I was driving along Highway 2 into my hometown of Brockville last Friday night. I was looking at the river and realized the enormous influence it has had on my imagination. Water appears in many, many of my images.

I saw water from my bedroom window, also simply walking around the town, and from boats such as canoes, rowboats, sailboats and the ferry crossing the river.

When I was born I was brought back to a place within a few yards of the river. I've lived near water ever since then: during the summer at cottages, around the lakes of eastern Ontario, in Toronto where I live now along Lake Ontario.

I'm sure if I had grown up on the Prairies, that would always be reflected in any of my work, instead of the water, which is now so important in my work.

When I broke my leg two years ago, I had to walk carefully, especially outside. I had to look down at the sidewalk, and there were a host of fascinating little twigs and bits of this and that. I started picking them up. Next thing I knew, they were starting to appear in my work.

These are the beginning of order and I hope aesthetic appeal to some of these little bits and pieces from the road.  A first layout that is not glued.

This second one is closer to completion. This is 12 by 12 inches on masonite, starting with a white ground, to which the twigs are glued with encaustic medium, and the encaustic medium does allow the introduction of colour, which is still to be applied.

The twigs have become a graphic element.