Hi everyone! I just remember always drawing, my mom would have to drag me to bed. My dad is a self taught artist and he encouraged me, from then on I picked it up. Art runs throughout my family. Aunt, Uncle, cousins, brothers, sisters, parents….My fist big project was a pear in pencil crayon with my dad. Solid colouring in, shadows, light etc. I was probably 6 or 7. My dad has it framed. Pencil crayons became my fav medium….then high school introduced me to acrylic and have been doing that ever since and loving it!

I always remember art being around as a child and creativity being a part of our family. There were always books around and music on, and my mom would take us to the library and bookstores, and she would come up with great arts & crafts projects for us. She also took my sister and I to a lot of independent theatre, film, art shows, etc. We even had a big trunk of dress-up clothes and would put on plays and musicals.

I was definitely introduced to art early and in wonderful ways! :)

I can remember the cot bed at Grandma Lyons house had a stylized retouched photo of Niagara Falls on fire, the colours reflected in the water has always been my first love in the palettes

My earliest memories of making art, are my mothers hands over mine, guiding my scissors as I cut.

My grandmother Maggie lived and breathed art – she was a professional portrait painter, had a degree in Pre-Columbian architecture, knitted and sewed, travelled the world, and taught art. Her house was full of colours, textures, and ideas. She encouraged me to have my own idea of what was beautiful, and how to be creative in my everyday life. She taught me how to draw, paint, sew, knit, and about fashion. Thank you, Maggie – what a precious gift.

Very strange really. I wasn’t exposed to art at all but I don’t remember a time not drawing. My grandmother noticed and would sit me in her office with a pencil and paper and let me have at it. I will be forty this year and I did not grow up knowing my fathers side, anyways I found his sister, my aunt and came to learn she is a painter as is her mother, and my father a cartoonist. All of them at some time recognized for their work. So is it in the blood? Would my work be different had I had that around me? I think it is bazar and wonderful at the same time.

Mine is a two-part answer:

First, when I was, say about 6ish, I went to my dad and asked him “Dad, why is the ask blue?”
He answered in his Spartan tone, “We have a library, go look it up.”

So I did. Went to our library and aside finding the sky is blue because Earth’s atmosphere scatters light from the sun, I also found a few books on art.

Then a few years later I watch the Pink Panther tv cartoon where the Pink Panther is conducting an orchestra playing the fifth symphony and I was blown away. My father had a record collection and I played the song over and over until I decided to learn the piano, which lead to painting and composing. Then to writing…and ultimately to photography. So every creative endevour I have ever done owes it to those two things.

Cheers,

-Mauricio