Artist Statement

I am a Canadian artist who now lives in London, Ontario. I am mostly self taught and have dabbled in various art media since childhood. I was born and raised in Northern Ontario in 1953. My earliest memories of art in our home were my mother drawing and cutting out small cardboard animals, mostly horses. I grew up and was schooled in a company paper town, called Kapuskasing. There, I had many opportunities to experience and be inspired by many aspects of life in the wilderness areas, life in a midsized northern town and life working in heavy industry.

Right out of high school I began studying industrial engineering at Ryerson Polytechnical University. And like many late baby boomers, soon ran out of money and entered the labour force. Later in life while posted to OPP Nakina, I began continuing education courses in political science, law and psychology studies at Carleton University. There was a lot of back-and-forth travel in my early adult life, having my hometown in northern and my work in southern Ontario. Then again, the opposite a decade later. And it seemed that wherever I would go or do sketch book, pencil and camera were always there, a constant. As my work life and my family life progressed there seemed to be less and less time for art and artful photography.

After successfully completing a 30-year policing career with the Ontario Provincial Police and served in Northwest, Northeast, as well as South East Regions. My most recent assignment was 12 years in the Upper Ottawa Valley area, mostly seconded to the Renfrew County Crime Unit, assisting in the investigations of major crimes. My attention to detail drew me into Scenes of Crime work as well as becoming a Certified Fraud Examiner. As a result of my career, I developed chronic operational stress injury symptoms. Shortly after retirement I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSD).

Link to site or social media:
http://www.wjbromilowart.ca