Reid Edgeworth

Reid Edgeworth was born in September, 1973 in Winnipeg and has lived here all his life. For as far back as he can remember Reid knew that art was his calling and the direction he would take. In public school, whether or not it was part of the coursework, Reid was always drawing. "That was my approach to everything. I didn't learn what art really was or what it entailed until I reached university, but it was always my interest and focus."

Reid enrolled at the University of Manitoba and four years later graduated with a degree in Fine Arts in 1995. He has done his share of travelling to places like Italy (Venice, Florence and Rome), England, France and Switzerland to see the artwork of the great masters. "Also, as a requirement of the Fine Arts program, you are required to travel to the States to places like Minneapolis and Chicago to see and study the art there," Reid adds. He also travelled across Canada touring as a musician with his band: "While I was doing my Fine Arts degree I was playing in a band at night and after I graduated I took off with the band full time for a couple of years. We played all original music, not a cover band. It was a great fun time and I got to meet a lot a good people. We were a three-piece band; lots of screaming guitar-blues oriented high-octane rock-and-roll. I sang and played guitar. It was a creative endeavour and a big part of my life, but it didn't last forever. I think that art and music are all drawn from the same well: it's all about expression and creativity. At that point in my life that's how I wanted to express myself. Once I wanted to settle down, I came back to art."

"The reason I went into teaching was that when I was growing up I had an art teacher who inspired me and was a really powerful influence. Until that point, I had always known that I wanted my life centered around art, but what that meant I didn't know. After meeting this individual who was a mentor to me I thought that this was a direction I could take. So I went into the Faculty of Education and focused on art education as my major."

Reid graduated with a B. Ed in 1999. That same year, he married his childhood sweetheart (they met when they were fourteen). "She's always been around, putting up with me; and we're raising our family (two daughters) together," Reid asserts with a smile. He was offered a permanent position immediately as soon as he graduated. It's a position he holds to this day- teaching high school art in the Pembina Trails school division. "It's a really fulfilling career. I like that age group. My whole focus everyday is the creative process. I get up, I go to a room that's full of people struggling with the challenge of expressing themselves creatively. Teaching is not for everyone and not for a lot of artists; but for me I enjoy being surrounded by this environment of creative struggles and breakthroughs, and the genuine relationships you make with students. I really like the human aspect of teaching art. Usually I get to spend more than a semester with them as most of them go through the whole three-year program and are there because they want to be there. Over that time you really get to see a lot of personal growth and see them mature as artists and as people. I also think that in teaching art, I've learned a great deal about art. When you're teaching the kids, in a sense you're breaking apart the process to show them the techniques or concepts you're trying to illustrate, you're rediscovering the elements that go into the act of creating something."

Edgeworth's teaching position also allows him time in the summer to pursue his own art projects. Sometimes during the school year he'll work evenings and weekends as well on his own artwork but he tries to never let it interfere with his family, who come first in his life.

"Why do I create art? I don't do it because it's convenient that's for sure! It's a struggle. It's demanding and it takes up a lot of time; but in my free time I'll still go downstairs to try to figure out what I want to express about my ideas about the world and try to struggle with creating something. It's incredibly fulfilling, but at times the process can be torturous. It's something you have to fight with, struggle and practice for it to progress; it's a challenge. I don't look at art as a comfortable hobby but as something you need to work on continually and struggle with to take yourself to new places."

"I've experimented with every type of wet and dry media including sculpture, but right now I want to explore only painting. There's something I really like about the silence of that world, painting; in that you're presenting so much of yourself, silently. People have to walk up and investigate it and they can't ask any questions: they have to think about their own answers."

Reid has found his Mural work to be very rewarding, and is selective as to which projects he takes. With his teaching, he is not dependent on his income as an artist; so he has the luxury of choosing those projects he thinks have some kind of value and only those projects he feels strongly about. "Mural work is not suitable for all artists. Not all artists want to attempt to transfer their skills to the much larger scale of a public Mural. The whole process is somewhat different. It's very physical, plus you have the elements and the weather. It's not at all private, you're putting yourself out on display as you work so it's tougher to be introspective. Also, Murals are almost always a commissioned piece whereas smaller personal pieces on canvas often are not. You are working for a client and attempting to express the client's wishes onto the wall. Even though you don't have complete freedom when working in this situation, there's still plenty of room and a framework to do some pretty creative things on any given Mural project."

A kind, soft-spoken and gentle man, Reid is not concerned about the quantity of his output but rather the quality and nature of it. He admits that he is not exactly diligent when it comes to self-promotion. He does not exhibit at present, although is continually working on his own collection of pieces. Regardless, he always manages to find work, or vice-versa. As mentioned previously, he has to feel something for a project and have it mean something to him before he will take it on. "I have no idea what's going to happen in the future with Murals. But I know that art is my life and that I've decided to commit my life to pursuing and understanding the creative process. I am an artist and a teacher, and that's the way I have chosen to make meaning of my life- through art. I'm not worried about how many walls I'll do; I just want to do good work."

Reid Edgeworth lives in North Winnipeg with his wife and two daughters.

Email Reid Edgeworth at rtedgeworth@shaw.ca

Click here to view Reid's Winnipeg Murals.

Click here to view Reid's Portugal themed mural in the Rest In Peace section.