Special thanks goes to the Ontario Arts Council, instrumental in supporting the creation of a number of my books and visual art projects over the years.
I am primarily known as a children’s picture book author and visual artist. I also write young adult fiction, adult fiction which includes novels, collections of short stories and poetry. A collection of 25 years worth of silly comics is now available; Hardball and Riley: The Ultimate Collection. (Some of the comics are actually quite deep.) I’ve got two books featuring two completely different categories of my artwork coming later this year, Comic Gazer – illustrations and comics – and Faces and Figures, a collection of my portraits and figure drawings.
My Limited Film and Television Experience – Under Contstruction
Back in 2007 I won the Governor General’s Award and the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Award for my third published book, The Boy from the Sun. After living in Toronto, Victoria, Vancouver and Montreal I returned to my childhood city of Thunder Bay and started a little self-publishing empire, selling thousands of books and giving away over a thousand books to children. I regularly give away free books to children during readings and workshops. During the pandemic I gave away free books from my balcony. Covid also cost me all streams of revenue, and I had to close my studio/gallery space, Rogue Planet Gallery. Unfortunately, due to cutbacks (politics!) and an incredible amount of local nonsense, I haven’t been able to return to my full time gig as an artist. I’ve taken up a couple part time jobs, so completing the projects has slowed down.
Lots of reading, travel and research feed my imagination allowing me to better express several humanist themes. I do my best to create highly original works to delight and surprise both children and adults. A 2012 Chalmer’s Fellowship Award sent me to Ghana to do research for a children’s graphic poetry book. I wrote dozens of articles for the online magazine Northern Ontario Travel to promote the city. I wrote a weekly column called Art on the Edge for the Chronicle Journal Newspaper, here in Thunder Bay. I wrote reviews of art shows with a focus to promote young talent and indigenous artists in the region.
I’ve also worked in a small capacity in film, television and animation, directing, creating storyboards, and acting. I’ve been a lead actor in a couple low budget productions, did background “acting” in a couple medium budget films, and acted in over 30 short films to help out my brother’s film students at Confederation College. I enjoyed working as an artist and art director for a year in the Play Industry (Delta Play and Klondike Kidstuff) in Vancouver, heading a team of artists (which included Emmy Award winning artists) to create large indoor sculptures and climbing installations for children. I have shown my artwork in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria, B.C., and Thunder Bay. I’m a member of the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and our Canadian version, CANSCAIP. I’ve taken part in five conferences in different cities, my favourite being one in Los Angeles in 2017.
And the adventures continue.
You can see my work and other activity on my YouTube channel: Duncan Weller