Confessions Of An Artist Who Loves Lake Ontario
On August 29, 2026, from a tiny town in Northern Michigan, I RENAMED a painting and posted it on Facebook.
Within a couple of hours, it got 5,000 views, and then the views jumped to 8,000.
Joyful Pleasures RENAMED TO Lake Ontario, 16” x 20”, acrylic on canvas by Dorothea Sandra
Here’s what I said on Facebook:
“Today, I renamed a painting in honor of my Canadian friends. It’s now called LAKE ONTARIO. Living in Canada, near Lake Ontario, as a teen and in my early 30s was a great honor and joy. Thank you!”
My motivation was not political at all. The whole thing about changing something so sacred and historical, and so attached to so many beautiful people and experiences in my life, just HURT ME.
Inside, I actually felt deep and intense emotional pain, and I wanted to say something or do something, so I did. I changed a painting’s name to LAKE ONTARIO.
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario
All of the comments were positive. So many other people also had strong feelings about changing the name of a lake of such significance.
A friend and one of my buyers in Toronto wrote: “Thank you, Dorothea. People here are so upset about this, a tipping point for sure, and it has brought Buy Canadian and Elbows Up completely back to the forefront of our thoughts.”
I have known this person’s husband since high school. Our hangout place after school was the public hockey/ice-skating rink with wooden stands right in front of Lake Ontario in an area called The Beaches.
We were not the only ones with a history along the shores of this magnificent lake. The lake’s name itself comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which means “the lake beautiful, the lake is big.”
The lake’s name comes from an oral tradition that predates the Canadian Confederation and the U.S. Declaration of Independence by centuries.
