Art has always been a passion.

Robbie comes from a long line of artists. Hisy mother is a highly creative soul and watercolour artist, as is his grandfather, and great-grandfather before him. As a small child, he remembers watching his mother paint, in awe of her creativity. As he grew older, he would often gaze with bewilderment at his great-grandfather’s paintings that adorned several walls of his house. Even at a young age, he loved the feeling of creating “something from nothing”. he would spend countless hours sketching his favourite super-heroes and dreaming up new characters of his own. He can still recall the excitement that he felt when he completed a drawing. That feeling is addictive and is one that he still craves to this day.

As a teenager, growing up in Barrie, Ontario, he continued to enroll in his high school art classes, but the time he spent sketching and drawing was replaced by afterschool workouts as well as football or rugby practice. It wasn’t long before he found himself in the whirlwind of university life. He studied health science at the University of Western Ontario and indulged in the student lifestyle – late nights, spending time with friends, working out, and studying. The thought of creating anything but an essay or research paper was a distant memory.

After completing his first degree, his wife Nicole (girlfriend at the time) and him decided that they needed an adventure. At the advice of my grandfather who said, “Education is something that no one can take away from you”, he enrolled in teacher’s college at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. His experience in New Zealand was nothing short of amazing. The culture and pristine beauty of this country cannot be compared. When he wasn’t attending classes, he was taking full advantage of the warm climate and his beautiful surrounds by spending time outdoors.

Upon returning from New Zealand with his teaching degree, he soon found myself in a major dilemma – not only were teaching jobs scarce in Ontario, but he desperately craved adventure and an escape from the ordinary, mundane lifestyle he found myself in. When searching the Internet one evening, he came across an advertisement for teaching jobs in the North. Without hesitation, he completed the necessary forms and submitted his CV.

A few months later, he received a phone call about a potential teaching job opportunity. Two days and two interviews later, Nicole and Robbie agreed to move to a small remote community in the Northwest Territories. He was soon to be principal and K-3 teacher at Alexis Arrowmaker School in Weweet’i. During his first year in the North, he found himself in an art store purchasing a sketchpad and some pencils. It had been a long time since he had sketched or drawn anything. He is not sure what made him purchase these materials after so many years. Perhaps it was the childlike voice inside his head urging him to regain his former creativity… or maybe it was that the untouched landscape that surrounded him was simply begging to be revealed… Either way, the beauty of the North inspired him to connect with his creative side and passion for art.