Theriault Julia

Article by Melissa Di Costanzo
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14 April 2011

Maison Baldwin House executive director Debbie Fortier and artist Julia Rita Thériault pose with Thériault 's paintings. Thériault has decided to hold a fundraiser for the local shelter, donating 50 per cent of proceeds to the shelter.

GREENFIELD — Julia Rita Thériault has been painting since she was 12 years oId. Now 52, Thériault's Greenfield home is cram packed with paintings:
nature scenes and graceful ballerinas decorate her walls and stand upright on her floors. Vibrant colours matched with bold strokes adorn the nooks and crannies of her warn house.

“My brother worked for an art company and he kept bringing home paints,” says Thériault of her early love of painting. “When I was 12, he brought me home a brush and an easel as a Christmas present." Thériault says she started creating with oils. Then, she moved on to acrylics, selling her painting door-to-door in the Chateauguay Valley, where she grew up and raised three children with her first husband. She left her first husband and went on to marry Peter, a man she has been together with for 17 years. The couple moved to Greenfield, where Thériault continued to paint, and eventually also set up a dance school in her basement called Julia’s Fun Factory.

Currently, her house is an artistic amalgam: paintings cover the majority of walls and corners of the house, and spill into her outdoor porch and
basement, which has a padded floor and balance bar for her recreational dance space. But shortly after she began teaching, Thériault says she
"collapsed " I was depressed; "I didn't know what was wrong with me." she recalls.

After seeking prayer and help, Thériault says she discovered she had been sexually abused in her early childhood. From ages four to six. Thériault says she
cried all the time. "I was devastated." she says, of the time she made the discovery. "My paintings had gone from 16 by 20s to five by fives. It's been
an explosion of healing and it's showing in my work. At this point in my life, I'm dealing with the anger of the abuse."

She points to a nearby painting. "There are two tree limbs which form a V-shape. This is the anger of (myself as )a child." she explains. Thériault has been working through the devastating revelation for five years now. She painted through her depression and even continued to create after she was told she had a total of seven cataracts : three in one eye; four in the other.

Still, she continued to paint outside in the daytime . "It's almost like (my work) became impressionistic, "she says. "I painted 100 stones in two months. " The stones she calls Gratitude are meant to remind recipients of their blessings. Thériault says exploring her emotions through art has been a healing process. "I feel full, finally, for the first time in my life," she says. "I feel " full now, because I feel like all the pieces have come together."

Roughly a year ago, a member of Thériault family was , involved with a violent man. Thériault says her family was able to extract the person who was involved with the man, and place the person in Maison Baldwin House. It was a very emotional, hard time," she says. Through the process, Thériault had a thought; she wanted to give back, somehow, to the Cornwall shelter.

So she called Debbie Fortier, executive director of Baldwin House. "I appreciate the fact we've been able to make an impact on her and help with the healing process," says Fortier. Thériault decided she would host an art sale in her studio, in Greenfield. Fifty per cent of the proceeds from the sale will go
towards Baldwin House. The studio is located at 2654 County Road 30, RR#5 in Alexandria.

"Because of being abused, myself. Because of all of the healing received, I wanted to give something to Baldwin House," says Thériault. To view Thériault artwork, visit www.juliarita.com.