M Allgoewer bio

HA&L Biographical Sketch Michael Allgoewer [from issue one.1 2008] My mother finally had enough and in 1952 she came to Canada on her own, from Germany. She came to find her fiancé, who had taken up with a French Canadian girl without telling her. The scoundrel’s best friend was dispatched to meet her and break the news. I was conceived shortly thereafter and the upstanding guy became my father. We lived in Montreal and Arthur Lismer carried me on his shoulders during the drawing course my father took at l'École des beaux-arts de Montréal. We moved to  Windsor, Amherstburg, and Orillia. As an outstanding student, I was introverted and bookish until grade 11, when I discovered that alcohol and women do mix. The late seventies and early eighties were a purple haze of the transient life and jobs as an orderly, a salmon fisherman, and the town animal control officer. At the age of thirty-two, I enrolled in an art college in Toronto and discovered that Joseph Beuys really existed.At some point the temptations of Hamilton became so great that I moved here and against enormous odds I have stayed. I have a house I share with my wife, who is a martyr and often a saint. The two cats control my life, and my daughter calls every week. I make art. Now, enjoy Requiem for a Garden Gnome by Michael Allgoewer [This HA&L biographical sketch and introduction © 2011 MA.]