I grew up here in East Vancouver and I love it but I also like to get myself and my kids out of the city. My dad helped start a remote community up the sunshine coast back in 1967 with other bohemians who wanted to get back to the land. I’ve grown up with a community of inspiring people including a group of artists who started Western Front. They have influenced my ideals about the artistic process and the whole lifestyle that goes along with being an artist.

I love to garden and make green spaces. I built a garden in my backyard last year and right now I’m preparing it for a new year. I have to decide if I’m going to remake the whole box or just start planting. All of a sudden the sun is warming it all up and it’s just starting to grow like it’s summer. I had these swiss chard that were nothing and now they are giants. The over-winter beets are all ready to harvest so I’m adding them to everything I cook, I even put them in my tuna casserole.

I have two amazing kids so most of my downtime is spent with them doing arts and crafts or going on adventures up the mountains and the sunshine coast. I inherited a cabin and I’ve been chopping up a bunch of cedar slash from when a cedar tree almost fell onto my cabin last year. It’s funny because all of the neighbours have suggested ways to recycle the tree by adding to their cabins or making shingles. I think it’s great that something potentially devastating like a tree falling can be a source of growth or expansion when it’s used creatively.

I do some oil painting in my spare time and I love to paint landscapes and city-scapes. I draw a lot of inspiration from Vancouver scapes. I love this city and love biking around it. In the future I’d like to see more streets reclaimed from cars. I feel strongly about injustice and inequality in the world. I think we need a revolution.