Cape Breton painter turns mean meme into work of art – TheChronicleHerald.ca

GLACE BAY — The painting of the lonely company home on Centre Street is painted with simple lines and brighter colours than the photograph it’s inspired by.

Taken by filmmakers Emily Flynn and Chelsea Innes, the photograph shows the light bluish-grey company home, one half flat where the other residence used to be attached, with nothing but some litter around it. In the distant background there are some other buildings but nothing else beside it.

Shared many times on social media, memes were also made mocking the home, which still has a resident.

Emily MacLeod from Sydney River first saw the photo in a Facebook group and was inspired to paint it, knowing in the back of her head she wanted to give the artwork to the family who lived there.

“I had heard the photo had been circulating for some time and there had been a couple of memes and stuff surrounding it and I thought that’s kind of sad,” said MacLeod who lives in Montreal but because of the pandemic moved back to her family home and working remotely.

“I like the idea of making something positive out of (something negative.) I thought it was interesting and I wanted to make it look happier than it did (in the photo), paint it at a time it was in a better state.”

THE SPENCER FAMILY HOME

Annie and Edward Spencer bought the company home on Centre Street in 1976 and raised four of their six children there as the oldest two had already moved out.

Although the other half of the duplex was still attached, it was empty and in 2006 it was torn down.

Sheri MacDonald’s mother, Ann Marie MacKeigan, was the second oldest of the Spencer children and was married with her first child when her parents and younger siblings moved in.

“(I remember) my grandfather used to love to make homemade bread and burn it. My grandmother used to like it black burnt, so he’d burn it for her. She loved it,” MacDonald said with a laugh during a phone interview.

“He did all of the cooking.”

Along with their four youngest children, Annie and Edward raised one of their grandsons and always welcomed those in need.

“They even took someone in if someone needed help, my grandparents would take them in and help them out,” said MacDonald, who said her aunt Veronica Frison still lives in the home.

THE GIFT

After finishing the painting, MacLeod posted on Twitter and Facebook looking for the family who lived there to give them the piece.

MacDonald said she saw the painting being shared on Facebook and contacted the sharer who put her in touch with MacLeod.

On March 6, the two women met and MacLeod gave MacDonald the painting to give to her mother, who has it hanging on her wall.

“It is a beautiful picture. The house is run down in that picture and she made it look happy,” said MacDonald, who had seen the memes making fun of the house.

“I can’t even remember what they said but it wasn’t nice. People still live in that house.”

MacDonald said MacLeod’s painting brings back good memories of her grandfather’s house, when the siding was a darker shade of blue and her grandfather was burning bread in the kitchen.

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