Dawn M. Mockler
Categories: Female Authors - Anglophone Authors - Illustrators - Acadian Coast - Saint John River Valley
Source: Author / auteure
Biography
I was born and raised in Belledune, NB, and my father and I shared a love of both cartoons and nature. (He was an avid vegetable gardener, while mom grew beautiful flowers.) I was very shy and found drawing [to be] a way to communicate without words. I won the art award for Bathurst High School class of ‘84. Life took me in a different direction, but my BSc Biology and BSc Physiotherapy pointed me in the direction of climate activism. (I am a member of CAPE – the Association of Canadian Cartoonists, [as well as] the Fredericton Art Alliance). My vaccine cartoon went viral in 2020/21 and was used in the Canadian Medical Association's vaccine awareness campaign.
My 2025 publication, Save the Earth(lings), is a collection of environmental cartoons under the pen name Dawnymock.
How has New Brunswick influenced your work?
Growing up in rural NB, I remember a year when blight took my father's potato crop, and how upset he was. I understand how much work, and how much weather-luck is involved with growing food. Growing up without cable TV, I also had a lot of time to hone my drawing skills, so connecting concern for environment with art was kind of inevitable.
My paintings are most often inspired by the natural beauty of New Brunswick, and this finds its way into my cartoon art also. NB is my muse.
What is your favourite New Brunswick book, and why?
Great Trees of NB (David Palmer & Tracy Glynn), both because it is a beautiful book, but also because I had given it to my father and we both enjoyed it.
What do you consider to be the highlight of your career so far?
I worked on a campaign to help free Eaten Fish – a young cartoonist held in a refugee jail in Australia. He was freed in 2017, after 4 years of imprisonment. One of my cartoons was included in Gagged – a UK exhibit promoting press freedom. [That] Eaten Fish exhibit was later displayed [at the Westminster Reference Library near] the British Parliament. Not bad for a shy kid from Belledune.
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Featured Publication |
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Save the Earth(lings) (2025) |
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Find this author in the New Brunswick public libraries catalogue.
Source(s): Author.
