How I became an Artist.
Just out of Uni, In 1985, unable to afford a midwife for a home birth, I made an agreement to build cabinets and bookshelves at the St. Jacobs Birthing Home in exchange for a home birth.
Encountering my cabinets, people engaged me to build their kitchens, cabinets, an a favourite, ,….their cribs. And so began my new career as a cabinetmaker.
I grew obsessive about cabinetmaking and many subsequent pieces of furniture were made; countless hours selecting wood, hand planing and assembling pieces with Asian joinery etc.
In a neighbouring shop, another artist had a successful ceramics business but difficulty staffing.
Since, as a young father in my (noisy)woodshop, I often had my baby strapped to my back, the lure of the quiet rhythms of a ceramic career was very enticing. Inspired, I moonlighted for a while as a ceramist subcontracting vessels.
I proved very adept at the pottery wheel and somewhere in there, I left the woodworking part of my life behind.
After a few years as a functional potter, I discovered sculpture. I spent the next 20+ years specializing in ceramics and mixed media as a sculptor, exhibiting throughout Canada and the USA and supplying galleries.
Around 2012, I began to explore painting. In sculptural work, one uses light, shadow and form as a means of expression, whereas a painter uses colour and the slight textures of the knife ands brush. Learning these changes has been exciting and challenging.
Luckily, as I explored, and my worked transitiioned, I continued to be supported by the galleries that had represented my sculptural work. Today, through galleries, clients and exhibitions, I make my living as a painter and intend to exhibit and sell my work for a little while yet.