YAEL BROTMAN (BREITMAN)

I am a professional artist living in Toronto.  But it took me a while to figure out that that was what I wanted to do.  After high school I did an honours English degree at the U of M and then went into Fine Arts.  I was married by then, to Michael Brotman, who was three years ahead of us at Kelvin.  We travelled throughout Europe and Israel for a year before settling in Toronto.  I then got my B.Ed. from U of T and began teaching high school Art and English.  I don’t know how Rudi did it.  I hated it — not the students (they were fun and challenging) but the institutional regimentation.  After stints at the University of Toronto Fine Arts department as well as artist-in-residence in many schools, I ended up teaching at the Royal Ontario Museum, where I am a specialist in the art and social history of ancient civilizations.  I teach three days a week which allows me to carry on an active studio art practice.

I work in drawing, painting and printmaking.  I exhibit primarily in Canada but have also been included in group shows in the US and Ireland.  This spring I have three exhibits, a three-person show in Montreal, and solos in Toronto and Dawson City, Yukon.  I was awarded an artist residency in Dawson last summer and fell in love with the North.  So I’m going back with my artwork to lecture, give a workshop, and canoe and hike.  I am also politically involved in Toronto’s art community.  I have sat on the board and executive of an artist-run centre for nine years and this year was the acting chair.  Our centre represents 150 artists and besides mounting exhibitions and offering educational programs, we have been involved in fighting landlords for fair studio rents and conservative governments for support of artists and the arts in general.

Michael and I have three children, all of whom are at university now.  Michael is a child psychiatrist in private practice.  Before kids, we used to go wilderness camping.  Our goal was to hit every provincial and national park in Canada.  With the kids, we took very long driving and camping trips: to Utah and Colorado, South Dakota, the Maritimes, British Columbia, South Carolina and New York state. We’ve been caught in three tornadoes.  And now that the kids refuse to be seen with us in public, we are continuing our Canadian park quest.  Last summer we added Kluane national park to our roster.