John C Sayer

My grade 9 teacher wrote on my report card that I should consider art as a career, but shortly after I dropped out of school and started working. It wasn’t until I was in my 40’s that I would decide to take up art again.

I took drawing and watercolour lessons part time at The Emily Carr University of Art and Design and I studied Chinese brush painting.
In 2000 I survived a near fatal motorcycle accident. I decided to try abstract art making every piece unique. I painted for 4 years until I went back to work. Then in 2018 while on my motorcycle, an SUV would cross the center line and hit me head on. In a split second, everything I loved to do, my job, golfing, skiing, motorcycle trips with my riding buddies… all gone! Art was all I had left.

Even that would not have been possible without the help and support of my family and friends. I now truly understand the meaning of the saying “It takes a village”. I lost my leg above the knee and suffered over 30 upper body fractures. After a long 8 months in the hospital, one of the first things I did when I got home was try to paint. With the help of my wife Sue and some good friends I was able to paint for a half hour a day. It wasn’t much but it was a start. I still had art! Since then and after 5 operations on my arms, I can paint 4-6 hours a day. I have to make some of my large, sculptures and pieces in multiple sections so that I can manoeuvre them around with my wheelchair. Art has truly been my therapy!