John Givins

As a young boy, John Givins showed very little artistic promise, yet he inherited a curious creative gene from his mother’s side and at the age of 24, in the tropics of southern India, began pen and ink illustrations and acrylic surrealist paintings at an ashram, The World Academy of Wonder.
On his return to Vancouver in 1976, he attended Langara College where he acquired a diploma in Fine Arts. He then moved on to Emily Carr University of Art + Design graduating in 1985 in the fascinating world of ceramics. He was commissioned to create ceramic relief murals of sea life for local and international restaurants, businesses and hotels.
John subsidized his sculpting by refinishing yachts, home restoration and finishing carpentry, while concurrently teaching ceramics for ten years with the Vancouver School Board.
In 1996, he met his wife when commissioned to tailor her kitchen cabinets, hence the first section of this volume are poems for his love. Nowadays, John and Trish divide their time between Vancouver and Bowen Island.
In 2019 John put down his skill saw and retired to his man shed. Walking local beaches, he discovered beauty in random pieces of driftwood and transferred his love of ceramic sculpture into creating whimsical wooden vessels with animated clay characters.
Blowing Up Growing Up will be John’s first published poetry collection, was published in spring 2024 as both a print volume and an epub (Kindle, Kobo and B&N Nook).