Biographical Summary of Gerrit Verstraete
During the late 1960's, Gerrit verstraete began to develop a renewed passion for writing. The writing of poetry, however, predates to 1960, when at age 15, he first began recording impressions of life in a thick journal, given to him by a friend. In 1962, the journal was stolen, and it wasn't until 1964, when he enrolled as a student at art college, his passion for writing experienced a renewal. His first new poem was immmediately published in a community newspaper. Gerrit Verstraete's mother, Cornelia ( born in the Netherlands in 1918, as Cornelia van Dam ) was a writer of children's stories, when Gerrit was very young. She was also a school teacher. She used to read her stories to her gradeschool class in a small school in a picturesque Dutch Village, near the city of Zwolle ( the poet's birthplace ), along the IJssel River, one of the country's tributaries of the Rhine. "Regrettably," says Gerrit Verstraete, "when my mother died in 1987, any whereabouts of her stories, both published and unpublished, disappeared as well." Over the years, Gerrit Verstraete's poetry has appeared in a number of publications including poetry magazines, newspapers, as well as a private publication of 30 poems in 1975, titled: "Mid-Seventies Crisis." He has also been invited to read his poetry at public gatherings. In 1998, he began work on his first epic titled, 'In Search of a City," a lengthy account of his artistic journey of faith. In 2004, he began writing a major epic titled, "Cerulean Odyssey - epic sketches of a long distance voyager." In 2008, he began the Odyssey's fourth journey, comprising to date some 485 poems, or "tableaux" ( sketches ) as he calls them.
Gerrit Verstraete was born in the Netherlands in 1945, and he immigrated to Canada in 1958. He lives with his family on the Pacific Westcoast of British Columbia, Canada. For over 44 years since enrolling as a young student at art college, he has set as his personal goal for art and writing and other creative adventures, "to walk in the footsteps of masters," including faith in the Master of all. As husband, father, godfather, artist, writer, teacher, mentor, spiritual counselor, arts and community advocate, and poet, he has walked in many such footsteps, knowing both success and failure, fulfillment and disappointment, yet he managed all with a profound determination and inspiration to say with confidence, "there's no greater journey like it."
Gerrit Verstraete holds an associate degree, AOCA - Associate of OCAD University ( formerly: Ontario College of Art & Design ), Toronto, Canada, and has a BFA, Bachelor of Fine Arts, including an English major, from the Open University of British Columbia. He is also the founder of the Drawing Society of Canada, the International Silverpoint Archives, and an adjunt faculty member for distance education at the European Academy for Culture & Arts.
