Art in all forms is powerful, beautiful, essential

my downstairs collage table area

Way back in the late 1970s when I lived in a studio apartment, I plastered the walls with posters bought from the twice-yearly Imaginus art sale on campus. I loved wandering through the displays, choosing the pieces I wanted to have in my tiny home. Because I had discovered the Impressionists when I lived in Paris for a few months between high school and university, many of the posters I bought were reproductions of paintings by Degas, Monet, Manet, Pissaro, and others. I didn’t care that they were posters, ‘mere’ reproductions and unframed, I simply enjoyed their colour and beauty.

Fast forward several decades and I now have original art hanging on the walls of my home, though not one piece is by an Impressionist. Instead, they are by my partner Val (acrylic paintings), by my paternal grand-mother (watercolours), or by friends (various media). Upstairs, the art is hung with intent. Downstairs, where I have my writing desk and my collage table, I have replicated the “plaster the walls” effect from my uni days with all manner of art. I like it — full, eclectic, lively. I add to, take away from, or rearrange the collection as I wish and as my interests change.

That is the beauty of art: It reflects back to us something from within ourselves that, maybe, we cannot name but that we feel and that we appreciate. Art is important.

This was boldly evident at the fundraising event for The Valiant Theatre last Friday. The stage showcased comedy and music, while the foyer hosted an art raffle and an art auction. The tickets for the raffle flew from the sellers’ hands into the bags — one in front of each piece donated by a friend of The Valiant. Like a piece? Put lots of tickets in the bag to up your chances of winning. The art auction was a little more nerve-racking: How high would the bidding go for that piece the bidder had their eye on?

At the end of evening, when the winners came to collect their piece, it was glorious to see the joy on their face at being the new owner of the item they had set their heart on. “I really really wanted this piece,” said one young woman. Another clutched the painting to her saying, “This is just beautiful. I’m so glad it’s mine.”

That is the power of art: It reaches into our heart. It opens our mind and claims us with its image, its colours, and its story. When that connection is made, whether we own the piece or merely view it in a gallery or museum, we are changed. So when Kelly Hughes, the visionary behind The Valiant Theatre, says “Art will save us all”, I believe it.

Whether that art is a painting, a photograph or a scrap of a drawing; a piece of pottery or stained glass; a poem read aloud or a piece read by the writer, those of us seeing and listening — those of us paying attention — are connecting with something bigger than ourselves. In every form, art can spark our emotions, it has the power to move us, and when we are moved the possibility of change exists — within us and beyond us.

my downstairs writing desk area

more of my downstairs writing desk area

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.