Dale Bertrand

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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.
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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 "Merlin Quest" and 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." In 2003 Della, Chris and I have completely re-created
Dodoland.com which has had now 22 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. I also taught in a English school
in Vancouver Business and Communications for 10 years.
Della and I have spent many years teaching and sharing our
work with people in many places in the world. 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 six years I have led workshops
in Bali. Last year we had the privilege to see "Majical
Rainbow preformed in Japan. We can be anywhere in the world when
our hearts are our home.
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