Fred Herscovitch: Biography

Fred Herscovitch was born in Montreal in 1941. He still has vivid childhood memories of being enchanted by the colours of spring flowers, autumn leaves and Victoria Day fireworks. Quite naturally, then, colour has been the primary focus of his artistic explorations.

In 1960 he entered the school of architecture at McGill University, but later transferred to Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science. Since then he has worked as an architectural draftsman for many architects and large corporations based in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. There he learned the art and science of organizing and recording complex ideas on paper. During evenings and weekends Herscovitch expressed his personal creative vision through painting, writing and music.

In 1970 he took a year off to earn a High School Teaching Diploma and a Bachelor of Education. The experience he gained in learning to organize lesson plans proved to be invaluable in Vancouver where he taught architectural drawing and Betty Edward's Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. He introduced Betty Edward's course to two Toronto schools, The Annex art Centre and The Avenue Road Arts School.

Herscovitch has exhibited his work in Canada, The US and Europe, and his work is held in international collections. He received a Vancouver Centennial Commission Award for outstanding cultural contribution to the city of Vancouver during Expo '86. His poetry and prose have been published in magazines and hard bound editions, and he has read his work publicly, as well as on television, in San Francisco, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.

Fred Herscovitch is a generalist, and has devoted his life to promoting the harmonious marriage of art and science in much the same spirit as the Renaissance artists. His creative credo is: "to make the Invisible Visible".