In 2004, I graduated from the three-year, full-time program in graphic design and illustration — the IDEA program — at (now) Capilano University in North Vancouver, British Columbia. This was a new beginning for me, a change in direction from my previous career in law publishing. Perhaps because of this ‘mid-life’ change in direction, often I am asked how long I have been or have wanted to be an artist. I have to answer, without wanting to overstate my case that art making in one form or another has been a consuming interest for as long as I can remember. I recall, for example, deciding to remain at school in the kindergarten only because usually, thankfully, we painted. The days we didn’t, I headed to the cloakroom, got dressed — boots, snowsuit, the whole shebang — and walked home alone. (How naively undutiful I was then.)
But now I am, more or less, getting back to those enjoyable moments in the kindergarten by myself, by the window, happily, undutifully art-making away. I paint — for juried shows and as commissioned. I am a graphic designer. I illustrate in a variety of media including digital. I make salt-dough ornaments — ‘Modern Masters’ Doedex — which are sold seasonally. This ‘craft’ undertaking led to my directorship on the board of the Craft Council of British Columbia.
…And I am still applying my experience with reading and writing about the law. Since 2003, I have co-written with Cedric Hughes, a personal injury lawyer with law offices throughout the BC lower mainland, a weekly column on motor vehicle law and road safety, Road Rules, published in many local community newspapers and online at www.roadrules.ca.
My website is my online portfolio showing the range of my art-making and writing activities. I hope you enjoy your visit and I welcome your feedback.