About the Artist​
Biography
It’s a sentence that you would never expect to hear; “I’m a local illustrator and I’m visually impaired.” But this is often how I introduce myself when I exhibit my artworks with CNIB (the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.) On other occasions however, when I’m talking to the general public, I wait until later on in the conversation. This allows me to make a great first impression before the eyes of the person that I am talking to become too focused on mine. I’ve had more than enough encounters with people who see my white identification cane and start talking to me like I’m deaf or unintelligent. On the contrary, people who are visually impaired are capable of much more then the average person expects. My artworks are just one example of this.
By this point you probably have a few questions, so I’ll try to answer some of them for you. If you were to look through my eyes you would notice the colour, shading, and forms of the things around you a lot more than you normally would. You wouldn’t notice fine details like the words on your screen, the funny slogan on that guy's t-shirt, or whether that traffic light is actually red or a death trap in disguise. Because of this, my work focuses strongly on the colour, shading and forms that I mentioned earlier. I also like to use a lot of details in my illustrations, not because I can see them very easily in real life, but most likely because I don’t, and that makes things interesting for everyone.
I would like to say that my artwork is strongly influenced by the wild landscape of Northern Ontario where I grew up, but that wouldn’t be true. I’ve never once drawn a piece of bacon or a jar of maple syrup. However, I do tend to pull in some elements from the landscapes that I’ve visited, but it’s just as interesting to illustrate exotic animals and plants or cartoons of whatever I deem funny.
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When I’m not creating art I like to spend my time with my friends and family. This includes my cocker spaniel Buddy, who is basically a three year old with fur and an addiction to tim-bits. I also obsess over cartoons and still love every moment of The Lion King. I also love reading, writing and taking care of way too many houseplants and propagating them. Then I give the new ones to my friends so that they also have way too many...
Artist's Statement
As one can imagine, I have come across many challenges as a visually impaired artist. However, the most difficult challenge I face has nothing to do with being visually impaired at all. The most difficult challenge for me is to determine who I am. For an artist this is defined by our job; the one we assign to ourselves when we step into this field.
I believe that my job as an artist is to observe the world around me and to draw the things that stand out, the things that I find beautiful, or the things that make the world a little more interesting. If I have done my job correctly, you will understand the way that I see an object, but more importantly, the way that I feel about it. As such, the subject that I choose to draw helps me to decide the way in which I will draw it. Bold colours are for bold ideas, and fine details are for delicate things.
As artists, we have the power to change our viewer’s perception of the world. Using my illustrations I can highlight humorous things or show you how beautiful something can be. But if I were the type, I could also also use this power to show you a more negative outlook on life. Fortunately, I am a firm believer of the phrase “perception is reality” and I would prefer to bring a pleasant reality into existence.