This morning I woke up at 4:53 am. and wrote this letter to Paul Dewar (MP). NDP. He is a good man. He has visited my gallery many times and has been very supportive. So I wrote the below letter.
Dear Paul Dewar
A few days ago The City of Ottawa ByLaw
closed my gallery. So I lost my source of income and my business is
closed. I need help. I am getting hammered. The City of Ottawa
ByLaw has forced me to close my business – Zoning Issues. I have
not not had a job in over 15 years. I have worked and lived off my
painting / art sales ... and now my gallery is closed. And I have no
way to pay my mortgage / bills. I am fucked. Sure I can go start
doing bathroom, kitchens, renovations... to feed myself and keep a
roof over my head. But this is wrong. My life, my soul , my time is a
gift that would be wasted ... and it would be a crime to flush such
passion.
I have never applied for a grant, no
funding, nothing. I did everything with out hand outs. With the help
of a dear friend (Terrilee and one year Tony Martins) and myself we
organized, hosted, promoted the Hintonburg Arts Festival for three
years (Stage, 12 bands, 50 art tents, youth art competition... ). The
first year we raised and donated a lot of money for homeless children
in Lanark. The third year I (me, myself, individual) lost
thousands. And the last year an unknown individual called everyone
(Police, ByLaw, LCBO head office in Toronto, liquor inspectors,
electrical safety authority, food and healthy inspectors... ). So
they crushed me. I stopped. I do not care about money. I love
community. I love art. I love artists. Money is paper. It comes and
goes. Life and Art shine. But I am not a fool.
Again I did not apply for funding. I
remortgaged one of my properties and paid to do the 103 ton Sculpture
Garden. It was an insane among of work. I put on 17 pounds of muscle
mass as a result of doing this project. It was (past tense now) the
first and only Sculpture Garden in the National Capital City of our
great Ottawa. Artists from all over the region show cased their work
here. I even had a sculptor fly out from Vancouver three times.
Yesterday he had to box over 50 works to ship back to Vancouver. I
cried. It was brutal. This is a crime.
Every year for the entire month of
December (The Art of Giving). I would invite 25 or so artists to
show their work. I would take ZERO, nothing. Each artists would get
100% of sales. I asked each artist to donate a painting. I would
then take all the 30 or so works and donate them for permanent
display to a local charity. I would not accept a tax receipt. A
gift is a pure gift. Each year this was a massive success. 56, 63,
74 and 59 art works sold. 252 art works Sold. Normally a gallery
commission would be 50%. The charities that now have original art
are: Grace Manor (Salvation Army), Rideauwood Addiction and Family
Services, Elizabeth Fry Society, and Bruce House. The value of the
art work donated is over 150 thousand dollars. Pure gift. This was
a hard sacrifice. Christmas is retail month of the year. But it is
so important to give real gifts.
Every charitable organization that
approached me in the past years to use the gallery for their
events... I hosted it for free. I asked two of the charities to give
me $50 to help pay for water and toilet paper. But I hosted many
events in my home / gallery to help. The Urban Youth Arts
Festival... free. Celebrate Her... free for a week... many others.
When my 17 year relationship with my
wife ended. I had 15 keys cut to my front door. I put a calender up
on the wall. Artists, dancers, musicians, photographers, theatre
company, bands, everyone with a heart of passion that needed a free
space to be creative had a place to express themselves. I have had
bands touring across Canada use my home as a B&B for free. Just
last week I had 15 sleep in my home. They all had breakfast for
free, my shower had a 2 hour line up. Bands would give me a free Cd.
I have a nice Cd collection.
I could go on, on, on, on and on
telling you all the things I have done to help promote art. But I
will end with this one last thing... I personally put up over 30,000
posters and with the help of other artists over 40,000 posters over
the past 2 years. That is two winters. Putting up posters at very
cold temperatures. I remember Adam Davidson and Shannon Lee Mannion
helping me (among others) put up posters on many cold winter nights
(-12, -15, -25, -35 Degrees Celsius). Insane. Yes. We are Artists.
Quit Your Job, I Killed the Group of
Seven, Naked Naked Naked, Pretty Ugly Art, My Kid Could Paint that
@!#$%, I HAVE ISSUES... these show titles were provocative and many
found them offensive. I had many complaints. And sure everyone loves
I LOVE YOU all over the City. But not all Art is a pretty picture. We
need to encourage brave, creative souls. Ironically we have Vincent
van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.
For five years I developed the gallery
and it grew to be very successful. I organized shows / events / even
put the Hintonburg Arts Festival together for three years,
communicated with many artists, spoke to public about the art work
and the artists, website, press, media, sales, and interns work for
me... I worked my ass off. To be honest and blunt. But due to the
success of the turn outs. Small turn outs being 200, average opening
350 - 400, good turn out 500 plus. The City of Ottawa Bylaw forced
me to close due to a Zoning Issue.
I now am only allowed one person to
visit my home at a time to look at my paintings. No openings, No
events... No way can I realistically think that I am going to be able
to afford to live in my home. So I have already called a dear friend
who works for Remax. I accept that it will be impossible to afford to
live in my home. This saddens me. Why.... Isabelle (my daughter
almost 9 years old) will be deeply effected. This is bullshit.
Just because a person complains. Does
not mean that they are correct. My grandmother is a bitter bitch who
complains about everything. But if she calls 311 to voice her poison.
The City of Ottawa job is to do their job. I have never had to pay a
fine. I had to go to court over some sandwich board at the end of my
street. But with the help of CBC and the media. ByLaw dropped the
charges. What a waste of time to try to promote the HAF. Just
because someone complains does not mean that they are right. We all
have rights. I can understand if I was selling crack, if I had the
police shutting me down every week due to illegal activities. I can
understand if the music was playing until 3 am. But the noise, music
ended at 11 pm sharp (art event once a month, not every weekend. Once
a month). We were celebrating art, community, creativity, culture in
a healthy positive beautiful way.
It is time to move on... there is no
appeal system to the City of Ottawa. And to be honest I was pushing
the limits of an at home business.
Time to find another location. Time to
figure out how to grow and celebrate Art. I would like to sell my
home, and investment property and get a proper space. I have never
applied for funding. But with the massive impact of current events my
view has changed. Any and all help is greatly welcomed.
I would like to make an Arts Centre.
I would like to purchase a church, a
building, a proper space. I greatly welcome some advice, talks,
knowledge, insight, guidance, resources, assistance in helping me in
my life. I promise your time, your help, your love for the Arts
will be great appreciated.
With respect
Live Love Art
Patrick John Mills
PS. I read you NDP (In this issue)
Conservative Budget fall out. July 2012. You can add that 20
sculptures, 30 painters, and many other artists have lost a venue and
are currently displaced.
