09/20/2026
Last night I went back to Alton for a reception at the Paul Morin Gallery, celebrating the Old Gods New Worlds Exhibit. It is my first real group art show, featuring a painting that also adorns my phone’s home screen.
I went there because it was about me but quickly became about something more profound. I ran in to people I had not seen in a decade, a lot of people who aged and one who grew up.
My last memory of Andie Trépanier is of a polished high school student whom I interviewed about her dad, Cory, for a feature article in my magazine.
Cory was an incredible artist who travelled into the furthest reaches of the Arctic to illuminate its wonders and try to get them declared as National heritage sites, so that they would remain protected and untouched. He made documentaries that are available for sale to this day. His family keeps his legacy alive.
When I knew him, he was full of life and passion. Last night I learned he died six years ago. Cancer. He had posted about it shortly after my family moved out of Caledon but, then I saw a post that sounded hopeful, and then I just shoved him in to the back of my mind as somebody I wish well to.
I admire him. Truly, I think about him often because if you were to ask who inspired me to pursue art and who I use as part of my artistic moral compass, Cory Trépanier is the answer. He didn’t just make masterpieces of the Canadian landscape. He did it because it was meaningful in every way that art should be meaningful.
When I feel like an out of control spinning top I think about Cory, telling me about how to deal with a wolf that you encounter in the Yukon. They don’t attack if you leave them alone and respect them. I go through life remembering that lesson. I taught it to my children. He said other things I still fall on, too.
Nicola Ross and Pete Paterson also attended the show. Pete had one of his photographs in there. Pete is who taught me the single most valuable trick to deal with overwhelming decision making. Ask me, I’m happy to share it. Even though I never see him anymore, I think about him so often that he keeps the other voices silent in my head. We originally crossed paths because of In The Hills magazine, while Signe Ball was still at the helm. I think I might have used a photo off the internet and he called me and reamed me out for not crediting him. That was my first issue and I made sure to credit EVERYONE after that.
All three of them were inspirational and character building for me. Reserved elegance is a tangible thing. It’s how to follow your artistic mission and passions with dignity and grace. How to give without giving too much. How to know when to stop, rest and fight stronger the next day. None of them know that but, I do. They are all important to me in my private little inner mind.
But Cory, Cory is dead. He quietly died of cancer six years ago. He is the second person this week who made me angry and hurt over cancer. The other is Evelyn. She’s a beautiful woman I just met, who is in between treatment and can’t get more because her numbers are too low. So instead she piles on more makeup than she’d like so she doesn’t look like cancer is devouring her and she goes and spends her days at a local college in the student life office thinking up ways of making life fun, engaging and meaningful for people who don’t even know her name. But it gives her something else to focus on and keeps her mind off her numbers as long as she’s busy.
It begs the question I think every person dealing with cancer asks themselves either at one point or over and over again. Do I even matter? Life will go on after I’m gone. Do I matter? Why should I want to matter if after I am gone they’ll figure it out and move on without me?
You do matter. You all matter, and so do I. I can’t dwell on the cancer. I only have this moment, this instant, and in this instant I choose life. I this moment I choose to matter, too.
Cory Trépanier was my artist feature in Vol. 1, Issue 3, SouthFields Village Voice.
I glad he existed. He made an impact. He is missed.
https://www.calameo.com/books/000403548aeed56773d1f
