Irene Dewdney by J. Bruce Parker In 1987, upon graduating from nursing school in Stratford, I moved back to London, settling into apartment #4 at 49 Ridout Street – the Lonsdale – with my girlfriend Jinny, now my wife. I recall the realtor from the company who owned the building reassuring us that the tenant below was a ‘deaf old lady’ and would not be bothersome. As it turned out, the ‘deaf old lady’ was Irene Dewdney, who was neither. Over the six years that my wife and I lived at the Lonsdale, an impressive 1880s structure with a stained glass conservatory, the life of Irene Dewdney, art therapist and political activist, would unfold and become an enduring influence in my life. Irene Donner was born in Kitchener in 1915 and eventually became Mrs. Selwyn Dewdney. Selwyn, born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, would become a teacher, artist, illustrator, author, and pioneer in both pictography cataloguing and art therapy. As a teacher, he was employed at Sir Adam Beck Secondary School. In his book Daylight in the Swamp, chronicling the diaries of his father, the late A.K Dewdney quotes his father upon meeting his mother in Port Hope. “It was there that I met the woman I would share my life with, but during the next four years, we saw each other only on weekends. I had to complete my studies at the Ontario College of Art, then at the Ontario College of Education, as well as a stint of high school teaching in Owen Sound.” In 1936, the two were married in a ceremony presided over by Selwyn’s father who was the bishop of Keewatin. With Selwyn’s dedication to Ontario’s north, their honeymoon became a 500-mile canoe trip from Kenora to Red Lake. Kee Dewdney recalls his father’s words, “So ended our honeymoon and Irene’s canoe apprenticeship. It was a far cry from those tentative forays in the lagoon of Victoria Park in Kitchener when she panicked at gliding under an overhanging tree. Now she was a canoe partner who could be counted on to face any partner, on whose paddle stoke perfectly complemented mine. But there was more to it. Ever after, Irene would dream that someday we would find a place of our own in this incredible land, an island remote from roads. We would bring our children and they would bring their children. All could find what she had found.” They did find and eventually purchase an island in Ontario’s north which became a summer retreat for the family. When the Dewdneys settled into a home in Old South, London Free Press columnist James Reaney stated, “that during the 1950s and 1960s, the Dewdney’s home on Erie Street was a gathering point for almost anyone who wanted to talk arts, politics, or ideas of London.” Irene was the grand facilitator of all this. The Erie Street house also became for some time, the home of Canadian artist Norval Morrisseau. She fostered friendships with former London mayor Jane Bigelow, poet Colleen Thibaudeau, artists Greg Curnoe and Jack Chambers. Her hand was firmly on the cultural pulse of London. It was Irene who informed me of Curnoe’s sudden, tragic death in 1993. It was Irene who was one of three women who were at the bedside of Jack Chambers when he died in 1978. Sometime after 1947, when Selwyn was commissioned to illustrate a book on psychiatry, he became interested in the
To advertise here, please contact Cathy@villagerpublications.com In 1990, when NDP candidate Bob Rae won the provincial election for Premier, Irene was elated and revealed to me her dedication to the political party, going back to the 1940s when the NDP was known as the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). I recall celebrating Rae’s victory with Irene, a bottle of red wine, and high hopes for our newly elected provincial government. Though early to retire at night, Irene was always available to join us for an occasional drink, or a few moments for a communal barbeque in the yard at Lonsdale during the summer evenings. fledgling science of art therapy as a treatment for mental illness. He soon acquired the title as “Psychiatric Art Therapist” and with Irene, advanced this form of therapy. Irene became an art therapy consultant for the Western Ontario Therapeutic Community Hostel in London; her area of expertise being group- centered, with its focus on geriatric patients and adolescents with drug addictions. In 1979, she founded the Ontario Art Therapy Association and was awarded an Honourable Membership for life. Selwyn Dewdney died in 1979, but Irene continued the practice in her apartment at the corner of Ridout and Craig streets. She would, on occasion share client issues with me, always protecting their identity, but always presenting a sense of compassion, concern and dedication to her profession. There were a few times that I saw her in the early morning, pacing outside the vast yard in a regal purple dressing gown, myself wondering if she was wrestling with a client’s issue. It was her commitment to art therapy which established the art therapy program at the University of Western Ontario.
Page 12 Wortley Villager • July-August 2025
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