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Michael grew up as a child in Prescott, Ontario along the St. Lawrence River. He attended South Grenville District High School, went on to University of Toronto where he received an Honours Fine Art degree in 1970. He spent the entire summer that year painting in Spain. He battled with cancer for three years before being called to his Creator and Master Artist at the age of 35 on September 22, 1982.
Despite his illness his family and friends believe the last three years of his life were the most productive as he concentrated on many new mediums of art after losing his voice. Michael had a passion for life, for his friends and family, and politics. He was known for his depictions of life in small-town Ontario. Michael married his soulmate partner and artist, Lynda Lapeer, and they lived in Gores Landing north of Cobourg for ten years.
He was an admirer of the American radical folk singer Phil Ochs and visual analysts of the human condition. He used his art and his music to portray mankind’s lot. But instead of presenting abstract moral generalizations, he stayed close to what he saw and knew daily – the sick, the poverty-stricken and the dying in Guatemala, the colourful locals of Gores landing on Rice Lake, Cobourg, and Toronto. He painted ordinary people going about their pleasures or enduring their sorrows; members of his family were rendered in monoprints based on old photographs.
Both Michael and Lynda found time to travel – annually they went to the Mariposa Festival on Manitoulin Island, visited Ireland and England. They were victims of the earthquake in Guatemala in 1976 and helped others revive their lives and dignity, until Lynda had to be brought home when she was struck with Guillaine-Barre Syndrome.
According to the Cobourg Daily Star Michael’s life and art changed while he was in remission. He and Lynda hitchhiked all over southern Ireland and Newfoundland, singing and painting as they went. He painted huge and colorful canvasses of east coast seascapes and British Isles vistas. The crimson of bulging blood vessels of his earlier portraits were replaced by deep, ocean blues, illuminated skies and bright colours.
Although Michael made his living and described his life as a professional artist, he and four other musicians (George Bertok, Jim Leslie, J.P. Hovercraft, Doug Bowes) produced his first album called “Night Shift Life” (Mad Dog Records). It was about men and women of the streets, labourers and drifters and frequenters of bars who play out their day and nighttime dramas. The cover, included on this website is one of Michael’s early lino-prints from a sketch drawn while he was playing at the British Hotel in Cobourg. Michael’s partner, Lynda, illustrated the cover of his second album “Sweet Cosima”, (also included in this website) that included more of his ballads, and showed his awareness of the human condition and musically illustrated his sensitivity and compassion for people. He always expressed his compassion in concise and clear terms.
In August, 1981 a show of his paintings was held at Toronto’s Gadatsy Gallery, where once again he demonstrated his remarkable ability to transmute the simple visual ideas of folk art into vehicles for deep, humane visions – again of ordinary life. Since 1970 Michael’s artworks were showcased in more than 20 one-person exhibitions in Canada and South America. His graphic art appeared in Canadian Forum, This Magazine, Sound and other periodicals. He was professionally represented by the Gadatsky Gallery on Yorkville Avenue in Toronto where he showed in 1976, 1980 and 1981.
In Michael’s final year of his life he compiled a collection of hospital drawings during his first major bout with cancer. In his final months he was constantly reassuring family and friends who were worried about him. An incredible depth of spiritual development took place and he was able to transmit much of this to those around him. Shortly after Michael passed there were several celebrations of Michael’s life at Cold Springs, Ontario and tributes were paid to him on CBC programs (Morningside, and Speaking Out were two).
At the time this website was created to pay tribute to Michael and Lynda, Michael’s most immediate family, brother Andy in Guelph, Ontario, sister Lorraine in Ancaster, Ontario, mother Anastasia in Guelph, father Eddie (deceased), sister-in-law Anne and his nieces Kimberley in Toronto and Kelley in Buffalo, N.Y. still treasure his memory and his art and music. Along with them is Lynda’s loving daughter, Angela Stimac-Lapeer.
Together we dedicate this website in their memory – Michael and Lynda, who followed Michael Home on December 16, 2007. May they both “Rest In Peace” and enjoying painting the skies eternally.
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