Given this diversity, I realized I'd be hard pressed to sum up my creations and services; rather I should describe my approach. Passionate. Expressive. And, above all, implicated. To the elbows. To the eyebrows. To the ends of the earth, when the occasion arises.

The perfect term: redhanded.

Redhanded, I am fully committed to my projects and enjoy using my skills, experience, and insight in the service of work that makes a difference in people's lives. Work that is original and responsive - to the needs of my clients, my students, art lovers, and of course to my own creative imperatives.

I came up with 'redhanded' not long after creating Bog Fragment 7: The Touch of You, an artwork that includes the image of a red hand that has since become my visual signature.

I was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec - Canada's cosmopolitan, bilingual city. An Anglophone by birth, I was fortunate to do a good portion of my schooling in French, which gave me a profound love for the language as well as communications skills I continue to rely on in my work. Right from the get-go, I seem to have been drawn to literature and the arts. I always had my hands in something - frequently a knitting, embroidery, or painting project. I used to ask my friends and neighbours to pose for me, but our Siamese cat was a favourite subject, too.

As a young adult, I came to Toronto to attend the University of Toronto, where I earned a Bachelor of Arts (in English and Art History). I made friends and fell in love with the cultural diversity of the city's population (according to the United Nations, the most ethnically diverse in the world) and with its vast ravine system - wild gardens of retreat veining through the city sprawl. I've stayed here. And I still feel happily at home in the city, although I enjoy travel away, too, particularly to European culture and North America's wild ocean shores.

After U of T, I pondered a career and decided that film and television would combine my beloved literary and visual interests. Good choice? Yes, the media have been very rewarding, particularly on the writing side. To give the visual arts more presence, after a decade of work I left my full time job for freelance writing and advanced art training. I enrolled at the Ontario College of Art (now the Ontario College of Art and Design) and achieved an Honours Diploma in Fine Arts (Drawing and Painting). I've since earned a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts from Concordia University, Montreal, and a PhD in Education from York University, Toronto, exploring visual arts as a mode of knowing. My dissertation is entitled Finding Home: Knowledge, Collage, and the Local Environments.

Recently (as of July 1, 2008), I got a fabulous job back in Montreal, where I am now Assistant Professor of Art Education within Concordia University's Faculty of Fine Arts. I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute within such an internationally recognized Faculty of Fine Arts and to have a community of artists, scholars, teachers, students and resources to assist in my own continuing investigations of visual art as a mode of knowing - which takes the form of ‘research/creation’ or artwork that has a research agenda.

Given the deep roots that I've developed in Toronto over the years, I am now splitting my time between my adopted city and my natal and newly reclaimed Montreal: the best of both worlds!

Hobbies? Building a multi-faceted artistic and academic career is demanding, but I make as much use of my personal time as I can. Whether with family and friends or on my own, I enjoy walking and biking, taking in contemporary dance and opera (particularly Mozart and 20th century), knitting, reading - and just about anything that includes my wunderdog, Auggie!

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