After leaving the north forests and farmland of Saskatchewan, Rick headed to Calgary and the Alberta College of Art. After 4 years of hard work, he came out confused and somewhat lost. Now what?
Rick has been a bouncer (1 week), he has been a radio switcher (1 night), he worked at the CBC (1 month), he was a stuntman (2 action movies that he never saw, but he’s not alone in that) and he modelled briefly (he was the Jolly Green Giant for a time). Rick has built houses, packed groceries, cut grass and has written four and illustrated nineteen children’s books. He has worked as a painter, a designer, an illustrator and a writer.
Rick has won awards for his work in advertising and publishing, including the Ruth Schwartz Award, the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Award and numerous national and international awards including the Toronto Art Directors’ Awards, Communication Arts Magazine’s Award of Excellence, American Illustration Award of Excellence, and the New York Art Directors’ Award of Excellence. He has been featured in Smithsonian magazine, Applied Arts Magazine and in The Artist’s Magazine. His commissioned portraits include Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Ondaatje, and David Thomson.