George Fertig was a Jungian, a socialist, a symbolist and an outsider. For 40 years he struggled to survive as as artist in Vancouver, British Columbia. Part biography and part memoir, as told by his eldest daughter, this book includes fourteen years of research, interviews, letters and over one hundred and fifty rare photographs. Born in Alberta in 1915 George Fertig's creative passion began at age twenty with photography during the Depression and World War II. He lived in Fruitvale BC and was a member of the infamous Trail Mine Mill Union in the '30s. George Fertig's unique oil paintings have found no duplication in Canada. They range from early landscapes, to large powerful archetypal images and small numinous meditations on eternity.

Mona Fertig is a poet, publisher, editor and founder of The Literary Storefront, Canada’s first literary centre (1978-1985) and Mother Tongue Publishing. She grew up in Vancouver’s Kitsilano and Burnaby and attended the Vancouver School of Art. She has been writing poetry since she was a teenager and has given hundreds of readings in many cities and towns across Canada as well as NYC and San Francisco. Her books of poetry include Mouth for Music (1979), 4722 Rue Berri (1986), Sex, Death & Travel (1998) and The Unsettled (2010), well as The Life and Art of George Fertig (2010). Fertig edited the anthologies Love of the Salish Sea Islands, The Summer Book, and 111 West Coast Literary Portraits (2012). She assisted in curating the George Fertig and Jack Akroyd exhibitions at the Burnaby Art Gallery, and the Unheralded Artists of BC Exhibition at Mahon Hall. She was a founding member of the Feminist Caucus of the League of Canadian Poets, The Federation of BC Writers, the BC Book Prizes, and has been the BC/Yukon Rep of The Writers’ Union of Canada and P.E.N. Canada. In 2016, the Vancouver Public Library honored her as a Literary Landmark. She has lived on Salt Spring Island with her husband Peter Haase, for over 30 years, where they raised two children.

Mona Fertig's profile page