FiRST —

Thank you to my friends, my relations, my colleagues, my patrons.

BiO —

I was born under a lucky star, in the Bulkley Valley District Hospital and raised on Babine Lake at my Grandfather's hunting and fishing lodge. There I saw Salmon spawning, Black Bears and Grizzly Bears, Bull Moose, Garter Snakes and Porcupines, Birds, Beavers, Mountain Goats and Wolves, Bumble Bees, and Fire Weeds, Mountains, and Alpine Scrub, and Jackpines. I've fed pancakes to Whiskey Jacks and know how to quickskin a Grouse. Grouse taste delicious.

At fourteen I went to England - there I toured Hampton Court checked out St. Pauls Cathedral and Stonehenge, oogled art at the Tate and the National Gallery. I audited Life Drawing at the Sir John Cass School. Later, I attended university and got a degree - Bachelor of Fine Arts - which is a piece of paper with a big gold seal on it. I've worked as an Author/Illustrator, Animator, Computer Game Artist, Construction Labourer, Stone Cutter, and Sculptor. I got quite good at writing, drawing and sculpture, and so was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy - and awarded an even bigger piece of paper with a gigantic gold seal on it.

Regarding artwork: My subjects often include childhood themes of nature, combined with art history and theory, mythology, as well as verbal and visual puns. I work in a wide variety of materials. My brush drawings map the exploration of my whimsy and record the time in which they are made. My carvings are often thoughtful and all of my work is united in theme, by discipline, wit, and practice.

ETHiC —

It is my postulation that the institutionalization of Dada created a contemporary art culture which can only be viewed as anathematic. I believe that it is possible to be a contemporary renaissance artist without being a dilettante; that through rigorous discipline, it is possible, to be good at more than one thing. Drawing forms the root of my practice, I've drawn every day since I was five years old.

From this discipline I learned to first create effective three dimensional illusions, after which, I taught myself to sculpt. Learning to work in fine materials, and creating objets d'art and other works of sculpture, I consider these works to be a form of dimensional illustration. The act of making complex carvings in hard stone takes some considerable time, giving rise to contemplation, and story making. This in turn lead to the writing and publication of illustrated books, an activity which requires the skills I'd accquired through the practice of drawing. In my case, both the act of publication and the act of stone carving, come from the same root, drawing. Further, publishing and carving stone are each attempts, to present, that which I have learned from drawing, to the material record.