Painting from the heart

MIRIAM HILL

“Oops, I painted over my tree,” says a boy sitting at the table in Beth McKenty’s Iqaluit home.

“That’s OK, there are no accidents, just keep on going. Don’t stop,” says the soft-spoken McKenty.

It’s Saturday morning and a group of seven children, aged seven to 12, sit quietly painting on small white pieces of paper. Each has a palette to hold his or her paint. McKenty gives them red, yellow and blue to work with.

“We don’t put black in our paintings, because if you do the other colours tend to fade away,” she explains.

McKenty started painting with children in her home back in October of 1999. Drawn to the North by the high suicide statistics, McKenty, 71, began inviting children into her house to paint as way to express themselves, as there was no centre for them to use.

“I feel as if it just continues to build,” she says. The children are given free rein to create to their heart’s content. McKenty speaks with the children individually to praise and encourage them.

Last year a selection of children’s work was displayed at a gallery in Vancouver, B.C. Proceeds from the sale of the art went to fund camping experiences for youth and elders on the land.

The Arctic Youth Art Initiative, funded by the Department of Culture, Language, Elders, and Youth, the Royal Canadian Legion’s women’s auxiliary and the Royal Bank, helps pay for the materials and helped McKenty search for a gallery willing to show the work.

This year, CLEY sponsored the production of a set of postcards by children. The three works, one a vertical image in royal blue of a woman wearing an amauti, and other images of inuksuks, one under the northern lights, come with envelopes and sell for $7 a set.

“It just feels so excellent,” McKenty says, proudly showing the postcards. “They did such quality duplication.”

The money will again go directly to a camping with elders fund, facilitated by David Serkoak, the principal at Joamie School.

“Time on the land with elders just seemed to me so crucial,” McKenty says, adding that Serkoak told her if the money increases, they may be able to buy boxes of apples and oranges for the children in school.

The children at McKenty’s house today take a break from their painting to eat pieces of home-made cake with ice cream and a drink of their choice. As each child washes his or her hands and returns to the table, McKenty chats with them about next week’s Christmas party.

Seven-year-old Iola, who has a baby tooth hanging precariously from her lower gum, smiles shyly and nods when McKenty asks her questions.

“When she first came here, we just communicated in sign language,” she says, because Iola spoke only Inuktitut. “We did just fine.”

The children all respond well to McKenty and seem genuinely pleased when she offers praise and puts their work against coloured construction paper to show how they will look when they are mounted.

“It’s amazing what comes out of these children,” she says.

Sets of the Arctic Youth Art Initiative postcards may be purchased for Christmas, or at any time during the year, at Rannva Designs in Apex, the Baffin Flower Studio and at the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit.