I was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1946, landed in Toronto on last plane in from Montreal in the middle of Hurricane Hazel October 15, 1954 - not a flight I want to repeat!
 
The family moved to England in 1961 and we came back to Toronto in 1965. I attended the University of Toronto – Sociology and then Social Work.
 
I spent the bulk of my working life behind locked doors - 26 years in closed correctional facilities in New Brunswick and Ontario - with the blessed relief of 10 years at corporate office in downtown Toronto at the end of my career.
 
The freedom of painting, the opportunity for self-expression, the joy of pushing around a brush loaded with colour, the opportunity to “break the rules” [painting has quite a lot of them] served as a wonderful antidote to 36 years of work life in a para-military organization.