The Robert Bateman Award 2018
I was presented with the Robert Bateman Award for 2018 by the Canadian Wildlife Federation, at their AGM in Regina on 16 June. This was my acceptance speech, with the slides I showed to illustrate it: This is a picture of me, this morning, sitting in my hotel room, planning what I would say this evening - I looked up about the Robert Bateman Award, and it seems to be about inspiring people toward nature conservation, through Art. So I thought about INSPIRATION. When I was finishing High School, I chose my vocation - I wanted a lifetime of learning, exploring nature, and being a naturalist. I decided that I would look for a job - perhaps as an assistant or technician, and there might be opportunities to do biological illustration. The CV I sent to Herpetology at the National Museum in Ottawa was so full of art that it was forwarded to the design and display department, and I became a museum illustrator. Then I married University of Toronto biologist Fred Sc