About this website location.

Server information shows the 'country of origin'. The top level domain, EvilGenius.Pictures (linking this website) is stored with a domain registry in the USA.  The web site is hosted in Western Europe.

I am in Canada - when I wish to be found.

 

About Evil Genius.

Evil Genius is neither a video game nor a crime boss. An earlier incarnation of its meaning came into being almost 300 years ago.  I know it from the writings of one Giacomo Casanova born 1725CE and having read his 28 volume (ebook) autobiography.  Casanova‘s “evil genius” is the voice inside of him egging him on to take unnecessary risks and take actions which he knows full well will end badly. There is also a “good genius or genii” who sometimes prevails but the evil influence offers more risk, adventure and greater challenges. Sometimes, cleverness is involved, but in this case it is far from being a label of great intellect or talent.

 

In the modern sense, I accept that in the context of attempting to create a great work, the term might imply some special effort or rather not so much ‘special’, but an ‘unusual solution’ brought on by one’s insightful “evil genius”. Meaning nothing more than that cleverness that brings forth unusual or remarkable results might cause others to say that his/er “evil genius” played a part.  This assumes that one has not already fallen flat on one’s face.

About Me. À propos de moi.

I am a studio painter resident in CANTLEY, Québec. Before that I lived in Edmonton in the great and heroic province of Alberta. Before Alberta, I lived and worked for 45 years in Saskatchewan, a land known for its grit and unbounded capacity. I am forever marked by Western Canada, its fluid social and political context, its ability to rebuild lives and everywhere the random acts of kindness and steadfast community.

 

With me is my resolutely brilliant wife. Sprinkled across the Canadian subcontinent are my children and grandchildren.

 

The self-possessed and in their own way, the courageous women who have modelled for me and who played a central part in the creation of my work reside in this country - save for one who is a citizen of the United Mexican States.

 

About the Art of Painting.

The ability to paint is not taught but learned.  It did not happen overnight, but it did happen in near isolation.

 

I have been oil painting since 1971 when Joyce Deutscher, my highschool teacher gave me little blobs of oil paint covered with wax paper to take home after class. Today, it takes two databases just to store the names of my paints. I should mention that Joyce studied under Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven.  Her kindness notwithstanding, her greatest help was to leave me alone while I worked and at graduation she tried to give me some kind of award for having the highest mark in Art for those graduating that year.  I declined.

 

I knew and shared studio space with one of the greatest artists of our time - originally from the Peoples Republic of China.  He taught me a different lesson by showing me the power and purpose of art to create unassailable wonder in the world.  I have been through the museums of Europe (as late as February 2020) and completed the mill of a Fine Arts programme including directed studies at the university level. Privately and virtually unknown, I worked hard at invention and problem solving over many decades. Inevitably, some divergence occurred from mainstream art.