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Twenty years ago, Toronto police ordered a series of degrading paintings to be pulled from the window of a Queen Street East shop, after neighbourhood residents complained.

The paintings (and their creator Ann-Marie Cheung) are pictured here in this 1991 photo by the Toronto Stars Jim Wilkes. The paintings depicted bare-breasted, blue-tinged women bound by chains and thorny rope, with their long ethereal hair escaping restraint.

Razzle Cameron, the manager of the shop Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, agreed to remove the paintings to stay out of trouble. However, Cameron did not agree with the complaint, noting at the time that a strip club down the block was not being painted with the same brush.

Cheung remembers feeling rather surprised and found it quite humorous that some people could be so offended by a work of art. But the censorship of her work did not amuse: I was angered that my freedom of expression was stripped from me.

These paintings by Cheung had been displayed without incident at an Ottawa art gallery three years earlier. However, it seemed that Toronto audiences were more sensitive.

As an artist, Cheung says, it is my job to evoke an emotional response. In that case I was successful; but, it wasnt my initial intention.

Today, Cheung lives just outside of Toronto, with a home studio in which she can continue to paint the goddess and explore the divine feminine.

Reflecting on those controversial pieces, Cheung describes them as painted in a surreal symbolist style. She explains, The one in chains was personifying how women are chained to certain roles. The one blindfolded and bound was ironically about censorship, symbolizing how our eyes and hands are restricted. To this day she maintains there was nothing sexual or pornographic about the pieces.

There is certainly nothing unusual or new about depictions of nude women in fine art, neither today nor when Cheung painted these pieces. At art school we study and draw and paint from live nude models, says Cheung, who graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. I feel that it is the artists right to express and interpret anything they desire.

Cheung sees her mission as an artist as one of release. I help adventurous spirits create a joyful, magical space in their lives with my unique, vibrant, whimsical artwork, she says. And, Cheung believes we all have an inner artist eager to come out and play. She produces workshops and programs to guide others in their own sacred painting practice, even those with no artistic experience.

As unconventional today as she was 20 years ago, Cheung is also a certified yoga instructor, is learning to scuba dive, and hopes to hold in-person art retreats once the pandemic is over. She looks forward to encouraging artistic expression through exploring ancient symbols, meditations and exercises that will ignite creative spark and help others, as well as herself, connect with the art that is your life.

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A Toronto artist's painting symbolized censorship of women. In 1991, Toronto police ordered it removed - TheSpec.com