Creating Magic

"Everyone has a creative spirit inside them," writes Ellen Anderson, President of the Creative Spirit Art Centre in Toronto. "Without art, we are lifeless."

Art is an integral part of our Canadian culture. The sheer volume of art produced by people who have disabilities is proof positive that disability does not have to interfere with creative expression -- on the contrary: in many cases, a disability enhances it.

In this issue we bring you many examples of Canadians with disabilities, living and dead, who have contributed their gifts to our artistic culture. We’ve also provided a list of resources for those of you who feel inspired by this feature to open up your own creative opportunities.

BILL REID
Bill Reid played a prominent role in the flowering of Haida culture in recent decades. Reid’s artistic work has many facets -- he was a sculptor, jeweller, poet, writer and illustrator. Perhaps best known as a jeweller, Reid created intricate and beautiful pieces in gold and other precious metals. In his work he combined both Haida and Western art traditions, creating in the process a bold new style and giving Haida art an international identity and presence.

Some of Reid’s work is on permanent display at the Canadian Museum of Civilization and forms an important part of its collections. In addition, Reid created monumental works that grace architectural complexes across North America, including his largest and most complex sculpture, "Spirit of Haida Gwaii," a five-ton bronze sculpture at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The "Spirit of Haida Gwaii" features Raven and Eagle, the two principal Haida lineages that are equal and represent two halves of a whole. The sculpture encompasses mythical creatures, animals, men and women, who together symbolize not just one culture but the entire family of living beings. The canoe is filled to overflowing with creatures who bite and claw one another as they doggedly paddle along.

Reid, who had Parkinson’s disease, died last March in Vancouver at the age of 78. He is sorely missed by many in the art community. Dr. George F. MacDonald, President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, says that Reid "did more, perhaps, than any single artist in the past few decades to raise the profile of Aboriginal art in Canada and around the world."

MAURICE LWAMBWA-TSHANY
Maurice Lwambwa-Tshany was born in Lumbumbashi, in Zaire. The sculptor, who makes his home today in Montreal, says he is "a fervent believer in the universality of culture."

Lwambwa-Tshany contracted polio while still a toddler. He uses a wheelchair for mobility; his parents always declared that their son would succeed in life using his hands and his head instead of his legs.

Lwambwa-Tshany feels bound to the earth and its clay by the inspiration it provokes. His sculpting technique expresses his feelings about the mystery within clay. Fire and its magic heighten the spellbinding aspect of his sculptures.

The work of Lwambwa-Tshany has been exhibited in numerous shows across the world, including galleries in France, Italy, Africa, the United States, Austria, Hungary and Canada. Today, Lwambwa-Tshany is the founder and manager of an art studio in Montreal, and participates in many community organizations on disability, culture and art.

MAUD LEWIS
Maud Lewis (1903-1970) is considered one of Nova Scotia’s most-loved folk artists. Her brightly coloured paintings show nostalgic recollections of sleigh rides, coastal fishing villages and small farms.

Lewis also covered her tiny Digby house with magical flowers, animals and birds, painting every available surface -- from the front door and stairs to household objects such as the dustpan and washbasin. Local residents and visiting passers-by learned about her amazing Painted House through word of mouth, and began stopping to purchase her paintings.

Despite the obvious joy in her work, Lewis dealt with pain from rheumatoid arthritis, and poverty. Her husband, Everett, was a local fish peddlar whom she met when he posted an advertisement for a live-in housekeeper. Maud Lewis lived almost as a recluse. But her art possesses a charm and happiness, illuminating the best of the human spirit.

Lewis’s work hangs in galleries and collections in Europe and across North America. Also, a special exhibition of her paintings and artifacts, "The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis," is touring the nation this year, thanks to the sponsorship of Scotiabank in partnership with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. The exhibition will be at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, in B.C., until October 18; it will later tour the Maritime provinces. For more information, call Janet Conover, Arts & Communications, (416) 966-3421.

JAN SWINBURNE
Jan Swinburne was born in the United States but moved to Montreal early in her life. She was educated at the Ontario College of Art and has remained in Toronto since. Her depression, which has been with her since her late teens, and related experiences such as a stay at a psychiatric institution have greatly influenced her artistic direction. Swinburne has held group and solo exhibitions in Toronto and Montreal since 1980. She has also run an open creative studio for psychiatric survivors with creative interests.

Swinburne’s paintings include repeated themes that are "concerned with the existential and metaphysical -- the spirit in relationship to itself, others and circumstance." She uses her symbols and materials as equations of feeling.

Swinburne’s large paintings are "an arbitration of paradox"; for example, her shadow-like, dark figures are surrounded by light. More recently she has been working with abstracted pools of copper pigment and paint, "strange nebulae dependent on specific light situations for their revelation."

MICHELE CARLTON
"My vision does not impair me from being an artist," Michele Carlton says. "The technical problems are solved, more or less" -- such as cutting her brush handles short so she doesn’t jab herself working so close to the canvas -- "and now I can share my experiences and visions."

Carlton received training at Georgian College’s School of Design and Visual Arts in Owen Sound, Ontario. She received the Visual Arts Award upon her graduation. Her work has been chosen for over 20 exhibitions and her paintings belong in many private and public collections in Canada and the U.S.A.

In her work, Carlton uses knitting needles to scratch through the paint on her canvases, showing the colour underneath and creating a strong texture. She loves colour and texture as well as strong lines. Currently, Carlton is interested in landscape painting. "I want to bring the viewer into the work, to experience all of this in both the figurative and the landscape works."

GABE ANDERSON
Gabe Anderson is the inspiration behind the Creative Spirit Art Centre in Toronto. He has cerebral palsy and a developmental disability, and works at his art five days a week. His mother, Ellen Anderson, established the centre in 1992 to provide art education and studio space to people with disabilities. "At Creative Spirit we believe that all people have the right to express themselves through the magic of art," Ellen writes. "It is something that people both able and disabled can do equally well... The right to self-expression is our most valuable asset." Her son Gabe Anderson’s works are about the world he sees, the doughnut shop across the road or places he sees in his imagination.

PUBLICATIONS:

"Entourage," Summer 1997 special issue
Theme: Disability Pride and Culture, with guest editor Catherine Frazee
Published by The Roeher Institute
Phone: (416) 661-9611
Toll-free: 1-800-856-2207
Fax: (416) 661-5701

"Kaleidoscope"
International Magazine of Literature, Fine Arts and Disability
Published semi-annually
United Disability Services
Phone: (330) 762-9755 (in Ohio)

NETWORKS AND ORGANIZATIONS:

Creative Spirit Art Centre
Ellen Anderson
Toronto, Ontario
(416) 588-8801
Fax: (416) 535-4270

Whatsoever Community Outreach
Bruno Kuemin
Toronto, Ontario
Phone: (416) 733-0989
Fax: (416) 512-2226

Network on Disability Pride and Culture
Catherine Frazee
Toronto, Ontario
Phone: (416) 924-5502
Fax: (416) 923-4723
E-mail: cfrazee@web.net

Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists
Myron Angus
St. Thomas, Ontario
Phone: (519) 633-5670
Fax: (519) 633-4294
Website: http://www.amfpa.com

Eureka! Fine Arts Centre
Pam Barnslee
Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: (604) 874-1464
Fax: (604) 874-1401

Ability Art Centre Society
North Vancouver, B.C.
Phone: (604) 985-2849

POST-SECONDARY ART AND DESIGN SCHOOLS:

Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
Shelley Clayton, Student Services Coordinator
5163 Duke St.
Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 3J6
Phone: (902) 494-8130

Ontario College of Art and Design
Cynthia Richardson, Coordinator of Special Needs
100 McCaul St., Ste. 243
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1W1
Phone: (416) 977-5311

Alberta College of Art and Design
Paul Roberge, Counselling Services
1406 14th Ave. N.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2N 4R3
Phone: (403) 284-7666
E-mail: paul.roberge@acad.ab.ca

Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design
Lee Nicholas, Disability Services Coordinator
1399 Johnston St.
Vancouver, B.C. V6H 3R9
Phone: (604) 844-3873
E-mail: lnicholas@eciad.bc.ca