Cats, Dogs & Homo Sapiens
Friday/08 January 2010
This, the
first blog post of 2010, is a story to inspire you. Let's face it,
we need inspiration because it's getting pretty weird out there.
With that in mind, let me introduce you to Dave Woytuck of Kelowna
BC. Dave is a longtime friend and a superb artist. His art is of
real things. You can tell right away what his works are about. In
short, he does "cats, dogs and homo sapiens" — his tongue in
cheek phrase by the way, I wish I'd come up with it.
Dave was born in 1959 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Both parents were immigrants to Canada, his mother from Poland and his father from the Ukraine. He has one sibling, a brother.
As with many artists, Dave doodled a lot at school, once even getting a desk thrown at him by a teacher because of it. In search of an art education, Dave enrolled in a correspondence course from an outfit in Minneapolis — he was twelve years old at the time. That's initiative. Unfortunately high school and community did little nourish Dave's artistic interest and obvious talent.
After high school, Dave got married. With a wife and three children to provide for, he made a living for ten years as a heavy equipment operator as did his father and his brother. (Incidentally my father went to high school in North Battleford, about four decades earlier.)
Dave began learning lettering and sign-painting. A move to Dawson Creek BC furthered his skills through a college course in visual, graphic and communication art.
Despite skill and education, it was difficult to earn a living with old school art skills in a period in which graphic art was moving over onto computers. The lean years for Dave and his family continued. Dave and I met and became friends in Dawson Creek — neighbours. It was 1991-2. Eons ago.
After moving south to Kelowna BC life became extremely difficult. Not only were earning opportunities minimal, but Dave's marriage ended and his children grew up and left home.
To top that off Dave became seriously ill — deathly ill in fact.
Working in poorly ventilated sign shops had induced emphysema though Dave was still in his thirties. A genetic disorder amplified the effects of emphysema. One doctor gave him two to ten years to live. At the age of thirty-two Dave was diagnosed with an inherited blood disorder, alpha one antirypsin defficiency — which caused the emphysema. Dave remarked to me, "My lungs were toast. Every career I had was brutal on my lungs."
I'd known Dave and his fine family during his Dawson Creek period. We reconnected during this devastating phase of radical physical deterioration since we lived then a couple of hours away in Kamloops BC. I watched Dave disappear into skin and bones before my eyes. It was a dramatic, scary deterioration.
Dave finally has oxygen.
Before qualifying for oxygen, Dave became so wasted that he could barely dress himself. On one visit I saw him go to the washroom and return completely out of breath and exhausted. Prior to his lungs rapid, radical deterioration, Dave was trying to establish a business as a caricature artist at a local amusement park or at regional fairs in BC. He gave that up once he didn't have the strength to carry a folding table and chair to work on. You get the picture. No fun at all for a relatively young man.
Dave was on oxygen for six years before qualifying for a double lung transplant. The last three years were characterized by isolation, few friends, poverty and extreme debilitation. After fourteen months on the waiting list, he got the urgent message to be ready for transport to Vancouver. That was June28, 2003, approximately a month before the big fire in Kelowna, August 2003. Dave was close to death.
Dave spent five months in Vancouver General Hospital and two months in the GF Strong Rehabilitation Hospital. In all he had five operations, lost count at 500 staples and went home with set of excellent lungs. Yes, there were complications. I saw Dave when he was moved into GF Strong. The sight of him was unnerving though uplifting by virtue of connecting with a class of determination that was new in my experience.
Dave in GF Strong Rehab Hospital
Dave Woytuck, artist and friend, is a success of the organ transplant initiatives. He knows that the lungs he uses are from an individual who lived in Ontario. To say that Dave is grateful is to understate.
One year after transplant
After a lengthy period of adjustment, not an easy one, Dave has renewed his artistic license and is doing portraits by commission —portraits of cats, dogs and homo sapiens. I have put up a gallery of Dave's recent work on my website. You must go there and spend a few minutes. And now you know a bit of the story of the artist. GO HERE NOW.
Dave was born in 1959 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Both parents were immigrants to Canada, his mother from Poland and his father from the Ukraine. He has one sibling, a brother.
As with many artists, Dave doodled a lot at school, once even getting a desk thrown at him by a teacher because of it. In search of an art education, Dave enrolled in a correspondence course from an outfit in Minneapolis — he was twelve years old at the time. That's initiative. Unfortunately high school and community did little nourish Dave's artistic interest and obvious talent.
After high school, Dave got married. With a wife and three children to provide for, he made a living for ten years as a heavy equipment operator as did his father and his brother. (Incidentally my father went to high school in North Battleford, about four decades earlier.)
Dave began learning lettering and sign-painting. A move to Dawson Creek BC furthered his skills through a college course in visual, graphic and communication art.
Despite skill and education, it was difficult to earn a living with old school art skills in a period in which graphic art was moving over onto computers. The lean years for Dave and his family continued. Dave and I met and became friends in Dawson Creek — neighbours. It was 1991-2. Eons ago.
After moving south to Kelowna BC life became extremely difficult. Not only were earning opportunities minimal, but Dave's marriage ended and his children grew up and left home.
To top that off Dave became seriously ill — deathly ill in fact.
Working in poorly ventilated sign shops had induced emphysema though Dave was still in his thirties. A genetic disorder amplified the effects of emphysema. One doctor gave him two to ten years to live. At the age of thirty-two Dave was diagnosed with an inherited blood disorder, alpha one antirypsin defficiency — which caused the emphysema. Dave remarked to me, "My lungs were toast. Every career I had was brutal on my lungs."
I'd known Dave and his fine family during his Dawson Creek period. We reconnected during this devastating phase of radical physical deterioration since we lived then a couple of hours away in Kamloops BC. I watched Dave disappear into skin and bones before my eyes. It was a dramatic, scary deterioration.
Dave finally has oxygen.
Before qualifying for oxygen, Dave became so wasted that he could barely dress himself. On one visit I saw him go to the washroom and return completely out of breath and exhausted. Prior to his lungs rapid, radical deterioration, Dave was trying to establish a business as a caricature artist at a local amusement park or at regional fairs in BC. He gave that up once he didn't have the strength to carry a folding table and chair to work on. You get the picture. No fun at all for a relatively young man.
Dave was on oxygen for six years before qualifying for a double lung transplant. The last three years were characterized by isolation, few friends, poverty and extreme debilitation. After fourteen months on the waiting list, he got the urgent message to be ready for transport to Vancouver. That was June28, 2003, approximately a month before the big fire in Kelowna, August 2003. Dave was close to death.
Dave spent five months in Vancouver General Hospital and two months in the GF Strong Rehabilitation Hospital. In all he had five operations, lost count at 500 staples and went home with set of excellent lungs. Yes, there were complications. I saw Dave when he was moved into GF Strong. The sight of him was unnerving though uplifting by virtue of connecting with a class of determination that was new in my experience.
Dave in GF Strong Rehab Hospital
Dave Woytuck, artist and friend, is a success of the organ transplant initiatives. He knows that the lungs he uses are from an individual who lived in Ontario. To say that Dave is grateful is to understate.
One year after transplant
After a lengthy period of adjustment, not an easy one, Dave has renewed his artistic license and is doing portraits by commission —portraits of cats, dogs and homo sapiens. I have put up a gallery of Dave's recent work on my website. You must go there and spend a few minutes. And now you know a bit of the story of the artist. GO HERE NOW.
