Biography
My life began in the cursed town of Fernie, British Columbia, in the Rocky Mountains. My ancestors can be seen upon the Mountain face of Hosmer Mountain facing the town. The setting sun reveals the Ghost rider of Fernie, a deceived angry Chief and his betrayed daughter in pursuit of her vanished groom.
With an introduction like this, how could you not love a good story? Ever since then I have had a passion for myth, legend, and history that is manifest in my body of work.
My father read me “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” books by L. Frank Baum, illustrated by John Rea Neill who reigned as the Royal Illustrator of Oz for forty years. My love of books was sparked by the gorgeous illustrations created by artists of the Belle Époque. Books gave me glimpses into a World I never even knew existed outside of the Valley. Gazing for hours at the printed page of a musty old book, I realized that there was a romance to placing a line and that there was a secret to revealing the soul of the subject.
Because that there are so many ways to creating, I tried all sorts of methods, techniques and approaches on various types of media. Luckily my mother worked at the only arts supply store in town, where I spent a lot of time after school and was allowed to try out art supplies and help with the window displays.
It is difficult to remember a time when I didn’t have the pencil to the paper, creating stories and drawing characters that lived in my imagination. I even made books for my stories to live in with things I could find at the time.
To bring my drawings forward into a tangible form in storytelling, I also explored the world of puppetry & prosthetic animatronics, as there are so many ways to tell a story.