Dale Bertrand

I was born in Prince Rupert B.C. and raised in California and western Canada. My first recognition for showing artistic talent was when I tied for 1st place in an art contest in grade 3 at Red Deer Alberta, and received an oil painting . This may have influenced me in wanting to help teach today. When I was young I spent summers on my uncle's farm in Alberta and enjoyed the companionship of many of my cousins.

During the middle school years my interest was keen on sciences, math and physics. It wasn't until I was well into my twenties and living in Toronto that I grew to love reading and at the same time took up photography and became interested in art.

I studied photography at the "Three Small Schools" in Toronto and Computers at Ryerson Polytechnical College and George Brown College. I still remember my lecturer's comments when I studied photography to "shoot everything and anything in all kinds of conditions and lighting and make records of your shots to learn what works and what doesn't," I went out and did just that. Travelling for 6 months in India , one and one half years in Europe, a couple of months in Thailand, 3 or so months in Japan and about 8 months in Mexico, along with over three months in Wales I have recorded our trips, photographing the areas visited, and some of the peoples we met. I began to appreciate the beauty of nature and the desire to protect it through sharing my own insights from our travels.

In my travels to Wales I was doing research on the early Canadian artist Tomtu Huron Roberts, his father and family. I have transcribed old manuscripts and dairies of his father, John Hugh Roberts, a Welsh mystic , and arranged shows of Tomtus's paintings across Canada. I have recently finished a books on my research like Druidical Quest , Three Mermaids, Gaelcerth, Chief Festival and Stone Book of Knowledge.

I created the "Giant Flower Island" voyage, a part of Della Burford's book, "Journey to Dodo Land," which was performed in New York for seven years. This started from macro photographs of flowers taken at botanical gardens in Toronto and Hawaii. I also worked with Della and helped do painting for the book "Magical Earth Secrets" and co-authored "The Environmental Activity Guide." And as of 2003 Della, Chris and I have completely re-created Dodoland.com which has had 16 million hits.

I began to teach various workshops on the environment for schools for children and adults and presently teach through the Nanaimo Art Gallery program. My favourite workshops to share with the young and "young at heart" are the "Medicine Wheels", "Love the Earth" large paintings and "Enviro Hero/Heroines". One of the murals done with the students at a First Nations School in Toronto was shown in Sweden.

Della and I have spent many years teaching and sharing our work with people in many places in the world. We built our own home in the Kootenay valley in British Columbia. I helped design Dodo Land in Cyberspace which was one of the first children's electronic magazines on the internet. I enjoy both designing Web sites for companies and surfing on the internet. I have helped organize and teach programs around the world and enjoy exploring new cultures. The last two years I have led workshops in Bali. We can be anywhere in the world when our hearts are our home.