Amélia Ah You - Uniquely You
by Sally Hansen
Accomplished Pakenham painter Amélia Ah You has come a long way. Born to Chinese parents in the Portuguese controlled colony of Mozambique, she grew up with Chinese fairy tales and mythological stories, African drums, Indian chai and Portuguese cuisine. In school, she studied traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting, and learned about western religion and Portuguese explorers. By the time she got to Pakenham she spoke fluent English and Portuguese, as well as basic Cantonese, Spanish and French.
Today she lives with her husband, their dog, and a few farm animals on a beautiful, secluded hobby farm surrounded by a vast, geologically diverse landscape in Pakenham Township. The stern Canadian Shield guards their backs, a meandering stream leads into the distance, gently rolling fields, a marshy swamp and wooded areas bring wildlife to their front door.
Ah You’s paintings reflect her love of her adopted Canadian landscape, and a lingering curiosity about her multicultural identity. Some of her landscapes glow with a vivid colour intensity that suggests her exposures to tropical climates and other cultures. Her self-portraits confirm her opinion of herself as introspective and reticent. It takes coaxing to extract the stories that reveal the exceptional physical and mental strengths she developed along her independent journey to self-actualization.
Amélia was 17 years old when her parents decided to flee the political uncertainties surrounding Mozambique’s struggle for independence. Her grandfather originally had gone to Africa to work in the gold mines to earn money for his wife and son back in China, but they soon joined him to escape dangerous conditions at home. Longing for safety and stability after decades of guerrilla warfare between the Portuguese and African freedom fighters, the family decided to emigrate to Costa Rica in 1975 to join their oldest son. After three months of working in her brother’s restaurant, and being denied the opportunity to further her education, Amélia received her father’s blessing to start a new life for herself. They chose Canada because they never heard about it in the news, so they assumed it must be politically stable.
She spoke fluent Mandarin Cantonese and Portuguese, and thought she could get along in Montreal with her school French. When she discovered that was not the case, Amélia found shelter in Ottawa with a generous Chinese family, and enrolled at the High School of Commerce. Although she didn’t speak or read English, she achieved grades in the 80s by memorizing entire chapters of her physics, geography, history and other textbooks. When I comment on her flawless English pronunciation, she credits her “fabulous” ESL (English-as-a-Second-Language) teacher, and repeated viewings of Sesame Street.
When her teacher in a Grade 11 ceramics course spotted her sketches, she was sent upstairs to see Mr. Maxsted who was the head of the Art Department. He recognized her potential and wangled a “scholarship” for her that covered the costs of her art supplies and her field trips. Her response to a critical comment about one of her drawings was to empty her local library of its art books, and spend her entire Christmas holiday improving her drawing skills. After high school she was reluctant to incur the debt load necessary to attend college as a foreign student. She exhibited and sold paintings at the Lily Gallery in Ottawa’s Byward Market, and eked out a living working odd jobs.
After acquiring her permanent residence status, Amélia enrolled in Algonquin College’s three-year course in Architectural Technology, specializing in heritage building conservation. “I wanted to get closer to Canada,” she explained. From 1988 until 2001 she worked fulltime doing designs and drawings, research, publishing, presentations and project management for a wide variety of historical restoration projects. Since 2001 she has worked as an independent architectural designer, including work for restoration projects at the Mill of Kintail and for the North Lanark Agricultural Society.
Her appreciation of Canadian architectural history has fostered her connection to nature. When she isn’t painting or working as an architectural designer, she can usually be found exploring and enjoying her wonderfully diverse surroundings. She is a gardener, and an active member of the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists, where she serves on the Board as chair of membership. According to their website at
Ah, You are Uniquely You
Perhaps because she has had to invent herself as an adult in a foreign society without the guidance and nurturing of family, Amélia sometimes ponders her own identity. “People look at me and because I look a certain way, they make assumptions. Occasionally it makes me wonder if I’m being disrespectful to my cultural roots by not exploring my ‘Chineseness.’” She has never stepped on Chinese soil, and muses, “I don’t want to confine myself to being any one facet of my confused multicultural background.”
It is through her painting that she finds her freedom to explore and her ability to express herself. “If I compare it to words, painting is more direct. It gives me a wonderful sense of freedom.” In some of her pieces Ah You celebrates her artistic freedom by affixing a photograph to her canvas, and overpainting to invent her own view of reality. In others she uses abstraction to capture an emotional response. She has executed many self-portraits, always searching for yet another aspect of her mysterious and unknowable ancestral past.
Amélia Ah You’s exuberant and introspective paintings will be on display at the annual “Art in the Attic” show at the Almonte Town Hall at 14 Bridge St. on May 23 (10-7) and May 24 (10-4). In July she is participating in the group show “Homage to a Canadian Artist” at Cube Gallery at 7 Hamilton Avenue North, in Ottawa. You will enjoy the compelling and beautiful expressions of her explorations of self and the natural world. She also has an art show planned at the Mill of Kintail in 2010. You can reach her by phone at 256-9834, and by email.