Joey Klein uses art to give back to the FASD community

For Wilfred “Joey” Klein, painting has become a way to communicate when words can sometimes be difficult. 

The Inuvik-born self-taught artist, who grew up in Edmonton, has been painting for more than 20 years. Now, his artwork is helping create opportunities for others with lived experience of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).

Klein has donated his original painting, The Reflection of Acceptance, to CanFASD and is donating 100 percent of the proceeds from a limited edition 225 prints to the organization’s Lived Experience Leadership Fund. 

CanFASD is Canada’s national FASD research network, connecting researchers, practitioners and people with lived experience to improve research, policy and support for those affected by FASD.

The Lived Experience Leadership Fund supports people with lived experience of FASD in participating in research, conferences, and leadership opportunities they may otherwise be unable to afford. 

For Klein, the decision to donate the proceeds came from his own experience attending a CanFASD conference, where he met people whose stories and experiences inspired the painting. 

It was his first conference of any kind and, as someone with FASD, Klein said he found it difficult to explain his experience through writing. 

“I have a hard time with words, especially typing,” he said. “So when I returned from this conference, I said, ‘Why am I trying to explain myself in text when I’m a visual artist and I need to paint this?’”

The original oil-on-canvas painting features the northern lights – a familiar subject in Klein’s work – along with a landscape and a figure carrying a pair of red shoes toward a gathering of people. 

For Klein, the painting represents the feeling of walking toward a community that is willing to understand and accept people with FASD.

“It’s a reflection of me walking on those rocks, coming towards the people,” he told Cabin Radio. “But it also could be for anybody who has FASD that feels like, OK, I need to, like anything else, be accepted.”

The red shoes symbolize strength and courage as Klein approaches a community willing to listen and learn.

“I’m carrying them towards being accepted,” he said. 

Klein said the people he met at the conference, along with their stories and the courage of those who shared their experiences, were a major source of inspiration. 

His experience also made him think about the barriers people with lived experience can face when trying to participate in research, conferences and leadership opportunities. 

Klein had to sell his artwork to help make his trip to the conference possible. That experience led him to ask how he could use his own skills to help others facing similar barriers. 

“I realized that, as an artist, an FASD artist, how can I help?” he said. 

The answer was through his art. 

‘I want to hear the stories’

Melissa Dobson, a member of CanFASD’s Family Advisory Committee, said involving people with lived experience is essential to improving research and policy. 

“It’s the idea of ‘nothing about us without us,’” she told Cabin Radio.

The fund has already supported people travelling to conferences across Canada and internationally, where recipients have presented, participated in discussions and shared their experiences with researchers and other professionals. 

“I’m not doing this because I want to hear about how much money it made,” Klein said. “I want to hear about the stories that have been shared.”

He hopes people who purchase a print see it not only as a piece of artwork, but as a way to contribute to someone else’s future. 

For an artist who once preferred to work behind the scenes, Klein’s painting has given him another way to speak – and an opportunity to help make space for other voices. 

“I’ve achieved a lot, but at the same time, I’ve realized that there’s a lot of stuff I can’t do, and I’ve accepted it,” he said.

“And this is where, again, as an artist, as an FASD artist, how can I help?”