Entertainer puts his artistic talents to good use

A Maltese art teacher will be using his artistic flair to raise money for Dar tal-Providenza - the Siggiewi homes for the handicapped - while on holiday in Canada this summer.

Frank O'Neill has a knack for turning a person's signature into a caricature He asks people to sign their name and to furnish him with some information about themselves. He works around the signature, creating a caricature of the person with the signature forming part of it.

He has already done this to raise money for Dar tal-Providenza while holidaying in Ireland last year.

There, the art teacher and entertainer was attending the annual music festival Fleadh Cheoil in the northern town of Letterkenny. His attempts went down well with the Irish, and two newspapers in the northwestern Irish county of Donegal wrote about his endeavour.

Mr O'Neill had always doodled and, as he grew older, decided to take it further. The artist has done over 30,000 signature caricatures, which include some world-famous people.

Last year he got the opportunity to do the caricature from the signature of film director Steven Spielberg - a lifelong idol for the artist - while Mr Spielberg was here filming the movie Munich. He also drew the caricatures for Russell Crowe and Joachim Phoenix while they were here shooting Gladiator in 1999.