Champion for Charity Anne Filiatrault blends artistic brushstrokes with Ali anchor punches
By Jeff Hicks
KITCHENER —
Claude Monet. Edgar Degas. Muhammad Ali.
Anne Filiatrault, a Canadian artist and one of Mandy Bujold’s 20 Champions for Charity, has a keen eye for the greatest canvas heavyweights of all time.
That’s why the 55-year-old professional painter from Kitchener and first-time impressionist pugilist is creating a unique pair of Ali portraits for silent auction.
Ali wears blue gloves in one painting — for Anne’s 10-member Champions Blue Team — and red gloves, for the dastardly Red Team, in the other.
Filiatrault, with each paintbrush jab at Ali, aims to raise money for children’s charities KidsAbility and Scotland’s Yard cancer care for kids at Grand River Hospital Foundation.
In each masterpiece of wood and oil and underlying snarl, Ali’s youthful defiance is captivating.
“He’s just standing there, so strong and proud,” Filiatrault said of her Ali portraits.
So Monet can dab his water lilies. Degas can twirl his brush with his spinning ballet dancers.
Ali, forever pretty and poetic, will always float like a Monarch Woods butterfly spied by Filiatrault and her French bulldog Winnie during their inspiring daily strolls.
He will always stare and sting like a New Dundee bee.
“The focus in his eyes,” she said of the mesmerizing oil-based menace she captures of the three-time world champ. “The strength and the confidence and the focus.”
The same strength and stability Filiatrault, who will make her boxing debut in The Brawl at Tapestry Hall on April 4, always saw in her mom Mary’s eyes.
But Mary, still going strong at 96, has always been quiet.
A silent auction for Ali? Silence is only golden when you don’t know what to say. The Louisville Lip was always eager to trumpet his greatness — and his obvious humility.
But Ali, after handcuffing lightning and throwing thunder in jail, knew having a cause was key.
“You lose nothing when you fight for a cause,” Ali once said.
The Champions’ cause is the community and helping ensure our kids can always get the greatest medical care available through McMaster Children’s Hospital. That’s where the son of Filiatrault’s nephew, now a healthy goal-scoring hockey player at 7, got wonderful care after being born prematurely. An impatient entrance has become puck-hounding determination.
“Incredible to think of how far he has come,” she said.
The Champions have already raised $518,000 for MacKids with 10 inspiring bouts, three round each, still to come. The goal was $500,000.
So Filiatrault, illustrator for many local and national design firms, is training hard for 15 weeks with the other community heavyweights and business leaders and boxing for the first time at a sold-out Tapestry Hall on April 4.
But why abandon the creative comfort of her Kitchener studio in an old shoe factory to do this? “I’m doing it to give back to the community,” said Filiatrault, whose youth included time in Kitchener, Sudbury and Barrie, before getting a fine arts degree at Western University and Honours Illustration diploma from Sheridan College.
“It’s a challenge for myself. And it’s an incredible thing to be a part of. It raises so much money and so much awareness for such an important cause.”
Her kids — James is 20 and Elizabeth is 23 — are both University of Calgary students and ski team downhillers. They’ll likely watch mom fight online as they wax literally and philosophically.
Maybe they’ll purchase the Ali portraits in the silent auction that is now live.
Or digitally grab 50/50 tickets that are already online with a chance to win a pair of Post Malone tickets. Rockstar stuff, to be sure.
Yet Filiatrault’s husband Paul, who grew up in Waterloo, felt like he’d been flattened by a phantom anchor punch when his wife told him she would be boxing for real.
“You realize you’re going to get punched in the head?” Paul asked her.
“Yup,” laughed Filiatrault, whose fight night nickname is No Fear.
Now, after watching his wife’s commitment to the cause and her determined training under Champions coaches, Paul has come around.
“He’s all for it now,” she said.
Only a few weeks remain to train. The final brushstokes on the Ali portraits await. On fight night, an impressionist artist will look to make an impression in the squared landscape of the boxing ring. She might even turn that experience into a painting.
“I’m constantly inspired by my surroundings,” she said.
To support Anne, click here.
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