The Journey is the Reward
I wished to share with you some of my thoughts and feelings,
some of the obstacle, harassment and some or many random acts of kindness,
support, and beauty.
In June 2016 the sale of my vacant lot in Hintonburg closed
and I was able to purchase The Imbleau & Son Foundry in Renfrew.
I was so happy that I sold my vacant lot. I had a cheque for
over $250,000 dollars in my hands, but I was single, alone, and had no one to
hold in my arms and share the joy with.
That realization was really difficult to deal with.
Isabelle, my 12 year old daughter, was with me the next week.
One week on, one week off (the landscape of divorce). All excited Isabelle and I drove up to
Renfrew and embraced the purchase of the property and after had a pizza to
celebrate at a local restaurant.
Dream Dream Dream of converting the space into the Art
Factory. To have the largest artist
studio in Canada, an Art Gallery, and Art Supply store.
The factory was up for sale for several years. The previous
operation at the factory was the manufacturing of street steel manhole covers.
Contamination and pigeon shit. A 8700
square foot Pigeon Hotel. When a
property has contamination NO bank will give you a mortgage. So I paid cash for
the property. Nor can you get a loan, no
secured line of credit. Only cash. All
in - not a small decision.
I am not some poor starving artist. And I wish to talk about this for a moment…. An
aside
So many people assume. Artist = Starving. This is not my
situation. I find it most taxing and the judgement so exhausting. I was very poor in my 20’s. I was hard core broke. I lost 17 pounds due
to not eating correctly. Erika (my ex-wife) and I slept in cold damp bed sheet
while living in East London. We could not afford to turn the electricity on to
be warm and dry. But I worked my ass off. The experience of being that poor was
most humbling and challenging. You are
judged by everyone. You are living your life. It is fucking hard to surrender
your soul to your passion. Lack of support, lack of encouragement, and countless
letters of rejection from galleries… it pushes you to dark spaces. But I have
this fire inside my soul that screams. So I push forward. I know that there is
something inside of me that must be respected as true and pure. I was very blessed to have so many people in
London buy my paintings. Now I am 44
years old. I have 7 rental income unites (two 3 bedroom house, a triplex and a
duplex downtown Ottawa, and a 1400 square foot storage unit), and two other
units that need renovations to increase my 7 rental incomes to 9. Plus I have the 8700 square foot Factory to
convert into a business and studio. Even
if I do not sell my paintings I am free to live without stress. For the past 14
years I have not had a job, a boss, no office.
I sell paintings. I say this to correct Artist = Starving = for ME it =
LIVE LOVE Dreams. Some dreams are not blanketed in darkness, but some dreams
are filled with sunshine. Dreams require
work. I work with intense passion.
The first weeks of work were filled with many dump runs. A
staff at the Renfrew dump, who had formerly worked at the factory for 39 years,
helped unload the trailer. As we unload the items at the dump, he told us
stories about the operations at the factory. He was so generous, and he had
such a warm, kind smile painted across his face as he helped.
The Town of Renfrew came to turn the water main on. A few weeks later, I hired Marshalls to
remove several large machines out of the space. They were the same company that
manufactured and installed the equipment that I was paying to remove. I wished to share my joy and communicate the
progress of activities with others on Facebook and social media. So I took a
few photos of Marshalls working and removing and the progress inside the
factory. Two hours before Marshalls was finished. The Ministry of Labor (MOL)
showed up. They received an anonymous complaint. The MOL issued a stop work order. I was order to do a Designated Substance
Report (DSR).
This was a pretty major thing. The factory was not properly
cleaned in over 100 plus years. This meant I could not hire a contractor until
the DSR report was completed. I could
not hire a plumber, a gas fitter, no electrician... no skilled trades persons,
no paid workers. The implications of
this are massive. No paid workers.
Fortunately the Town of Renfrew had turned on the water a few
weeks before the MOL had showed up. So I
had running water. But I could not have a gas water tank install. So no hot
water. So no warm water to shower or
clean.
I could not hire staff, No paid workers until the DSR was
carried out. As the property owner I was still permitted to clean, work, and repair
the Factory. So I spent over 800 hours
cleaning the factory over the summer. I
wished to clean the inside of the factory before commencing a DSR. I knew that with all the pigeon shit and the
factory basically being pigeon hotel. I would be screwed. So I worked alone in
this massive space. At the end of the
day I would walk down to the river and clean myself. I was black as black. The amount of dirt that
covered my body and cloths was insane. I
am not blind. I know the looks I had from individuals as I washed in the
river... the judgments of being some poor, homeless, freak. But I am a dreamer. And some dreams require
massive work. So I shielded myself with
my Dreamer Mind and Dreamer Soul. So I
washed in the river. Pretty
intense. But hey... I am an intense
dreamer.
Rapidly I figured out who were my discretionary friends and
who were my real friends. This was not
an easy truth for face. I was very overwhelmed with the massive task that faced
me. Feeling very alone. Not being able
to hire help. The DSR really was a massive pain. I broke down a few times
inside the factory and just cried.
Things seemed really hopeless.
But I knew that I had this Unknown Anonymous Stalker on
Social Media (Mr. ASS) who has followed me for many years (9 plus years)
calling Bylaw, Police, Electrical Safety Authority, Police, LCBO head office in
Toronto, Liquor Inspector, Building Inspector, Building Services, more Bylaw
(over 200 times). So now I had Mr. ASS
calling MOL.
This pissed me off. But if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade
(right Mr. ASS).
I have a pretty good idea who Mr. ASS is. So I went up to the Police station in
Renfrew. I spoke to the department. I explained my situation. The police were unable to help me. So I have
Mr. ASS calling each and every governing
agency and department. And then the
Bylaw, the Police, Fire Department, Ministry of Labor, and Ministry of
Environment and Climate Change are called out to respond to Mr. ASS and his
anonymous complaints. And according to the Police… they cannot help me. To
quote David Peace (Renfrew local police officer), “The person who is harassing
you is very clever. He is using us to harass you.”
There were many days I just wished to quit and give up. But I
had Mr. ASS as my personal life coach. Many mornings I wished to just sleep in
and not work. But in my mind I had Mr. ASS as my personal alarm clock screaming
at me…. So I viewed Mr. ASS as my personal life coach motivator. I wished to kick ass. So I put in 14 – 19 hour days every day. At the end of the summer I had put on 20
pounds of muscle mass. Even my shit had muscles lol.
I had kindness start to fall into place. Kent (friend, art lover, and owner of
a landscaping company) helped me clean the factory floor with his BOB Cat and he
rented a street brush cleaner. He let me use his BOB Cat and his other backhoe
machine.
Kent helped me build my daughter (Isabelle) a beach
volleyball court on my land at the Art Factory.
He arranged for the dirt to be moved to two locations. When the beach volleyball court was done. As
a proud father I posted Isabelle standing on her official beach volleyball
court.
A few days later, The Ministry of Environment and Climate
Control (MOECC) contacted me. I am not
sure who hates me this much but MR. ASS called the MOECC. Who does this… really?
What kind of sick individual calls the MOECC after a proud father builds his
daughter a beach volleyball court.
Oh well. What can you
do. Not much. So I worked even harder. I pushed myself to
clean and pressure wash the inside of the factory. A massive undertaking to do alone.
I had to push forward as hard as possible. I wished to have the
place washed and cleaned before the cold winter was upon me. You cannot paint walls below 10 degrees. The
water from the pressure washer will puddle on the floor.
September, once Isabelle started school. I would drop
Isabelle off at school. Drive from Ottawa up to Renfrew. Work 3 hours and 35
mins. Then drive back to Ottawa to
collect Isabelle from school. I was
really pushing myself to get the space cleaned before winter. I put over six
thousand kilometers of driving on my van in the month of September alone. The
personal goals I wished to achieve… I did. I surpassed them.
The more I worked… the more kindness started presenting
itself. The people of Renfrew flooded me
with kindness. Warm loving food was
delivered to me… many times. I must look
like a sucker for a loving home cooked meal.
Frosters (ice cream) from Wendy’s hand delivered with a beautiful smile,
fresh cut water melon, a drafting table was gifted to me from a facebook friend
(this really blew me away), a truck full
of free fire wood to keep me warm, three people offering to let me stay in their
homes for free (even gave me keys), Tiffany (total sweet heart) the newspaper writer for the Renfrew Mercury Newspaper wrote two incredible articles, the gallery owner in Artist Cove Art
Gallery in Burns Town approached me to show my work (and offered to let me live
in her rental apartment), the Town Hall approached me to give me a Solo Show,
when my van was getting repaired I was offered a ride back from Walmart, the
kindness was incredible… so much kindness and encouraging words of support were
offered and so deeply appreciated… There are so many more acts of kindness,
support, encouragement… they are not all listed. But they all filled my heart
in ways I cannot begin to express.
What touched my heart the most was my beautiful daughter
Isabelle. She had seen me struggle to
sever the vacant lot in Hintonburg, and had watched me and helped me start the
process of cleaning the Art Factory. I
told her I would build her a beach volleyball court. But she was responsible for buying the net
and line borders. So she researched
where and what she wished to buy. When
it came time for her to pay me the funds for the online purchase I told her,
“Isabelle, I had no intention of taking your money for the net, the line
borders… I only wished you to think that you were spending your own money, so I
knew that you would mentally process the payment. The entire beach volleyball court is a gift
to say how much I love you, and how proud of you.”
Then Isabelle said, “Daddy, thank you so much. I have wanted
to do this for some time. But I needed to
budget my money to make sure I could afford to pay for the volleyball
net and lines. I have wished to treat
you. I have wanted to take you out for dinner to your favorite restaurant and
celebrate. I know how hard you work. And
I know you are alone and someone has to congratulate you and celebrate you
getting the Art Factory… I wish to treat you tonight.”
Good friend Adam Davidson help and painting together
I have started to paint inside the Factory. I love working in such a large space. I am able to work on several paintings at
once. I feel so free. The space is so
healing. I keep working on fixing the
space. I would love to show you photos of inside. But this will open more
harassment from MR. ASS. So I will not be posting the progress of my building
dreams of the Art Factory. Just know
that I am pushing forward. I have been
working for 6 months full time fixing the space. And I have budgeted to keep
working for another 6 – 12 months to keep fixing the factory.
Good friend Patrick S Greene and I painting inside Art Factory
I have many painting for sale. If you wish to contact me to purchase art
work… NOW is a good time to buy my art.
NOW is when I am a seed. Soon I will be a flower. You buying my art
today will help me build a dream. Buy a wall, lights, paint. My prices are flexible. Reasonable offers will be entertained. And I will
be most open to making you happy. Once
the Art Factory is open… I will be on the other side of this mountain. My
prices will be more. My vision is to
keep working on the renovating the Art Factory. I will be painting this new
series of paintings. I am starting to feel
ready to approach art galleries in other major cities. I just have not had the energy to juggle this
endeavor. Now is a really good time to
buy something beautiful. I also accept
monthly payment plans.
Live Love Art
Patrick John Mills
Patrickjohnmills.com
Follow me on Facebook
or call me 613 729 0406
Buy Me
Building a Dream - Patrick S Greene helping (aka kick ass friend)
BUY ME
Studio --- lol - outside along the Ottawa River
no walls... outside studio... Love Painting outside (-minus the cops stopping me to ask for ID)
Working along the Ottawa River
Inside my studio in down town Ottawa... - Photo taken by someone beautiful
BUY ME
BUY ME - photo inside Art Factory
BUY ME - inside Art Factory
BUY ME
LIVE LOVE ART
