Corno (Joanne Corneau), the native of Chicoutimi, Que., took to drawing from an early age and said her father was so convinced she was destined for fame that he made her sign all her sketches.

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She moved to Montreal in the early 1970s and earned a degree in fine art at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

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The painter welcomed her growing fame in Quebec, and in later years opened the Montreal gallery AKA to exhibit and sell her work, but Corno said leaving became something she "had to do."