Dale Bertrand
I was born in Prince Rupert B.C. and raised in California and
western Canada. My first recognition for showing artistic talent
was when I tied for 1st place in an art contest in grade 3 at
Red Deer Alberta, and received an oil painting . This may have
influenced me in wanting to help teach today. When I was young
I spent summers on my uncle's farm in Alberta and enjoyed the
companionship of many of my cousins.
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During the middle school years my interest was keen on sciences,
math and physics. It wasn't until I was well into my twenties
and living in Toronto that I grew to love reading and at the
same time took up photography. I studied photography at the
"Three Small Schools" in Toronto and Computers at Ryerson
Polytechnical College and George Brown College. I still remember
my lecturer's comments when I studied photography to "shoot
everything and anything in all kinds of conditions and lighting
and make records of your shots to learn what works and what
doesn't," I went out and did just that. Travelling for 6 months
in India , one and one half years in Europe, a couple of months
in Thailand, 3 or so months in Japan and about 8 months in
Mexico, along with over three months in Wales I have recorded
our trips, photographing the areas visited, and some of the
peoples we met. I began to appreciate the beauty of nature
and the desire to protect it through sharing my own insights
from our travels.
In my travels to Wales I was doing research on the early
Canadian artist Tomtu Huron Roberts, his father and family.
I have transcribed old manuscripts and dairies of his father,
John Hugh Roberts, a Welsh mystic , and arranged shows of
Tomtus's paintings across Canada. I am presently working on
two books from my research.
I created the "Giant Flower Island" voyage, a part of Della
Burford's book, "Journey to Dodo Land," which was performed
in New York for seven years. This started from macro photographs
of flowers taken at botanical gardens in Toronto and Hawaii.
I also worked with Della and helped illustrate the book "Magical
Earth Secrets" and co-authored "The Environmental Activity
Guide." And as of 2003 Della Chris and I have completely re-created
Dodoland.com
I began to teach various workshops on the environment for
schools for children and adults and am presently teaching
ESL and Internet courses in Vancouver. My favourite workshops
to share with the children are the "Medicine Wheels", "Love
the Earth" murals and "Environmental Posters". One of the
murals done with the students at a First Nations School in
Toronto was shown in Sweden.
Della and I have spent many years teaching and sharing our
work with children in many places in the world. We built our
own home in the Kootenay valley in British Columbia. In Toronto
I studied computers at Ryerson and George Brown College and
apprenticed with Face to Face communication. I helped design
Dodo Land in Cyberspace which was one of the first children's
electronic magazines on the internet. I enjoy both designing
Web sites for companies and surfing on the internet. I have
helped organize and teach programs around the world and enjoy
exploring new cultures. We can be anywhere in the world when
our hearts are our home.
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