SOME Fortunate NEWS

On 7 March 2024 I was disappointingly attacked, beaten, robbed, and left for dead, bleeding from my head and face on a street in central Nice, France. I was shooting photos while walking to my accommodation after dinner, on the first day of a long-planned three-week seven-country Euro trip. I awoke in hospital alone with no recollection of the attack.

I sustained several broken bones and months long injuries including scalp lacerations, facial fracture and loose teeth to torn calves and hyperextension breaks in multiple joints of my right hand and wrist. My shoulder required plating surgery to reattach four broken bones there and clean out fragments near my lung before I was able to fly again. The range of injuries meant almost daily medical care and assessments while convalescing at the behest and in the care of a dear friend, at her home back in the beloved Brionnais near where I’d lived before. I was able to return to Canada a month later.

Despite losing everything I was carrying…my full backpack, my professional camera and lenses, even my coat…plus the three weeks of flights, accommos, and experiences of five new countries that were to come, and the visits to friends in the two others…I feel only lucky. To be alive, and have my eye. A couple millimetres here and there and the injuries may have been ultimate.

I’m recovering well on multiple fronts in due time thanks to the kindness and actions of friends and family from around the world. I’m working excellent therapies. And continuing apace with my art and design. As of 12 November 2024 I’ve four projects / series underway, continuing solo exhibition on the Vancouver Lookout Tower at Harbour Centre through 2025, and a just arrived US based commission.

The fortunate news then, is not just the surviving. I’ve been gifted a new existence. I wouldn’t trade that. I’m excited for the creativity flowing from the altering experience. Thanks for reading, and for your interest in my work.