Her early work in painting, based in emotive narrative visual form, received critical recognition in the Toronto scene in the 80s for exhibitions at such places as YYZ Artist Outlet, Mercer Union and the Ydessa Hendeles Gallery. Purgatorio, A Drinkingbout, based on Meigs' experience in Berlin prior to the collapse of the wall, included a film, set designs and a series of gouache storyboards. The Western Gothic, first exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, then at the Ydessa Foundation, included a film, drawing, theatrical painting and fiction.