Artist – Cynthia Reyes

When Anger Leads to Art

July 10, 2019July 10, 2019 Cynthia Reyes

Imagine: you’re an attorney in New York, dealing with brutal cases and people — some of whom are your colleagues.

One day, out of the blue, you discover a love for painting. At first, it’s only stress-relief. Then onlookers start reacting. It seems you may have some talent.

Blog Photo - JJ Trees and city

A wife and mother of two young children, JJ did her best to ‘leave the work at work’. But two years ago, she felt her frustration growing.

“Being a Black woman in the legal profession in New York City can be brutal. I have been bullied countless times by my White adversaries.”

Worse, she came to realize: “There is nothing fair about the justice system in America”. That was a heart-breaker; JJ had attended law school because she thought she could make “real change”.

Then she started to read news stories about another woman of colour being bullied — very publicly — in newspapers and online. JJ felt immediate empathy for her.

“Seeing a hardworking, passionate, intelligent, go-getter woman of colour being demonized, dehumanized on a daily basis by a segment of the media not because of anything she has done, but because of her Blackness” triggered both a realization and an awakening.

“The world will not change much as long as there are closed-minded people who would rather dwell on negativity than shedding light on the good in this world. It won’t change as long as people with public platforms continue to use their platforms to spread lies and half-truths. Some people have been suppressing their hate, waiting for the right moment to strike.”

Blog Photo - JJ first art class - woman painting

During this time of growing frustration, JJ attended a friend’s bridal shower and was invited to take an art class there with other women.

Before it was over, she was hooked.

Blog Photo - JJ 2nd painting

“Until that class, I never painted a day in my life.

“I got married immediately after law school, had my first baby within that year. I never even thought about taking a painting class until my friend’s bridal shower. I was suddenly hit with a realization that I probably missed my calling.”

She started to post her early paintings on social media.

Blog Photo - JJ Woman and Baby

Encouragement turned into admiration. Admiration turned into purchases.

Blog Photo - JJ Trees and water

Stephanie, a Canadian buyer of one of JJ’s paintings says:

“I feel blessed to have watched and encouraged her growth as an artist. What inspires me is her expression of life with passion, strength and such beauty it literally hits me in the belly when I look at them. Whether it’s on social media or at my home where I have two gorgeous paintings, I smile with great pride for a sister of the soul.”

Blog Photo - JJ Waterfall-under-the-moonlight

JJ says painting allows her freedom.

“I can be brutally honest, and a lot of people don’t like honesty. Painting allows me to use my creativity as well as my honesty. Through my painting, I express myself freely without the constraint society places on women, especially a Black woman like myself.”

Blog Photo - JJ Waterfall3

JJ’s paintings arouse different emotions in the people who have purchased them or encouraged her to turn her hobby into her dream.

Blog Photo - JJ Trees3

Ava, who lives in Texas, says JJ’s paintings give her “instant peace and joy”.

“I like her paintings because they make me feel serenity and they have an effortless effulgence to them. I think her work is professional and more than just a hobby. She has talent, the kind you are born with and the kind you have to work hard to achieve.”

JJ paints almost every day, and has recently launched her website myhobbyturns2dream.com .

Blog Photo - JJ Barn Village

POSTSCRIPT: JJ didn’t want to identify the woman who helped inspire her art “because so many use her name for the wrong reasons.”

I insisted.

She then revealed: “I confess that without the hateful media campaign against Duchess (of Sussex) Meghan, I am not sure I would have looked for a hobby to channel my anger and frustration against racism.”

Blog Photo - JJ Sisterly

Quoting Michael Jackson’s lyric “Man in the Mirror”, JJ says that, with her paintings, “I’m starting with the woman in the mirror. I’m asking her to change her ways. And no message could have been clearer.”

But her greatest realization was inspired by the duchess herself, who has persevered and succeeded, in spite of the hate against her.

“It made me realize I should not settle for anything less than greatness.”

*The paintings above may not be replicated. Property of the artist.*

A Good Home, Art, Artists, Arts, Canadian life, Creative Writing, Poetry

Home Is Where The Art Is

February 23, 2016February 23, 2016 Cynthia Reyes

So — you think your dwelling is too small? Try living on a boat.

Margaret Mair and husband Richard live on their boat “Into The Blue”. Margaret also paints and writes her poetry there. And produces her blog.

Margaret's Boat

“The space is very compact, and set up for both living and sailing”, she says. “That means having to think about everything we bring on board: it must be something we need (that includes art supplies, for me) and can store securely.”

Some people have a room to create their art. Margaret has “a corner”.

Margaret's Corner on her boat

There are advantages. She and Richard have traveled widely, from Canada to the US, the Caribbean, and elsewhere.

“We can cast off our boat and move, go exploring or visiting and know that we have our own comfortable place to stay. Anyone who lives on a boat lives very close to nature. We have an intimate relationship with the weather: when the wind blows hard the boat rocks and creaks and the ropes groan; when the sun shines the water sparkles; ripples on the water gurgle against the hull of the boat.”

Margaret's Painting of Boat on Beach

Margaret’s poems and pictures often reflect her close relationship with the sea:

It calls, the sea,
To the restless boat
Uncomfortably cotched
On a sandy shore,
Longing for
Rocking waves
And cooling current
And the feel
Of wake moving
Singingly along
Her planked hull….

Acrylic on canvasboard; 20 x 16

Margaret started writing poetry as a teenager. She started painting in her forties, first learning to draw and work with colour – chalk pastels.

“I worked my way through chalk pastels to experimenting with other media until I arrived at the medium I most frequently use, acrylics.”

Margaret Mair's painting - We are Islands

“It took a friend’s introduction to SPARK in 2011 to make me think most deeply about how paintings and poetry could work together. I did not really start creating my own melding of the two until quite recently – January 2014.”

Many poems and pictures followed, as you can see on her blog.

Her pieces often evoke powerful responses.

“Everyone responds in their own way, and finds the thing or things that speak to them and their experience.

“I gave my mother a piece that hung on her wall until she died, a first iteration of my Tree of Life, much larger and more delicate. One day while I was visiting I watched a young girl stand silently in front of it for a long time, just looking. That was one of my favorite responses.”

And a few final words about home:

“I have learned that what you bring to a place is as important as the place itself. Keep it reasonably clean and relatively tidy, as cool on the hot days and as warm on the cold ones as you can (we’ve lived in some drafty places), put your favorite pictures on the wall and fill the bookshelves with your books and magazines and pieces of art, let music fill the rooms, make space to do the things that are important to you, and love the people who share it with you.”

Brava, Margaret.

All photos by Margaret Mair. Artworks copyrighted.

A Good Home, APTN, Artist, Canada, Canadians, Country Living, Couples, Creative Writing, Docudrama, Flowers, Home, Home Decor, Homecoming, Interior Design, Joyful Moments, Life Challenges, Life in canada, Lifestyle, Maple Woods, Nature, Rex Deverell, Rita Deverell, Rita Shelton Deverell, Trees, Vision TV, Women leaders, Women's Studies, Writers

At Home with Rita Deverell

June 16, 2014September 2, 2015 Cynthia Reyes

For many years, Rita Shelton Deverell wanted to produce a docudrama about a remarkable woman. But other careers got in the way. The actor, playwright and docudrama-maker has also worked as a TV presenter and head of current affairs for Vision TV, the Canadian network she co-founded; news director (mentoring her successor) at APTN, the Aboriginal People’s TV Network; professor of journalism and women’s studies in two Canadian universities;

Her achievements earned her a place in the Order of Canada – Canada’s highest honour.

At last, Rita is writing the docudrama screenplay about Florence James. She’s writing it at her country home in the ‘Sugar Bush’, outside Toronto. “We bought the country place 22 years ago when our son graduated from high school. Thereafter we started to rent apartments in Toronto. There have been five Toronto apartments in 22 years (plus two in Winnipeg, and one in Halifax where I worked three-year stints). The ‘Sugar Bush’ house remains home throughout these moves and always welcomes us.” Like Rita, Florence James found a productive life and award-winning career in Canada. Rita came to Canada from Texas as a young woman, but Florence came here past age 60, after some terrible events.

“‘McCarthy and the Old Woman’ is about a feisty, resilient real-life heroine who lost everything because of the communist witch-hunts in the USA. Florence James was blacklisted and bankrupted. She survived the loss of her money, reputation, life’s work, her home and the death of her husband.”

The planning, creative thinking and writing for the docudrama are taking place here. Two writers live here. Rita’s husband Rex is a well-known playwright. Each has an office on the house’s lower level. “Sometimes I write and plan in longhand at the drum table. But I have to get the feeling that I’m ‘going to work’. Rex has never gone to an office, so I have to keep his joke-telling self away from my work space.” Rita’s homes – country and city – are beautifully designed – by her. They are bright, comfortable, unpretentious places, where history, art, houseplants and flowers mix. Many objects were passed down from Rex and Rita’s parents. “Every place in the large five-area living space is for my favourite leisure time activity, reading detective fiction. “We have lots of family pieces by now: the drum table was my mother’s. “The small desk and dining room table were Rex’s mother’s. The rocking chair was Rex’s grandfather’s, though not upholstered in leopard print. “Outside, the yellow Muskoka chair is really the place I love to sit and dream and have nothing to do.” “I’m a home addict. The trivial side is I love to look at houses, read the real estate ads all the time, adore interior decorating, and can be cheered up by having a design idea.

“The important thing though is I’m an introvert, and actually draw my energy by starting each day from home base. That’s a place where my life is ordered, feels controllable, and beautiful. Then I can go out into the world and deal better with the dis-ordered, un-controllable, and sometimes ugly.”

Recently, another of Rita’s projects was launched to positive reviews. It’s a multimedia, educational kit called ‘Women, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues and Resistance’. Free and downloadable, it includes a DVD:

http://www.msvu.ca/en/home/research/centresandinstitutes/IWGSJ/Events/ToolKit.aspx

Photos by Rex Deverell.