Current student at Place des Arts (2025/2026 season)

Biography

I have been involved in painting, drawing and photography for more than fifty years and over that time my style has evolved. One of my main influences is the natural world, such as the quality of light in different spaces, and the lines and textures created.

I find that each of my creative outlets, such as crafts, photography, writing and painting, helps to inform the others. I often use my photos as subjects for my paintings. And the close observation I employ with photography and painting come into play when I write.

My formal education includes a Design Arts Diploma from Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton (1976-78) and a Bachelor of Interior Design from the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg (1972-78). I have also taken various workshops, including ones at the Port Moody Arts Centre, the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and Place des Arts.

When I am engaged in a creative act, I become very engrossed in the process, more than the final outcome. I find that I need to step away from it for a time before I can truly assess it. When I am creating, I am deeply involved with both myself and what surrounds me. I am assessing my internal thoughts and feelings, along with the subject that I am rendering. Thus, for me, creating allows me to better know myself as well as the external world.

Artist Statement

Both of these images are of my father’s farm, which, unfortunately, he had to sell last year. I wanted to create a memento of the farm for my family members and produced twelve drawings to have printed into calendars.

The Millennium Bug was originally a Honda Accord, which was damaged in an accident. It was still functional, so Dad decided to remodel it into a convertible for the grandchildren to drive around the farm. After removing the roof, he stabilized it with lengths of pipe welded to and projecting out from the sides. Next, he added sheet metal recycled from old appliances, found at the dump. The shelves from a fridge were attached to the front. Finally, he added the seats from a pair of office chairs as extra seats mounted on the back and inserted the stands from the chairs into the pipes on the front of the car. Dad named it “The Millennium Bug.”

The Old Threshing Machine was sitting out at the farm when my parents purchased the place in the late 1970’s. It was no longer functional, of course, but had once been used to separate the grain from the shafts and husks. My father told me this machine dates to the 1920’s. The lettering on the side of it says it was manufactured by McCormack-Deering. Along with an old log cabin that has been slowly deteriorating over the years, it is an intriguing part of the history of the farm.

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