Family of Calgary artist living with dementia selling his original artwork to pay for care

Vivian Oneka looks at one of her dad's many paintings that she's put up for sale on Etsy to help raise funds for his medical costs.

Vivian Oneka is the youngest of five children and she came up with the idea to sell her dad’s original art work to help fund his health-care needs.

Doncious Oneka amassed a collection of art he painted throughout his life that focused on scenes from Uganda, where he grew up.

Vivian put nine of them up for sale on Etsy along with a short video of her dad’s story on TikTok.

“I thought a good way to kind of put something good out there would be to share his artwork on social media,” she said.

“So I thought okay, he’s had all of these paintings for over 20 years, how can I share this with the world and finally honor his legacy in some kind of way.”

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Three of the paintings have since sold and Vivian told her mom Nora, with whom she shares the responsibility of looking after Doncious in their Bridgeland apartment.

“I didn’t even think that anyone would see the video and then go, ‘Okay, I’m gonna now go out and purchase this piece of work from 20 plus years ago,’” Vivian said.

“So it was really exciting, the first sale I got, I ran to my mom and I was on the verge of tears because it was just so cool to see.”

As Doncious’s health deteriorated, Vivian and Nora both lost their jobs and say the art sales will help with expenses.

“We’ve decided to save the funds to put towards any medical needs that he requires,” said Vivian. “So things like medicine or if we need like anything in terms of caring for him further is just being put away for that.”

Nora says her 74-year-old husband suffered a stroke followed three years ago with the early onset of dementia but it’s progressed rapidly.

He spends his days in a bed in the family’s living room.

“He can no longer walk by himself or he can’t do much by himself without a lot of assistance,” said Vivian. “He’s currently bedridden so he’s unable to really move or even speak and communicate with us so it’s just a lot of trying to engage with him the best we can.”

Nora says she’s enjoyed his paintings for their whole life together, but Doncious always wanted to share his work on a larger scale and now that’s happening through these sales.

“Oh I feel so happy trust me, from the bottom of my heart,” she said.

“He has been all doing this from his childhood and he went to university to study art and design, this is his field, the man has lost it all, this is his life, he wanted to give more and more.”

See Doncious’s work the family has put up for sale on Etsy.