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Prophetic Art & Spiritual Creativity
Anne Reid Artist

When life imitates art

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The hands in this painting are my hands.

This painting is called Community. I painted the original as a watercolor in 2007 at the National House of Prayer in Ottawa, after I gave away the only food I had brought with me to a woman on the sidewalk who needed it more than I did.

Years later, life imitated art.

In 2022, Community became a print that was used as a thank-you gift for major donors to Kids Against Hunger Canada. A painting that began with one small act of giving became part of a much larger story of giving.

That is one of the things I love about prophetic art. The paintings have a life of their own and the story unfolds over time.

For me, Community is rooted in Isaiah 58 — true fasting expressed through mercy, sharing, and care for the person in front of us.

By the way...the printer framed it upside-down which I discovered when I looked at the FB post. I had to have it redone.

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3 Comments

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Tavares GibsonJun 10, 2026

That arc from sidewalk moment to donor print is the patient thing. Seventeen years between the watercolor and seeing it land in a feeding program. The upside-down frame is perfect, honestly, even the printer had to slow down and look twice.

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Anne Reid ArtistJun 10, 2026

Was it really 17 years?!?!?! Wow. Wow. I am shocked. I didn’t count. !!! Well. The truth is it was about that time that I actually felt the pool to get serious about my art and specifically to paint with acrylics, but you know I didn’t make them move until 2016. That’s just awful. How long have you been doing photography?

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Malcolm TurcotteJun 6, 2026

That moment when a painting you made after giving away your lunch circles back years later as part of feeding thousands. The arc on that one is something. I shot a series once in the early days that I nearly shelved because none of it sold, then three years later a local conservation group used two of the prints for a fundraiser that actually moved the needle on a wetland project. Not the same scale as your story, but I remember that feeling of the work finding its own path long after you let it go. The upside-down frame is perfect, honestly. Even the printer couldn't see which way was up until the story caught up with the image.

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