Oct 30, 1988
Toronto
But now at CBC news I paint electronically on a computer.
Dear Sir!!
Dear Ron & Irene,
Thank you for your phone calls and the moral support you gave me upon the death of our younger brother Leslie. I’m still trying to get over the shock of losing him and find it hard to accept his untimely death. A man who worked hard to build a home for his wife and children. It seems an injustice, when at his age he should have been starting to reap the benefits and rewards of his labor. I had invited Les, Barbara and the children to visit us next July. I especially wanted him to see a bit of Canada.
I hope that by now the family are coping and getting on with their lives. As for us we are expecting the new baby early December. I will be taking the month of December off in order to assist in the delivery with Josie and to look after Micheal and Alex while Josie can nurse the new baby. We will have our hands full, but are excited at the prospect of giving Michael and Alex another brother or sister. Michael and Alex are very entertaining and sometimes we hear them laughing and giggling in their beds early in the morning even before we get up. They also watch the children’s shows on TV. I never realized how important these shows were until I had children of my own.
I have worked on animations for children’s shows in the past at CBC. Now for the past few years I have been doing graphics for the National News. Although I find news interesting, sometimes at our daily production meetings I find the so called news-hack mentality depressing, especially if it is a slow news day and the producers, directors etc. are looking towards some worldly disaster to perk up the nightly newscast.
But as a graphic artist, these days, there seems not to be to many alternatives. High tech. photography (not to mention computers) has pushed aside the artist illustrator. I remember on of my last trips to London looking at film posters on the tube stations and not recalling one that was illustrated by an artist, as in the old days at Pulford Publicity. I even tried to find out what became of my old firm, but to no avail.
I have painted in oil, water cooler, opaques, acrylics and even mastered the air brush. But now at CBC news I paint electronically on a computer. Its fun and clean (I don’t have to wear a smock), but it’s less personal and less private. And someone can press a wrong button by mistake and erase days or weeks of work.
Its fun and clean (I don’t have to wear a smock), but it’s less personal and less private.
Artist or hack writer, maybe with today’s technology it’s better to be a writer. I rather like travel writers (maybe because I an a traveller myself, but now I have become an armchair traveller, with my subscription to National Geographic). I often wish that I could have made a living as a writer and be able to express opinions that I can’t as a graphic artist.
We are now in the mist of our Canadian federal election. Brian Mulroney our Progressive Conservative prime minister, John Turner our Liberal minister of the opposition and dear Ed Broadbent our minister of the New Democratic Party (our equivalent of Britains SDP). It goes without saying which party I vote for. I consider myself a humanist and equate humanism with socialism. Maybe it all started when I worked at Pulfords and listened to one of the old artists there, he was also a conscientious objector. And when I used to listen to the soapbox socialists at Hyde Park corner. That and what I have learned and seen in later life has not changed my mind. Although they do say one mellows with age!
My life style changed now and at this stage of the game for the better. My gallivanting days around the world are over. Mind you if I won the lottery I would gallivant in style with my little family and share with them some of the exotic spots I have experienced and some that I never for around to!
My gallivanting days around the world are over. Mind you if I won the lottery I would gallivant in style with my little family…
My life style changed now and at this stage of the game for the better. My gallivanting days around the world are over. Mind you if I won the lottery I would gallivant in style with my little family and share with them some of the exotic spots I have experienced and some that I never for around to!
But in comfort, there were times when I have slept on beaches and in jungles, usually in a good Mexican Indian hammock. But these days I like my comfort. rather than lounge in a hammock on a beach, I now prefer a lounge chair on the deck of a cruise ship with a good book, when not watching the sea robins, or on a tropical might below the equator gazing up at the southern cross. As I once did when voyaging across the equator on a cargo boat on my way to my beloved Brazil.
I was am still at heart a nature boy! I love the wilderness (though work wise I am doomed to the city) and I guess here in Canada as in country’s like Brazil we have a unique wilderness. Although Brazil’s forest is being chopped away each year, which will probably prevail to a desert in later years. however here in Ontario just a couple of house drive (especially when we get our mini-van, which we are saving up for) you are in a true wilderness, with deer, moose, chipmunks, beaver and black bear. And not forgetting my favourite water fowl-The Loon!
I try to keep fit by doing calisthenics each morning, 25 push ups, 25 sit ups on an angled board where I hook my feet under a strap, and other assorted exercises. In summer I like swimming in our pool. In fact on a hot day when I’m lounging in the pool I feel like I’m in Acapulco Mexico, my old hangout.
I’m looking forward to the future when our children will be able to swim and really enjoy the pool and also maintain it. Young kids love splashing around in the water, a couple of Josie’s nieces like coming for a swim in our pool and stay splashing around in the pool all afternoon. I remember when I lived in Rio, on weekends I used to love taking long walks at the edge of the sea on Copacabana beach, Just letting the water rush up and splash around my ankles. When little kids would be yelling and sloshing in and out of the water and splashing me with salt water which would fog up my prescribed sunglasses and disrupt my view of the beautiful arses of the carioca woman!
Here in Canada Josie loves the pool, in fact it was I who taught her to swim. And on balmy summer nights when its to hot to sleep, we go for skinny dips in order to cool off under the stars. At the back of our house we have an elderly neighbour an Englishman, Ted Bullock is his name. he is eighty plus and very energetic for his age, he is retired but has taken another job. I often see him from our back window working in his garden, manicuring his trees. Gardening can be exhausting work especially weeding. But Ted Bullock (Mr. Bullock!) tells me to keep your garden to a minimum, perennials is the answer. Ted’s wife is Viennese. Our neighbor to our left is Hungarian and has his garden sprayed with weed killer. I am against spraying because of our children and the toxicity in this chemical. To our right are our Italian neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Fantini, Josie’s mum and dad.
So dear Ron and Irene, fall is upon us and I have just stored our garden furniture for the winter. the temperature has started to cool and the leaves are falling. And I suppose we can look forward to a white winter. Whatever happened to the greenhouse effect (the so-called global warming trend!).
Gove our love to Diane and David and the rest of the family.
Love from,
David, Josie, Michael & Alex
xoxoxoxo
