Artist Statement

Drawings and woodcuts have always held a special interest for me. Both are very old visual forms, the cave drawings of Lascaux and the 14th century Chinese silk woodcuts for example, and both are very evocative - opening windows or doors to that place of dreams and visions. This sense of the past informs my work especially early folk woodcuts of the 15th century.

My woodcuts are folk like: the blue jay calls the storm to avenge its loss of home, the November tree contains both the sun and the moon and the life- death cycle, and a bowl and spoon anticipate bread baking.

My drawings are three self portraits of the artist holding a leaf, a flower and a birch tree limb. The leaf is life growing, the limb of birch life’s fruition, the flower life’s rebirth.

Artist Biography

Born in Toronto in 1959. My parents moved the family to Plater Rock, N.B. in 1972 where I finished high school. After high school I travelled around for a bit: Edmonton, Toronto, northern Manitoba, Halifax and Montreal where I lived on and off for ten years.

While in Halifax I attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design from 1986 to 1990 graduating with a BFA. During that time I took part in Performance Night doing spoken word poetry with experimental music. Once again I moved on: New Brunswick, Montreal, North Bay, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick., then back to Montreal where I lived until moving to New Brunswick in 2003.

While in Montreal I became a member of gallery articule, wrote and spoke poetry, and produced a cassette with a band called the tulips. However, the city became increasingly intense ( the noise and this human compaction) so much so that I finally made up my mind to move permanently to the “country”; I think my heart has been here.

Past exhibitions:

• 1989 - Anna Leonowens Gallery, Halifax, N.S., entitled: “Museum”
• 1993 - OO Gallery, Halifax, N.S., entitled: “White Bear and Other Stories”
•  1995 - group show in the condemned artist studio building at corner of Water and Hollis
• 2008 - Andrew and Laura McCain Art Gallery, Florenceville, N.B., entitled: “Print Show”

Published Works:

Tree Chapbooks of Poetry

Recordings:

“Children’s Stories”, Tulips