A West Coast artist, Leonard Brett grew up in British Columbia. His meetings with bears began on family camping trips where he was impressed, fascinated, and awed by them. As he grew into manhood, Leonard began to see nature through an aesthetic lens and drew, photographed, painted, sketched, and employed any available tool to capture its profound beauty. The paintings and poems in Short Bear Tales are inspired by stories, movies, legends, and his own experience. Leonard has ten years of art education and an MFA from Concordia University. He has camped all over Canada painting the great Canadian outdoors. He lives in Sechelt, B.C. with fellow artist Maureen Sugrue, where their local bear, Albert, tends to get into their garden.