Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Over the past six years, a Fort Smith man has lost almost 300 pounds - a staggering accomplishment which he credits largely to his involvement in art.

Mike Labine: Fort Smith man credits his art with helping him regain a healthy lifestyle. - NNSL file photo

"My art has enabled me and empowered me to concentrate and work on my health issues and made me a better person," said Michel (Mike) Labine. "Because of the time and effort put into my art, I've lost a lot of weight."

Labine is a well-known artist, especially for his works of stained glass and fused glass.

The 52-year-old started losing weight when he retired in 2006 as a GNWT renewable resources officer – actually, his employer decided it was time for him to retire for medical reasons.

"I'm ashamed to say it, but I was 658 at one point and I was still at work, but the stress was killing me," he said. "When I retired because of medical reasons, I started losing weight and now my weight is just a little over 360."

Looking back, Labine recalled all his health issues, including heart failure, were weight related, noting he gained 100 pounds in his last year at work.

"I started to realize that, if I wanted to live to see 55, I needed to change and I needed to do some drastic changes," he said.

That's when he got busier with his art, along with swimming more and doing an aquafit program, he noted. "The art didn't have the stress to go with it, and the more people enjoyed it, the more I was into it and the more I was doing art."

Labine said art helped him lose weight in a number of ways.

"The first thing it did was it kept my hands busy. You're not eating as much," he explained, noting he was kept busy sketching designs or cutting or grinding glass, and even working on art while watching television, instead of snacking. "So you're occupying your time."

Plus, he noted the physical aspect of his art, such as going into the bush to cut trees to make drum frames and preparing hides, helped him lose weight.

"Without my art and without that escape, I probably wouldn't be here right now," he said.

Along with art, Labine tried a couple of weight loss programs and, in 2009, he had an operation to place a band around the top section of his stomach to reduce the amount of food he ate.

However, prior to that operation, he had already lost about 180 pounds.

Labine also credits the support from his family and friends with helping him lose weight.

Now, he hopes to shed even more pounds.

"I'd like to get down to 250-260," he said, adding he suspects that will happen once he has hip replacement surgery, which he described as the last cog in the wheel before his health is back to normal.

Labine, who is of French-Metis heritage and comes from northern Ontario, first arrived in the NWT in 1980 as an environmental engineer at Yellowknife's Con Mine.

In 1981, he switched to the GNWT and worked in Yellowknife, Cape Dorset, Tulita, Fort Liard and Fort Smith, where he has lived since 1999.

His art has been influenced by his experiences in the North.

"It's a release for me and it's a way of remembering the places, the people, the cultures that I've met and been with," he said. "By incorporating those memories in my art, I'm immortalizing those memories and I'm making so that other people can enjoy the things that I've seen and witnessed over the years."

Labine began creating stained glass while in Fort Liard in 1993 after seeing it demonstrated on television.

Examples of his artwork have travelled all over the world, and ended up with some famous people, including Liberal MP Justin Trudeau and the Fort Smith-born Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of Canada.

"My current goal is to keep building on my reputation and I'm getting more and more into teaching," Labine said, noting he'll be offering classes on stained glass in the fall.

Along with stained glass and fused glass, such as dishes and plates, he has carved antler and dabbled in metal art, and also does some woodworking.

Labine said he actually starting creating artwork when he was just six years old and made a drum from a squirrel pelt.

"I'd encourage anybody that's out there that's under a lot of stress to take up a hobby and an art," he said, noting his first pieces of stained glass were not that great, but he is now proud of his work. "A lot of people realize the story that I've gone through. I think it's important that people realize that, if they do that kind of thing, they also will succeed."

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.