Fine Arts and Technology Leadership: A Shared Canvas
My work as a painter is not a departure from technology leadership, it is a parallel discipline that shapes how I think, lead, and solve problems. Painting has trained me to observe nuance, to stay with uncertainty longer than most, and to embrace the full spectrum of emotion and complexity before moving toward resolution. This translates directly into how I lead in high-stakes environments.
Creating art that evokes, challenges, or disrupts reflects my comfort with tension and transformation. These are the same conditions present in digital innovation and enterprise change. Just as a canvas evolves through layers, a business or system evolves through friction, vision, and iteration. I do not paint to escape structure, I paint to better understand it.
Through fine arts, I have developed a mindset that values experimentation, emotional resonance, and meaning beyond the surface. These qualities inform how I manage teams, guide executive strategy, and respond to the unexpected. I lead with the same creativity and presence I bring to every brushstroke, focused, deliberate, curious.
This perspective allows me to:
- Approach complex technical or business challenges from new visual and emotional angles
- Navigate ambiguity with confidence and calm
- Foster team environments that encourage originality and personal expression
- Build solutions that are not just functional but layered and thoughtful
In a technology landscape that often emphasizes speed and precision, my fine arts background helps me see where humanity fits into the system. It fuels emotional intelligence and keeps my problem-solving expansive yet grounded. It gives me an edge in connecting with clients and stakeholders who are not just seeking efficiency but authenticity.
Being an artist allows me to bring intuition to logic, depth to systems, and story to strategy. That combination is not only rare, it is increasingly essential.
2020-2021 It’s all about Creating
As part of a juried selection in 2020–2021, one of my original watercolor paintings was chosen to be exhibited at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in Toronto. This work was placed on loan for a full year as part of their Exhibits and Programs collection, where it represents not only my artistic practice but also the importance of creative expression in civic spaces.
Due to public health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislative Assembly remained closed to visitors for much of the exhibition period—making this perhaps the most well-guarded and least-seen artwork in recent Ontario history.
The piece remains available for acquisition through the Legislative Assembly’s program at the conclusion of its display term. While it may have been hidden from view, it remains a proud milestone in my journey as an artist.
“Cherry tree where it ain’t supposed to be!”
On Display (2020) – Art à la Carte Program, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
This original watercolor painting is an experimental impressionistic piece, created using a blend of traditional watercolor, India ink, and gold ink. The composition captures the serene shimmer of a morning landscape—fluid, textural, and dreamlike.
The work explores the unpredictable and playful nature of water-based media, allowing pigments and ink to bleed and flow beyond rigid form, creating a sense of spontaneity and conceptual depth. Gold ink catches light at different angles, bringing the scene to life as the viewer moves around it.
At its heart lies a cherry tree beside a quiet creek—not drawn from observation, but summoned from imagination. It exists somewhere between memory and possibility, hidden within the soft chaos of color and line.
For purchase of this original piece you can still contact:
Haley | Exhibits & Programs Coordinator
Parliamentary Protocol and Public Relations
Legislative Assembly of Ontario
191-111 Wellesley Street West
Toronto, Ontario M7A 1A2
Telephone: 416-325-8094
Email: pppr@ola.org
2019-2020 – The First Adventure
“Passing Gesture” – Digital Painting
This piece represents a turning point in my creative journey. While I’ve long been engaged with the arts, one of the most humbling and formative moments came in 2019, when a painting of mine was selected for the “Gathering” collection at Mississauga Central Library as part of their Community Art Exhibition. That experience solidified my commitment to maintaining a creative practice alongside my work as a technology executive, one that informs how I lead, listen, and make meaning.
“Passing Gesture” builds on that foundation. It captures a moment suspended between presence and memory, figures seated around a picnic table, some vibrant, some fading, all sharing space yet not fully anchored in it. A single raised hand introduces ambiguity: a wave, a farewell, a pause in conversation. The background glows with a surreal orange horizon, cutting across an otherwise cool-toned dreamscape.
Created digitally but painted with emotional intent, this work explores how time, memory, and emotional proximity distort our perception of everyday scenes. It is not a recreation of a real moment, but a reflection of one that could have been, anchored in the universal experience of fleeting connection.
“Passing Gesture” is not simply a moment observed. It is a meditation on what lingers after the conversation ends, and how we carry connection—even in silence.
Large Canvas or Prints for purchase
On Sale at Society6.com
