For the past 12 years, Kitsilano Secondary's Craig Brumwell has been living two lives.

During the day, the "recovering rugby" player, former PE teacher and current social studies department head at Kitsilano Secondary spends his days teaching hundreds of students to love geography. Towards the end of the year, Brumwell is also known as the official Kitsilano caricature artist for his humorous drawings of retiring staff.

"Craig does an enormous amount around the school. He leads technology initiatives at the school. He coaches track and field all the while teaching PE and senior social studies courses," says Ellen Roberts, Principal of Kitsilano Secondary and a longtime friend of Brumwell (since pre-school). "He's amazing!"

But once night falls, Brumwell has been indulging his secret passion of art.  

For the past 12 years, he's been working his way through a Bachelor in Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. In his spare time (which sometimes meant 2 AM), Brumwell slowly but surely worked to complete his degree.

"I can't imagine how hard it would have been to complete this degree, work full-time and actively raise a family of three kids," says Roberts.

This week, Brumwell was celebrating all those years of hard-work with his first solo exhibition at Byng Art Gallery.

"Right of Way" featured a series of charcoal drawings of intricate railroad tracks. The exhibit will be open for public viewing at the Byng Gallery from September 17 until September 21 from 3:30 - 5:30 pm.

Brumwell says while he already has a few gigs working on portraits, his main focus post-show will be to submit some of his work to other Vancouver art galleries with the aim of gradually building a reputation in the small, but vibrant, Vancouver art community. To learn more about Brumwell's work, click here.