I grew up in the Beach, a Toronto neighbourhood bounded by industry, railroads, high bluffs and the waters of Lake Ontario: a place of scenery and machinery. My career choice was science, and my paint brushes and welder's goggles were put away in my early twenties. My academic career was primarily through Simon Fraser University in British Columbia as a professor of physics, working first in subatomic physics and later in biophysics. However, preparing 300 diagrams for the graduate-level text Mechanics of the Cell returned me to the world of artistic composition. The process of learning to draw the human form was accelerated by weekly association with four very talented individuals, Mary Baker, Michael Foster, Janet Lutz and Donna McMillan, as well as people like Alain Boullard and the community of figurative artists at the Basic Inquiry studio in Vancouver.

Email: boal@sfu.ca    or    david@davidboal.ca