I was raised in a very controlled environment and so I think that is why art and music appealed to me as vocations. It seemed, at the time, like an escape and a road of freedom, creativity and self-expression. I am from Vancouver.
I took graphic design in college and so elements of that influence choices I make about how to deliver my art.
My visual art comes out in paintings and drawings of various kinds and styles, from Chinese ink, drawings in graphite (pencil,) ink, pastel, oil and watercolour paintings. They contain realistic, symbolist and abstract expressions. I have been gradually getting deeper into constructing pictures since 1978.
When an idea particularly exhausts or haunts me I usually make a painting or poem. Things happening in the social sphere, or a philosophical idea or concept we’ve been indoctrinated with, present concepts for my work.
Lately some abstract paintings have come out with colours and simple strokes of the brush, that when combined, add up to quite an explosive picture.
With the Small Arts Grant I am having one of my acrylic abstracts printed on a slightly large canvas than the original. It is being framed at a local shop. The intention is to create something saleable and present it in a way that would appeal to a collector or homeowner.
I’ve had an independent show in a house and participated in the Eastside Crawl a few times. I had a show at Carnegie Centre and a few other small places in the Downtown Eastside. Also in the Fraser Valley some decades ago. I gave some watercolour and general art classes at the UBC Learning Exchange a few years ago.