This Ability! or How To Stay Wonder-filled...

Some years back, (maybe fifteen years), 
when I was working at my art and 
facilitating the occasional workshop 
at the Art Gallery of Peterborough, 
I was asked if I would consider 
teaching a weekly class with clients
from ‘Alternatives’.

I was unfamiliar with this organization, 

so met with one of the staff members 
over coffee to get a handle on what
I was signing up for.
I liked her, and I liked the sound of it all.
I was keen to give it a go.

I would pretty much be given a free hand 
of what to teach.
Well actually, a completely free hand.
As fate would have it, I loved it, (and them), 
from the first moment.

My art students, young adults living with 

developmental disabilities, 

were wonderful and wonder-filled.
As their instructor, I wanted them to learn 

new skills, but also to

experiment with materials, to be open to 

new ideas,

to make some unusual art, 

to see art differently...

And ultimately, to love art.

Over the years, 

the open and sunny AGP Studio 

became a safe and positive space,

a happy place,

a place where people of all abilities 

belonged.

We made extraordinary art,

helped each other, 

encouraged each other, 

worked collaboratively.

There was no wrong way.

All of the creations were interesting and 

diverse, 

whether highly detailed, 

pored over at length,

struggled with, 

or handled with impromptu carefree joy.

To say that I feel fortunate would be an 

understatement.
My own work was so influenced 

by the people I worked with

in the Art Gallery studio. 

My abstract landscapes explore

themes of journey, belonging, 

beauty, isolation, struggle, 

courage, joy.

It was all there in that studio.

I am so grateful.
My love and thanks to all at the 

AGP and Alternatives 

for those years of beautiful 

art-making.

Anne

Change Starts Here

 

Dear Social Media Contacts who insist that

what happened over three weeks in Ottawa

was okay because it was peaceful,

If you illegally occupy a section of the downtown 

core, one long loud three-ring-circus flag-waving 

freedom-chanting singalong street-party carnival 

doesn’t make it okay, 

or change the fact that it’s illegal.

Ask the couple with a pride flag in their window

if they were okay with the threats and 

verbal abuse. 

Or the disabled person who couldn’t get to 

the grocery store 

or have a worker come to their apartment. 

Or the employees of more than 180 shops 

and services who were unable to work for 

nearly a month. 

Or the reporters who were yelled at for 

doing their job,

the passerby for wearing a mask, 

the residents who had to put up with the 

disruption,

the garbage, the incessant noise, the toxic air.

If any of that is okay with you, 

please wave your flag adios and dance on 

out of my social media.

Many thanks!
#annerenouf

Pandemic Prayer

 

Pandemic Prayer

For the doubters and deniers.

For the angry.

For those who are anti-lockdown, anti-mask, anti-vax, anti-distancing,

anti-government.

For those who fear and mistrust.

For the negative ones.

The failing, the falling, the fumbling.

For the protestors.

For those who yell

“sheep, lefty, liberal, follower, communist”.

Who use words like ‘hoax’ and ‘freedom’, who tout ‘the church is essential’, who twist the word ‘love’ to mean what they want.

For the unhappy, the unsure, the unwitting, the unwilling.

The undecided.

This:

In the midst of a pandemic,

we’ve seen mistrust and anger.

Mistrust and anger in abundance.

Unceasing, like a clanging bell.

Slowly losing momentum it will exhaust itself.

Those who see first hand,

who know someone who gets sick, who seek the advice of their doctor,

who are tired of defending a precarious position that is uncertain, ill-founded, groundless,

slipping away.

Squeezed dry.

Dying out.

Take heart - there is hope.

Bottle up your rage.

Push aside your negativity.

Let your doubts

fall away.

Be willing to hear.

Open your eyes to a ray of light.

There is hope to be found in the doctor who spent ten years in medical school.

The ER nurse.

Hope in the researcher, the physicist, the chemist, the lab-technician, the hospital staff.

Turn to your God

wherever that might be.

In the forest,

the night sky,

the candlelit room,

in solitude or hand in hand.

Be open to seeing more clearly.

To understanding.

To change.

Be the change.

#annerenouf - September ‘21