Ontario resident visits Tofield to see his father’s mural for the first time

Ontario resident Lionel Chubaty visited Tofield earlier in July to see his father Joseph Chubaty’s 15 by 30 feet mural at the Tofield Community Hall for the first time.

Visiting his uncle, Marion Chubaty and aunt Florence, Lionel was in awe of the amazing artwork that his painter dad had created almost 62 years ago from a $1,000-bill in the mid-1950s.

“He was known to us by Joe and was incredibly talented,” recalled Florence, who is married to Joseph’s brother Marion.

According to Florence, Joseph had polio when he was 17 and was unable to finish school, but that did not deter him from becoming a great artist.

One of the most amazing facts about the mural at the Community Hall is that he painted it with one hand.

Florence said that when the mural was getting painted it wouldn’t be odd to see Joseph and his co-worker Dirk DeFrenne entering and leaving the hall a few times at midnight and odd hours. At the time, Joseph was working at the Bank of Montreal as a finance professional, under the supervision of Horace Sellers, the bank manager.

But, when Sellers signed out a $1,000 bill from which he was painting he had to have another worker escort Joseph to ensure that there was someone to guard Joe, someone with strong arms.