From the vantage point of the Sun Life parking garage, I took a series of photos that were the references for this painting of the construction of the Bauer Lofts in Uptown Waterloo. Another of the group of pieces created for Rogers T.V. Cable 20, it is the most industrial subject of that series.

The Rogers series, titled My View, is a group of diverse subjects. My attempt was to show my approach to painting any subject.

I decided to focus on the workers rather than the construction and the equipment in this painting of the creation of the Balsillie School in Waterloo.

This is a view from the top of CIGI which is right next door to the Balsillie School. The large digger, yellow against the snow of the construction site, is the feature of this piece.

It was exciting to watch the demolition of the Bauer factory with its many additions. The dust and the noise were huge as the giant machine actually chewed down the walls. This was the first of a series that deal with the end of the old structure and the birth of a new one.

Looking down into the hole at the beginning of the Bauer Lofts project, I had no idea of how long and complicated the building process would be. In a small village below grade, the skeleton was coming together. This painting was not the first construction painting that I had produced, but I had no idea of how hooked I would become with the process of creating a huge building. This painting, like all my other work, is drawn from photos that I took.

I tramped through the mud at the Bridgeport Bridge to look for angles, for views, of the placing of the footings of the new second generation that will double the capacity of the hump-backed concrete bridge that my wife, Marilyn, walked across every day on her way to school. I was lucky enough to happen upon a welder with his torch which gave a focus to this piece.

Coming from a Mennonite background, I am so taken by the colour sense of the people of Bermuda. Colours that we would hesitate to use here are used joyfully in this island paradise. When I travel, I run into ideas and images that force me to respond. Very often the resulting paintings seem to have little to do with Mennonite Country but have everything to do with how this Mennonite reacts.

In 1999 when we visited Berlin, the running gag was, “What is the national bird of Germany”? The answer—the crane. The city truly was an extended scene of trucks, cranes, earth movers, concrete trucks all whirling around in an unchoreographed dance. The excitement in the downtown core was obvious, and the pleasure and pride so apparent as several new projects were announced. I should like to revisit the Linden laden boulevards when teutonic order has been restored, but I did enjoy the energy of the construction chaos.

These construction cranes painted to resemble giraffes are giant figures that guard the entrance to the harbour in Stockholm, Sweden. I find it a pleasure that someone had enough imagination and courage to create these animals that bring a smile to the face of any viewer.

What fun to visit the construction site and then get to paint it. This Murphy Oil commission took me to many parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan to see the varied subjects that became part of a group of paintings that I produced for their 1982 Annual Report.