My life came to an end at 91 years old, dying alone in my small home in my native Victoria, Canada, with no friends or anyone who remembered me beyond my artwork or my work as an artist.
I was born on April 19, 1950, into a small family with my parents, brilliant doctors of the time, and two sisters who worked in the same profession as my parents. According to them, it was "to continue" our family's legacy, as my grandparents on both sides of the family had worked in the fascinating profession of medicine.
My childhood and youth were relatively peaceful for a child of my time. My parents were able to provide a good basic education for the three of us. Although at that time, I developed differently than my more open and social sisters. I was a child who enjoyed reading and artistic endeavors like painting, sculpture, and some minor work in other areas. This led to me being the loneliest in my family as a child, a boy who preferred to spend time in my room reading important books from different areas and jobs that allowed me to unleash my creativity. Although I did not develop with mistreatment from other children, I was seen as strange, leaving me with few relationships in my early life.
My quiet life actually ended when I moved from school to university. My sisters, each with their different hobbies, had actually decided to pursue the medical field like the rest of our relatives. However, my decision to pursue my passion for art caused my parents to refuse to pay for my education and created a distance from them with me. I never tried to recover the relationship with my family who supported the same treatment as my parents, not because I blamed them for their decision but because I respected their position, and I preferred to focus on myself on a path that would make me happy.
Fortunately for me, I was able to get a full scholarship to OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design), the best institution in my country to learn the art that I was so passionate about. Although during this stage I had to work in a small workshop in the city to be able to cover my daily expenses. The years at that university were difficult, but I was able to graduate normally as the best in my class.
My first art job was at a Vancouver art gallery while I continued my studies in the area. This first job opened the door for me to meet several artists from different fields.
From that time on, I developed a fascination with acquiring knowledge in my field on my own. I studied all types of art until I had what I considered sufficient knowledge of the theory and practice of a given art, developing a broad mastery of various modern, antique, and other styles.
My good performance at that art gallery and my good academic references led me to move to the United Kingdom in 1981 to continue my studies and work in various museums in different roles, although at that time they also allowed me to develop some works that made me somewhat recognized. My experience lasted until 1993, perhaps this was one of the best moments of my life.
The next episode of my life was a trip through the various countries that fascinated me in theory and practice with their style of art, visiting museums or experts who shared with me revealing knowledge, this episode was the one I would define as my best moment of my entire life, although it was somewhat short for my taste, only six years traveling from 1993 to 1999.
The beginning of the new millennium was the episode where I decided to settle down in my already long life, I no longer had the energy to continue with my travels and learning from experts, from the wonderful 2000s to 2040, I spent my life working in some universities in the United States, in addition to developing my artistic legacy with various works that I donated to museums or were auctioned off to people who appreciated my work, at that time you can say that I collected all my early years of life and built an image based on them.
After my health deteriorated to a point where I could feel my life was coming to an end, I moved back to a small house in my hometown, awaiting the inevitable fate of human beings, but continuing my work just for myself.
Throughout my life, in my fascination with art, I had the opportunity to learn many other things, through books (although with the advancement of technology this diversified) that introduced me to some subjects as diverse as philosophy to medicine, but I was not an erudite connoisseur of multiple subjects, just a man curious to know a little bit of everything. I also sometimes liked to talk to people from other professions to open my mind more, since for me an artist should appreciate the world around them.
Perhaps the last detail of my life and the most peculiar was my culinary development. Due to a rare peculiarity that did not allow me to eat things for reasons I liked, it allowed me to develop a taste in me for making my own food by allowing me to do things exactly the way I like them. Although my travels allowed me to expand my tastes and knowledge in various fields, I do not consider myself a chef but a cook built by experience and adventure.
Perhaps the only regrettable thing about my life was how lonely it was. I never had a group of friends for long in my youth. From college onward, my life was more about professional relationships than friends, and let's not even talk about romantic relationships. That will be the only thorn I'll have with my death. But I feel it wasn't so much because of me. I was never rude, temperamental, or had some of the traits that are said to be negative and push people away. Maybe I was just born in the wrong world or didn't meet the right people.
Let's put aside my thoughts of being an old man, let's become just another person leaving the world. I was also able to have a good life, and my thoughts are for the living, not for someone who is simply taking their last breath.