Bio

Born in northern Ontario as a miner's daughter, our family became nomadic during my childhood.

As a child, I always thought the idea of a world with "Cowboys and Indians" was basic reality, because we lived outside the town (near the "bush) and were sandwiched between a tourist-ranch and a native reserve: the tourist-ranch always had riders with big cowboy hats (the "tourists," I was to realize later) and barn-dances; the reserve was quieter, but every now and again I would see the children running or riding on the other side of the wood fence.

My favourite memories from these years included a small bag of free french-fries given to me when I was too young to go inside the barn for a Saturday-night barn-dance; my first bare-back ride on a pony, thanks to the children on the reserve; a huge, brilliant stage-curtain in the sky called northern lights; canoe trips fishing with my parents; a million shimmering lights, dancing on the cold, crisp snow on a moon-lit winter's night; my one-room school-house just down the road; and my first dog: the German-Shephard "Rex" who was as big as I... as long as he remained on his fours.

We could not stay there forever, so we eventually moved south to Toronto and then later to Sweden for four years (Jönköping and Huskvarna).

In 1969 we were back in Canada in the small Muskoka town of Bala (of about 500 souls in the winter, but about 10,000 in the summer). The following year we moved back down to Toronto where I stayed and studied until about 1984. After graduating York University (BFA Honours, Visual Arts), I returned to Muskoka, got married, and had three beautiful daughters.

For five years our family also moved to the lower mainland of British Columbia (Canada).

For several years I have now lived in the beautiful cottage- and tourist-country of Muskoka.

All the Best, Astrid