I am an Irish, Manx, and English Canadian born in Chilliwack on unceded Stó:lō territory. I grew up in the forests of the Chilliwack River and Fraser River watersheds. My parents are both artistic folks and taught me about nature and how to conduct myself outdoors in relation to rocks and forests, roots and plants. My communities include rural and urban folks in the Fraser Valley and Vancouver, the Mennonite community I was brought up among there, my family in the Okanagan, on Vancouver Island, and in the Alberta and Saskatchewan prairies.

When I was young I spent much of my time being with the land and plant life in the Chilliwack River Valley. I enjoyed drawing casually in an abstract way. In my adolescence and young adulthood, I studied logic, math, philosophy, and programming and worked in this area. Later, while living in Saskatoon, I came upon philosophical Taoism and then Christianity. I became interested in liberation theology, interfaith dialogue, and inter-cultural metaphysics in general. During this time I lived in Chilliwack and briefly Victoria and was involved in photography, woodwork, lutherie, and ceramics, and I worked in graphic design.

I began changing careers, and during my doctoral studies in counselling psychology I recovered a sense of traditionality through my upbringing in the forest, faith traditions, and by learning about the colonial history of Canada and of the British in Ireland. I had always drawn and painted a little but never representationally or with reference photos or en plein air until around 2009. Having this connection made me very excited. I have been painting steadily since then and it has become my way of working through my own experiences and connections with land and situated being.

I am married to a wonderful and creative woman and live and work gratefully in the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan People, as well as in Stó:lō, Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories.

I work mostly in watercolour on paper, but I occasionally do larger format oil and acrylic on wood and canvas. I am an active member of the Federation of Canadian Artists.

In part adapted from:

Clegg, D. J., & Marker, M. (2021). The metaphysics of counselling history on colonized land. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 55(2), 232–257. https://doi.org/10.47634/cjcp.v55i2.71141

Clegg, D. J. (2020). A decolonial critique of metaphysics in counselling psychology education [University of British Columbia]. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0392917