Nick, a professional fine artist for more than 30 years; featured both on television and in the print media, always paints with a social justice theme, often depicting the plight of misunderstood children and adults who suffer from invisible learning disabilities.
This painting portrays one of Canada's eugenics victims, Mary (Mamie) Negrey (1892-1971). We see her face as she was in her old age not long before she died destitute. Beside this, we see an image of her as a young woman in happier times, before she was incarcerated for most of her adult life. After that, she became #9611. She endured incredible suffering and remained without voice while countless acts of injustice were committed against her, primarily because of her deformity. She had Kyphosis and was called a "hunchback." The building looming over the figures is the Mitchner Centre where the eugenics program was administrated from 1928 to 1972.
