I first met William at his studio on Quadra many years ago. I grew up surrounded by his incredible art work as every one of our family friends owned one of his pieces and I remember it was such an honour to meet him in person. It was like meeting a rockstar (but more fishy and therefore much better). After he had given us a tour of his gallery (a mind blowing display of the marine biodiversity of our coast) he asked me, as a diver, if he had gotten the colours right on a prowfish model. Having just returned from a dive job in Alaska and having spent a lot of quality time with a number of prowfish, I told him I would send him my underwater photos so he could use them for colour references. We struck up a grand friendship based on our mutual fascination with the marine life of the BC coast and exchanged many emails. I continued to send him my photos over the years and then painted buoys and he would send me old fishing books and quirky obscure fish models (my favourite quote from one of his letters was: the world doesn’t know that it needs more wryfish). He cared passionately about the marine life on our coast and was involved in getting species the recognition they deserve. I am heart broken, we were chatting just before Christmas about fish and sunflower sea stars and the birth of his new grandchild. My heart goes out to William’s family and friends. I am so sorry for your loss. The world for me has lost a bit of bioluminescence. William, you were one cool dude.
