Photo credit: Carolina Andrade

Synopsis

Take The Long Way Home

A classic road trip memoir about love, family, and surprisingly conversational wildlife.