Stories

Finding new life through art

by Thomas Canning in 2004

When I was young, my parents and most of my family were on welfare. I have been lucky. Even not able to read, I’ve been able to find jobs. But when I turned 40, I got diagnosed with Hepatitis C and lost my job. I came up with a few problems.

I didn’t know what to do. I talked to my sister, who got me to a detox. From the detox, I ended up at the Good Shepherd and my whole life changed. I’m one happy camper.

When I was young, I used to stutter really bad. Some adults when they see a kid like that, they do stuff to you they wouldn’t do to other kids. I am survivor of rape, abuse, drugs and alcohol.

At the Centre, I learned somebody else cared about what happened to me. I learned to come to terms with myself. If you find the right person, they can explain and you can understand.

About three months after I got housing, I started volunteering at the Daily Bread Food Bank. Other places had helped me, and I wanted to help them all.

I showed one of the staff at the Daily Bread photographs of my paintings, and I asked about using their old smoking room for a studio. That’s how I ended up showing and selling my art there.

At Easter, Daily Bread gave me a wall to put on an art show, so people coming in to make donations could see it. I sold seven paintings. I gave half the money back to the Daily Bread.

Because this is seriously what I want to do, is use my art to help out someone else. Before, I always wanted to die. But now, I am out there trying to make my life better.

One day it’s great, one day it’s miserable. It’s all patience and time and believing in yourself. If nothing comes of my art – I’m having fun and it keeps me busy.

I can get into my art – just sitting down doing a star in the middle of the paper. I start to plan and add the colours. Just looking at it afterwards I think, I did that, it’s amazing.

I donated a piece to the Good Shepherd Gala and talked on the video. I loved doing the video, to speak out. When I went through what I went through, I never heard any guy talk about rape and abuse. That’s why I talked about it. I never heard about it when I was being brought up.

I’m not looking to be famous, I’m looking to help. I am happy for where I am right now.