At times whimsical, at times satiric, ever playful, Bob Haverluck ‘s comic art engages the violence against the watery earth and her creatures. As well, his drawings unfold the adventures of those who love-labour for the watery earth and the creatures. They unfold the activists’ inevitable sadness, anger, fear and weariness. As well, many are the depictions of the delight and gratitude for life inseparable from the wild bush garden of this place.
Haverluck has been artist-in-residence for several year long projects using the arts to help attend to the well being of the earth with eyes to urban no less than countryside contexts. Projects included: “City of Trees, World of Trees”; “Arts of Water” and “The Talking Water Project”. From 2001-2003 Bob served a two year residency at the University of Winnipeg: “City of Wounds, City of Mending”. Bob has led conferences and university courses focusing on the arts and social change in Chicago, CapeTown, Toronto, and Vancouver.
Often with an eye to comedy and the tragi-comic vision in a world that confuses being earnest with being serious, Haverluck’s drawings have appeared in Harpers, New Statesman, This Magazine, Canadian Dimension, etc. He was awarded a silver medal from the Canadian Magazine Awards for a series of drawings in the arts magazine Border Crossings. His cartoons have appeared in books of political economy, geography, and social psychology and in numerous books on conflict and peacemaking. Bob’s most recent publication was his “When God was Flesh and Wild: Stories in Defence of the Earth” (2017) with over fifty coloured drawings.
Bob has had exhibitions of his work in Chicago, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Cape Town, Riding Mountain National Park, Lake of the Woods, Kenora, Toronto and downtown Dauphin.
