When Judy Fontyn Sugg’s downtown building was vandalized last summer, the local artist didn’t imagine the incident would become such a learning experience for her.
Two people were charged after they were caught on video spray-painting a “Windigo” image on the side of the building on Mississaga Street East, right next to Fontyn Sugg’s Coach House Gallery.
“At first, I was really mad,” she said, adding she had recently stuccoed the wall.
The Elizabeth Fry Society got involved, and the two young men who were charged were tasked with creating a painting and donating it to the Coach House Gallery. The seven-foot-tall piece, painted on wood, depicts an Indigenous figure and includes the words “art is a weapon.”
When the two men delivered the painting to the gallery, Fontyn Sugg asked where they would like the money from the sale to go.
“Clean water,” one of them replied.
So, Fontyn Sugg had some research to do.
“I read up on it – about all these Indigenous communities without clean drinking water. It angered me. Everybody has a right to clean water,” she said. “I thought, ‘OK, we need to make something good out of a bad situation.'”
A couple of people have expressed interest in the piece, but it’s still at the gallery, standing out among Fontyn Sugg’s landscapes and portraits.
She is hoping to find a buyer, but she would like to see it end up on display at an academic or cultural institution.
“I think that would be best for learning and discussion,” she said. “It deserves to be talked about. It deserves to be seen.”
But not on the side of her building, she said, noting property owners are required to remove graffiti at their own expense.
Fontyn Sugg is still trying to determine exactly where the money will go once the painting is sold. She is also open to discussing the price. For more information, contact Fontyn Sugg at 705-896-4080 or [email protected].
