Biography-Robert K. Schwartz

I guess my life as a child was very normal growing up in the rolling pastures and woodlots of southern Ontario in the 60’s. If there was an influence towards the outdoors and wildlife in general it came from my family who had hunted and trapped and guided well to do Americans for their livelihood for many years. My mother’s side of the family was part Ottawa –Objibway so the outdoors was a way of life.

My earliest memories pertained to my mother and grandmother escorting me in the fields at a very young age (preschool) hunting groundhogs with a small rifle or shotgun. When I was approaching school age my mother insisted it was time to leave Roslyn Park farms (my dad managed a turkey farm) and move to the city.

Even there with only a few blocks from the fields orchards and woodlots I often entertained myself by exploring the countryside near our home in the city. With pellet rifle and a few friends we explored and hunted the rural area near our city long before the endless factories and subdivisions were built. This was long before the age of computers video games and even Television so it seemed normal to us to seek out and study wildlife to entertain and educate ourselves. Often our hunting trips were only partially successful for although we seldom caught a rabbit, bird or turtle my mother grew fearsome of checking my jacket or pants pockets at laundry time for after finding out snakes, frogs and other critters were frequently forgotten in those pockets.

My father kept his love for wildlife and birds in particular alive in the city by raising a few pigeons so I have been around birds all my life helping with the feeding of orphaned squabs with feeding tubes and watery mashes of pigeon pellets.

As a young teen I still ventured into the parklands around my home and once found a black duck alive but frozen in a stream near my home. I freed it and tried to nurse it back to health but it only lasted one day after being rescued. Trying to preserve those beautiful feathers as I remembered them on the live bird I attempted my first crude experiment with taxidermy which failed miserably. It was many years later taking a community college taxidermy course for amateurs that I learned the basics of bird anatomy and preserving wild skins to add to my collection now that I had graduated to a young man and hunter. The meeting of multiple world champion taxidermist Ken Morrison who became a good friend and hunting partner for many years expedited my learning curve and techniques to the point where I won Best of Show in the Amateur division at the Canadian Taxidermy Association championships in Toronto in 1982. Ken was heavily influenced in his work and painting by multiple World Champion carver Paul Burdette who lived in southern Ontario so Ken dabbled in carving from time to time.

With my first meeting of Paul in 1983, both he and Ken encouraged me to try carving for as they said “as an award winning taxidermist you already know the basic anatomy and feather groups”. I carved recreationally for 20 years before meeting a very talented carver and painter locally in Calgary by the name of Malcolm Ho You. Malcolm not only helped to refine my painting style but also encouraged me to compete my then often crude renditions of waterfowl specifically decoys. I was unable to travel to Edmonton to my first show in 2001 so sent my two entries along with Malcolm and to my surprise he returned with both a first and second place ribbon on my entries a few days later.

The addiction was completed with those two first ribbons and I tried even harder to hone my skills for future competition making better decoys each year. In 2003, I was introduced to multiple World Champion Master carver Pat Godin by a mutual friend who looking at my work stated he liked some of what he saw for it appeared I had a knowledge and love of birds but required a little anatomy and technique help to achieve the vision of the species in my head translated to carved wood and paint. Pat became my mentor and friend and helped me refine my techniques so I was able to place two birds as second in species in the Lem and Steve Ward Contemporary Decoys division at the Ward World Championships in 2006.

I hope to continue to grow as an artist over the years now that my passion for carving birds has become not only my dream come true but also a substantial portion of my income since going full time as an artist in 2003.

Rob Schwartz

Calgary Canada March 2008

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