New Old Me

The New Old Me by Wild Bill

Let me introduce myself. You can see what an aging young guy looks like by referring to the edited photo in my profile. I'm William James Johnson when I'm pretending to be more important than normal. I like using the name, because it sounds like I'm a writer, when in fact, I am a professional portrait painter and I sign my work with simply "Johnson". Look me up in the national gallery's "Dictionary of Canadian Artists". It says that I'm known for outstanding portrait painting. Not exactly faint praise.

Now that we know each other a little more, you can call me "Noozoon" a coined word which means "New Life." I'll tell you more about that in another post. Or if you want to be really friendly, just call me "Bill". One of my best friends has taken to calling me "Wild Bill." Makes me feel I should be doing something about it.

If you're interested I can tell you about the excitement I had as a war artist for the Department of National Defence on three missions to Cyprus to document the work of our "Peace Keeper Troops."

In another life fifty years ago, I spent nine weeks living with Eskimos in Canada's Arctic. Have you ever seen the glory of the northern lights in the midst of a Norwegian winter. I had the urgent call of my bladder screaming for relief, when at 3AM I stood in long underwear and boots in knee deep snow and was overwhelmed by the magic of dancing green and yellow reams of colour pouring over the snow. You realize of course I am referring to the dancing waves of the aurora borealis. That is what I meant.