Some interesting characters have been spotted by residents along Grange Road. Bugs Bunny, Spiderman and LeBron James are a few cartoons that have been set up along the fence of a home belonging to Dorothy Amey, a local window artist.
During the pandemic, Amey has been creating and displaying different cartoons and placing them on her property. Past creations include the Minions, Marvel, SpongeBob SquarePants and the gang from Peanuts.
Currently, part of the cast of the new Space Jam movie, including LeBron James, is set up on the fence.
“Over the pandemic, it gave me something to keep my mind off of that,” said Amey, who notes many children and their parents stop and look at her work, and she always encourages them to come take a closer look.
“That’s what inspired me during the pandemic, to bring smiles to the kids, and they love it."
Besides her fence, Amey's characters can also be seen at Guelph General Hospital, where she has painted the Care Bears for the We Care Campaign.
“They called it on the Instagram that my granddaughter found it on, they called it a ‘pop up,’ which I thought was cool," she said, mentioning she has still to bring Good Luck Bear over to the hospital.
To make the characters, Amey explains she draws the image on a sponge material before adding paint and a cardboard backing. The sponge material comes from Amey’s sister, who brings it home from work.
“I just love working with it," said Amey, “When I tried it outside during the pandemic, I saw that it really withstood the rain and snow."
For some of the larger characters, like Spiderman, Amey mentions she adds a stick behind it to help it stand up straight. This also makes it easier for her husband, Russell Amey, to set them up on the fence.
“I couldn't do this without him," she said about her husband, who will also help her by cleaning the windows she paints. "I know he's proud of my work."
Besides creating these characters, Amey also paints caricatures on her favourite window in Guelph, located at the post office along Speedvale Road.
"I love painting big and I love painting on windows," she said, mentioning it is the one window she still paints.
“I love the boys in there ... and I love their space, they let me do whatever I want, and I’ve got five big windows. I don’t need to go on a ladder, I can go there on a Sunday when they’re closed, there’s an overhang where the rain runs off and it’s great.”
With a passion for drawing, Amey recalls years ago being asked by a friend to paint a holiday display on the window of the Tim Horton's she was working at.
Following that, Amey began to paint the windows at Zehrs, where she has worked for 27 years.
“I like doing caricatures of the people and the kids, and I would get kids now that have grown up ... and they still remember when I painted on the window," said Amey.
“Last year, I was painting the window at the post office and a girl came up to me and said she remembered me when I did her on the Zehrs window, and that makes you feel good, eh?”
After retiring from Zehrs, Amey began her own window painting business. The name of her business, Drawing Attention, comes from the business centres where she took courses. With her work featured all over Guelph and in parts of Kitchener, Amey mentions her art has never been defaced.
"A lot of people thank me," said Amey about the community's response to her art.
"It's a great gift to be given because you can have so much fun with it."
Now retired, Amey plans to continue doing what she loves most, which is creating big art. To see more of Amey's work, go to drawingattention.ca.
