Peter Freeman

I wear a few hats at once. I make a variety of art – painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and now a swing at sound. I teach special education students in the Toronto District Board of Education. I carry out design/build projects. Artwork draws my attention more now than five years ago. I try to work on something, draw, plan, or, conceptualize something, every day. Or, at least, imagine some project in my head while I bike around the city or skate on the wild Toronto island ice. I’ve worked with my life partner on her Art informed research – The Alzheimer’s Project in a couple of capacities. I try to combine my interests – family, community, children, building, and the outdoor world in my art and life. This year my work with oil painting has been at the centre of my practice. Landscapes, people and imaginative activity swirl together in my work. I look for beauty in a landscape and when it’s found, there always seems to be evidence of human industry nearby or somewhere by inference. My piece here examines recess – I am drawing on my privilege of observing and watching over elementary children trooping outside each day for a break. What are they up to? The Shaw school is like the Toronto school I attended. My recess time, then and now, is shaping the selecting, editing and story making for this piece.