I currently live and work in Toronto, Canada where I was born and spent the first thirty years of my life. I’ve also lived in Victoria, B.C. (19 years) and Montreal, Quebec (7 years).
I’m a self-taught artist who always hated school but managed to graduate with adequate grades from high-school in Toronto, which was the extent of my formal education.
I began painting full time in 1983 after quitting my one and only ‘normal’ job (at a bookstore) to become an artist. I’ve never taken classes, or had a mentor, but have slowly found a way forward in my career. I’ve been lucky, over the years, to show at several excellent galleries in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and New York City.
I also enjoy writing, and have written extensively about my art-world experiences as seen in my ‘Essays’ section of the website.
In 2006, I met my partner, Hayley Gibson, in Victoria, where we lived in separate units of the same downtown building, each recovering from various of life’s calamities.
Before long, we formed a family with my Cairn Terrier, Dora and Hayley’s big black cat, Tony, and also began a business, ‘Birds of North America’, a women’s clothing line based on Hayley’s skills as a seamstress/tailor.
We opened a store in Toronto in 2018 which subsequently succumbed to a change in consumer habits in the post-covid world in 2024.
‘Birds’, however, continues to thrive and dominates the studio in Toronto that Hayley and I share. It’s a rare privilege to work in such an interesting, supportive, creative environment.
Hayley and I were married in 2023.