Imagine yourself a snake. One of those fancy looking desert ones, a copperhead or something. After weeks of burning ideas, joy and self doubt, you’ve just shed your skin. It’s lying there, it has a weird fascination for you. It’s pretty. It is part of you. But, it’s a little spooky. Every lump and wart is there, but dead. Your new skin feels glorious, but, is it feeling a little tight? OH NO! So you frame the old one. Now what?

I love art. I like making it, I like looking at it, I really like watching someone get excited about doing it. Art is to do, like chocolate or café au lait or kissing. I get to do some regularly, because like Dean, I have small children and we churn up paper and colour like fire eats cedar shavings.

So Dean asked me to write a bio. You know, "Mr. Huyck studied at Blah Blah", etc. We are to picture Dean investing his youth, like a good dentist for our souls, studying away with great humility at the jaws of Madame Art. Or "Mr. Huyck showed at Galerie Normand, (probably the address of my friend’s uncle in Paris.) Ok, you can see I barf the trad art world, foo-foo carnival hype.

Dean is a father, teacher, athlete, coach, wildlife biologist, musician, … well really, the list goes on. Most importantly, he makes all of these things fun… or he doesn’t do them. And quite frankly it becomes contagious. And, oh yes, sometimes he ventures into the jaws of Madame Art with hardly a paint brush to protect himself…