“I painted it around, I guess, 1993 when I met Don Freed [her boyfriend] for the first time. He said, ‘How are you?’ And I said, ‘Undervalued.’ [Laughs.] And I was. I was very frustrated because the normal outlets for getting your product marketed in my business, those doors had been closed to me, and no one could give me a reason why….So my work was being rejected, whereas mediocre work was being accepted and elevated on the basis of newness and youth and, you know, obvious mercantile speculation ran in that direction. So, rather than physically cut my ear off, I did it in effigy. [Huge belly laugh.] I’m not that stupid.”
– from ‘I Sing My Sorrow and I Paint My Joy’ by Deirdre Kelly, Toronto Globe and Mail, June 8, 2000