Where ART Lives Magazine Volume 1 Number 6 | Page 48

Out
Side
The
House
I grew up in Rockport, Ontario, and I was the 15th child in a family of 18 children. It was a case of
“yours, mine and ours” and “cheaper by the dozen”, just like the old movies by those titles. Both
of my parents had seven children each when their first spouse passed away. That gave them a total
of fourteen children when they married, although not all of them were still living at home by then.
I came along a year later, followed by 3 more siblings, for a total of eighteen hungry mouths to
feed. I have always been proud of the facts that even though my dad earned a very modest wage,
we were all well cared for and had a wonderful and eventful childhood. My mother never worked
outside of the home until my youngest sister was well along in school.
I attended a 2-room country schoolhouse in Rockport, Ontario, and my first teacher, Audrey Newell, encouraged me to draw and paint. In the middle of the eighth grade, the schools were centralized into one at Escott, Ontario. I entered the competition to create a school crest and my design
was accepted and is still in use today.
I attended secondary school in Gananoque. At the end of the year that I graduated from high
school, I held my first one-man show and sold out everything, much to my surprise and delight.
After graduating from high school, I was anxious to pursue a
career in art, and I decided to forego further studies. I felt the best way to make a living from
drawing and painting must be commercial art (which I knew very little about) and I struck out for
Toronto to make my fortune.
I spent many months pounding the sidewalks of Toronto, showing
a naïve portfolio of work to an endless string of art directors, many
of whom were kindly enough to take a few minutes of their time
to give me advice if not encouragement. I refused to give up and
finally a studio owner took me under his wing and offered me a
job on a new community paper he was just starting in Markham,
Ontario. I worked as a ‘go-fer’ and salesman and at night the boss
would have me come to his home where he taught me basic
layout, page assembly and general studio procedures.
The next thing he did was to assign one of his experienced artists
to come to Markham and work with me until I could handle most
of the work myself.

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