Owen Garratt’s award
winning pencil drawings and Limited Edition Prints are
in collections around the world.
“My Great-Grandfather was my all time hero. His name
was Dr. Dick Bird (and he was actually Christened
‘Dick’), and when he was 14, he left England by himself
to find an Uncle in Vermont he’d never met.”
“He became one of the first generation of
cinematographers, and married and settled in Regina,
Saskatchewan as the dry air was helpful for my Great-Grandma’s asthma.”
“His adventures include being assigned to The Prince of
Wales as an ‘embedded correspondent’, being an honored
guest of the Emperor of China, a terrifying interview
with Adolf Hitler who foretold of things to come, and of
nearly being shot by one of Poncho Villa’s firing
squads!”
“Greatdad lost his only Son to appendicitis and very
soon after, Great-Grandma Pansy died of an asthma attack
in Monterrey, Mexico in 1938, leaving Greatdad to raise
his two daughters as a single father.”
“It was in Regina that he discovered his love of nature,
and by the 1950’s he was one of the world’s pre-eminent
nature movie makers, where he shot film for the likes of
Disney, the Autobahn Society and even lectured
regularly at The Smithsonian.”
“Greatdad did it in an age before safety gear, union
rules, insurance regulations or anything else. When in
his 50’s and 60’s he would load up his Cadillac with
steamer trunks of gear and his new wife
(whom we called
Auntie Ada) who was nearly 30 years younger than him
(go Greatdad!) and tear off to Labrador, or Central America,
or hop a ship to French Polynesia!”
“Yet he wasn’t one of those swashbucklers. For the most
part he was soft spoken and called women ‘My Dear’ and
he enjoyed reading and watching The Flintstones. But he
had resilience. You could almost sense it: he did things
other men couldn’t because he knew how to keep kicking.
He was of a generation and a culture where pain was
treated as a private affair and not to be inflicted on
others. No fanfare, no overdone drama...it just didn’t
occur to him NOT to keep going.”
“Greatdad lived until he was 93, and I was already in
University (well, for that one term anyway) when he died,
so I have lots of memories of him, and of his stories,
and of his accomplishments.”
“And his influence is a big reason why I live the way I
do, and I suppose of the path I’ve chosen
professionally.”