New exhibition uses art, intuition, and spirit to strengthen communities

By Colin Graf

CHIPPEWAS OF KETTLE AND STONY POINT—The road to reconciliation may be paved by the strokes of artists’ brushes as a new art project is building bridges between First Nations’ people and the settler community along the southern shores of Lake Huron.

The art project, named “Me, You, and Us”, features “spirit portraits” of 27 Kettle and Stony Point (KSP) citizens painted by artist Suellen Evoy-Oozeer, formerly of Windsor, Ont., and now living near KSP, along with works by some of the portrait sitters and other citizens of the First Nation. The exhibition was first on display at a gallery in London, Ont., followed by a two-week stay at the Lambton Heritage Museum, between KSP and the town of Grand Bend.

The project began in 2009 when a family friend from KSP brought Evoy-Oozeer to the area where she painted her first portrait— of Susan Angela Bressette. After Bressette came to a show in Windsor featuring that work, she began driving two hours from Kettle and Stony Point to Windsor for Evoy-Oozeer’s painting classes using “intuitive energy”, even in the middle of winter, the artist remembers. As the two began their friendship, they realized this painting technique was “something they could take to Kettle Point,” where the project to use art, intuition, and spirit to strengthen the community soon took shape.

Holding their three-day art workshops at the Golden Eagle seniors Lodge, Bressette and Evoy-Oozeer each invited up to four people, from both the First Nation and the wider community.  Soon it became clear that more than artistic skills were growing.

“By the third day, no one wanted to leave and everyone felt really connected. It was just a miracle to watch, these classes were so effective in helping people understand each other and have compassion for each other,” explains Evoy Oozeer.

The paintings portray not only the person’s likeness, but also feature elements of personality and spirit unique to the individual. While Evoy-Oozeer and her collaborator Bressette interviewed the subjects to find out what important scenes and personal symbols they wanted included in the art, “intuitive energy” was a guiding force in the works, Evoy-Oozeer says.

“We asked spirit for guidance. We wanted to make sure we were moving in the direction spirit wanted us to.”

Bressette says Evoy-Oozeer seemed to understand what should be in the portrait without much guidance.

“She captured more of me than most people know who have known me for years,” she offers, pointing out the pair had only met twice when the portrait was painted.

Bressette says that the workshops have been a catalyst for understanding and change in the relationship between the First Nation and surrounding community.

“If you could see the healing that came from our little art class. There’s something that came from our classes that one friend said I should just call magic,” she recalls. “We don’t have an explanation for what happened there, but a lot of people found freedom to talk about things in their lives like residential schools.”

When Evoy-Oozeer painted the first portraits around 10 years ago, she had never heard of the term Truth and Reconciliation, but she now realizes that the Calls to Action from the Commission on residential schools includes the desire to have artists help communities mend relationships.

“This Is about giving a voice…about helping to heal,” she says. “You can’t just jump from truth to reconciliation without healing. When people have been through what First Nations people have, you have to be ready to listen, and listen as long as they need to tell you, and people are kind of short-sighted about how long that process should take.”

Evoy-Oozeer believes that art and crafting is helping to make lasting sincere friendships and greater compassion and understanding throughout the area.

After meeting up with KSP artists Jeffrey “Red” George and Moses Lunham, the two men started giving art classes at a children’s summer camp in the area that had participants from the community and the “Me, You, and Us” project organized and funded a blanket ceremony for the kids’ camp as well.

“We made a safe passage across the cultural divide.”

Bressette and Evoy-Oozeer started the “Me, You, and Us” project as partners and “are really overwhelmed by how well this has been received.”

“It’s very much a collaboration and I really hold dear the trust she has shown me,” the artist adds. “We had a small, very little idea to throw a small pebble into the pond and maybe make a bit of a positive splash, and the way it is growing is far beyond what we could have imagined.”

As the workshops progressed in 2017, the artist offered to paint portraits of as many participants as she could in the two years of the project, eventually resulting in 27 pieces; the last being that of KSP Chief Jason Henry, which was finished within the last three months.

Artworks from the workshops done by the participants also make up part of the exhibit, which is scheduled to be at the Common Ground Gallery at MacKenzie Hall in Windsor from Apr. 3-14, the Art Square Cafe and Art Hub Gallery in Toronto Apr. 22 – May 5, and the Shenkman Art Centre in Orleans, by Ottawa, June 18-July 7.

Evoy-Oozeer says further dates may be added to the tour, but she hopes to gift the portraits to their subjects by the end of 2019.