About the Artist

I grew up in Ontario, Canada, where I fell in love with my first bird song (white-throated sparrow) and saw my first wolf, which I attempted, endlessly, to draw. Like so many people, though, I abandoned art — and birds and wolves — in the years of study, work, and parenthood.

After a spell in England, I moved back to the city of my birth, Toronto, with my husband and children. We soon discovered the meandering world of Toronto’s ravines. It’s like a world below the city streets, with large, old trees and blackbirds nesting in cattails. It made me want to draw again.

I spend a lot of time there now. In one small corner of one ravine, I have seen 90 different species of birds; I’ve met coyotes, deer, mink, and foxes. I see their criss-crossing tracks in winter. In spite of the distant roar of traffic, you almost forget you’re in a city at all.

My goal as an artist is to draw that world. Not just the world of the ravine, but any place where you meet a wild creature, on its own terms, and feel awe, curiosity, and a kind of love.