A bit of history. Murray Hay was born in October 1931 in Regina Saskatchewan. He left home and school at age 16 and wandered to Saskatoon. He was a naturally talented artist. He did take a couple of lessons in Saskatoon, but really couldn’t afford it, so wandered again. I should tell you that the Hay family play pool. All of us. Dad parlayed that talent (a little bit) to his financial advantage and found work as a commercial artist or working in print shops. He lived in Australia for a while and painted greeting cards. He came back to Vancouver and finally settled in Calgary. My older Sister and I enjoyed having a teacher Mother who left the house for work and an artist Father who stayed home and worked from his studio in the basement. We had no idea that this was unusual. This was the late 1960’s and early ‘70s. Most Dad’s went out to work and most Mom’s stayed home. We just thought it was normal. Dad painted business cards, and logos, pamphlets and posters. All hand painted (no computers) and then if the customer liked it, he’d go off to the printer and voila!
