- Emily Carr (Canadian, 1871-1945). A powerful painter and writer who devoted her life to expressing what she felt and saw in the British Columbia woods, including the totem poles and villages of the Native American West Coast Indians. She grew up in Victoria when it was under English rule and studied in San Francisco during the Chinatown tong wars. She was a true Canadian who lived in the woods simply with her animals including her many beloved sheep dogs. In the conservative atmosphere of 19th-century Victoria, she was considered eccentric and felt a sense of “otherness,” often remaining isolated. She grew produce, raised hens and rabbits, made pottery and rugs, and took boarders to supplement her art. Overdue recognition and fame arrived in the 1920's and increased with the publication of two of her books, Klee Wyck and The Book of Small. A vivid picture of her life and the places she went and people she met are revealed in these and her other books. All of her work, from painting to writing to rugmaking, remained uninhibited by academic standards.
|