WoBinna & Friends: About Dawn, the Artist behind WoBinna: A Proud Mother's Point of View

Photo: Dawn Palfreyman, Artist / Illustrator
Courtesy of Dawn Palfreyman

Where do I begin to tell you about my daughter Dawn, the artist behind WoBinna? For in many ways the character WoBinna is a lot like her.

Dawn, for instance, took an early lead at being an artist. If memory serves me right, she began creating things when she was about 3 years of age, she would disappear in her room and "draw pictures for Mommy", and by six or seven she was winning prizes with her art work. The first one, I remember, was a contest with the Toronto Star, they asked for Christmas card designs. Hers was chosen over hundreds of entrants, and her card was printed in the paper, plus the Star printed up cards for her as well, which I proudly sent out to all our friends and relatives that year.

Toronto Star’s Seasons Greetings Holiday Card Design Winner
Courtesy of Dawn Palfreyman

Having won this contest she had a yen to enter more, and at seven she did a poster for MacDonald’s, and won a wrist watch with Ronald MacDonald on it. Wish I still had a copy of it, but unfortunately I don’t. These are only two of many artistic accomplishments she had through her public and high school years, part of which were spent in the International School of Kenya.

I never did think it really was about winning anything that got Dawn’s artistic juices flowing, I think it is just something that is in her that she has to do. Whatever else is happening in Dawns’ life, always there is her art.

Dawn won a place at the Ontario College of Art, (after graduating from the International School in Kenya), she attended for two years, and then decided that she wanted to be a free spirit. What can I say, she is an artist in every sense of the word!

While she has an excellent feel for anatomy, and her water colours of scenes from Africa are wonderful, a number of which hang in my home, along with some charcoal sketches, and an amazing Acrylic of Lions, another of her real talents lies in her cartooning, her caricatures are so good: she does one of her Father that is brilliant.

Recently she decided to take a course in carpentry at George Brown College, not only did she excell in building things, but she also showed an excellent feel for drafting blueprints and design, it only seemed natural for her to find work using these talents, she is now in the employ of Wo-Built, doing work she really enjoys.

I believe her cartoon strip will continue to follow what she is doing in the construction business, and I, like many of you out there, look forward to WoBinna every week. By the way, many of these cartoons are drawn on the subway as Dawn goes back and forth to the jobs she is on.

I think that Dawn’s cartoon strip of WoBinna is an indicator of how much she is enjoying working for Wo-Built, a career that she decided to take on quite recently. Dawn is a true believer that women can do any job there is out there, and do it well. In a way renovating and design are right up her alley, and she is very happy being involved in the many facets that go into being involved in this business.

I for one am part of her fan base and very proud of her!