A few years ago I attended a show
From the Lake No.1
oil painting
by Georgia O'Keeffe (1924) Sunflowers and wine
watercolour painting at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe comparing the works of Georgia O'Keeffe , Frida Kahlo , and Emily Carr . They were contemporaries, each working in their own country, without modern day communications such as the Internet, but doing similar innovative things in art. It was like a higher power had taken each of them and guided them to influence a group of people in each one's locale. Very amazing!

Your
Big Eagle, Skidigate, BC
watercolour painting
by Emily Carr (1930) clickback brought a smile to my face when remembering a story my father-in-law told me. As a youngster living in Oak Bay in Victoria BC, he collected butterflies, carefully placing them on pins and proudly displaying them on a velvet background. At the local annual fair held at the 'Fairgrounds' (now Carnarvon Park) he displayed his 'works of art.' When arriving home and asked by his parents about his day at the fair, his response was "Well, it was fun and everyone liked my butterflies, but 'They' put my table beside that same batty lady with the horrible paintings again this year." He mused in later years that he'd had two chances to have one of her paintings but said "no" to her, thank you very much, because he didn't want one of those horrible paintings in his house!

Thank you for sharing
Arbutus Tree
oil painting
by Emily Carr (1922) the wonderful artist, Emily Carr . I have a problem at the moment with people not seeing my vision for the future of calligraphy where I live in South Africa. I have made a stand that beautiful writing, like a beautiful painting, should not be competitive with awards, but a self-made journey of improving one's own abilities and to enjoy the journey through one's life.

When I was about 9 years old Big Raven Dream
acrylic painting
12 x 16 inches I saw a poster on display at our local library - the first painted image that ever really reached out and grabbed hold of my attention - it was Big Raven by Emily Carr. When I saw it I thought "now THAT is painting" and from that day forward I looked at every painting of hers I could find in the library, read her books, and told myself that if I could ever do anything even remotely like it then perhaps I might call myself a painter too. Two years ago I painted this image which I call "Big Raven Dream" to express my debt to Emily. She continues to inspire my work, my thoughts and my life.

I live in a small corner of southern Alberta next to Waterton National Park. I am surrounded by rivers and coulees and mountains and swathed fields of hay and I try to approach all of these scenes with the same vigor which imbues Emily's paintings. She was a character out of place in Victoria's stiff society. Many of us who paint are similarly 'out of place.' What motivates me as a painter is my desire to make seen the feelings I have about the world I explore and this might mean rendering it in stylized shapes or colours much as Emily did in her work. She was not afraid to put as much of herself into the image as would fit. I strive for the same bravado. I'm a crazy woman too.

The quote in the end Equine Ears
oil painting
11 x 14 inches struck a chord with me; you never stop silently critiquing a piece and questioning yourself. Also, the question in the PS about the purpose/direction of a piece rings in my head over and over again. My work is ever-evolving, and I must always go back and ask questions like these to ground myself.

Do people in every profession do this? I have trouble picturing an accountant doing this, or a stock trader. Does a dentist say, "Could I have put more into that filling?" Maybe just the creative types: actors, writers, etc., continue to question their work. When I work my other job as a massage therapist, I've reviewed my work. Although I see an art to any job – "Every calling is great when greatly pursued." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) – not all are compelled to reassess. So perhaps this is a personal character thing.

First thing Old railway station- Blyth
Gouache and pencil I did this morning when I woke was to go to the computer and read your letter. I was delighted to see today's topic is Emily Carr. I have never been to Canada, but I adore Canadian art and one of my favourites just has to be Emily. I'd forgotten some people once thought she was crazy. That tends to happen when people are ahead of their time. Poor Emily couldn't remain on earth long enough for the rest of the world to catch up with her. When I read her words I find it hard to find any craziness in them - quite the opposite in fact.

Emily inspired you to an awareness of the brotherhood and sisterhood of artists and that is something I too feel strongly about. Only problem is... many artists don't realise we are brothers and sisters and many of us have been disowned by them. I myself produce art that is not recognized by many as art. Here in England there are many artists whose main objective seems to be to imitate a camera as closely as possible. I love the work they produce, but I don't feel it should be classed as "the norm" with anything deviating from it seen as "wrong."

I hadn't seen the painting, Strait of Juan de Fuca before and as I look at it I ask myself the question, "Could a camera ever imbue a scene with such emotion?" The answer is a resounding "NO." By the way - I love photography and rarely go out without my digi-cam in my shirt pocket.

At first glance, I thought that Sea of Color
acrylic painting you were calling me a crazy woman. I wondered to myself, "How did you know?" I'm just kidding. While I was reading the quotes from Emily Carr, that you have included in this issue, I could feel a tingling wave of chills rise up my spine. Goose bumps were present on my arms. I understood. I am a self-taught artist and have much to learn in a technical sense. But, one thing that I am absolutely certain of is this: without the hum, there is no art for me. In my eyes, this is what painting is all about: transferring that hum into a form that can be seen with the eyes as well as felt with the soul. When I can feel that flow of electric life running through my heart to my hand to the canvas, I can think of no other place that I'd rather be and nothing else that I'd rather be doing. Is painting a Spiritual event? Absolutely! But this is true only if we are fully present while we are engaged in the process.

A few years ago, I read
Beaver Pole, Skidegate
watercolour and graphite painting
by Emily Carr (1928-29) The Forest Lover , a fictional autobiography of Emily Carr. I really enjoyed her paintings, especially her depiction of trees. I read more about her and I read a few of the books she has written. Most artists in the US do not know about her or about the Group of Seven . This really surprised me. Since some of the people I paint with also subscribe to your letter , I will bring my Emily Carr 'picture and short biography' book to class tomorrow.

Emily Carr is one of my most profound Blue Poppy
watercolor painting influences. Emily strived to make spirit tangible, capturing light and energy in her later works in an almost ecstatic consummation. Her writings touch my heart in a way that no other artist has come close to doing, because she tries to express in words her lifelong struggle to get to the heart of her subject, to go beyond mere image to the pulsating spirit within.

"Oh I do want that thing, that oneness of movement that will catch the thing up into one movement and sing--harmony of life." (Emily Carr, Hundreds and Thousands ) Luckily for me, I live in Victoria and can still gaze upon the same trees in our local parks and forests that she loved and captured in paint.

I was born in Victoria. My Purple Iris
oil painting
8 x 10 inches grandmother moved there in 1920 from Red Deer. Granny had a parrot and, of course, Emily had her monkey. My grandmother's house was on Emily's path to Beacon Hill Park. They spent time chatting over Granny's fence many a morning. Would that I could have been there for that!! Our house had all of Emily's books and Mum read them to me as bedtime stories. The respect for Emily and her unwomanly endeavors was told to me over and over again. It has enabled me to be who I am. Women's Lib is great but just doing what you are going to do and be damned what others think comes into my psyche straight from my mother's belief that women like Emily Carr deserved their due in all walks of life. Kudos to Emily! Her spirit lives on in her art and writing. She walked to a different drummer with her head held high!

I have spent most of my life
Scorned as Timber Beloved of the Sky
oil painting by Emily Carr (1935) near the trees in British Columbia and go to them like people go to church. Hiking in the forests, sitting under a small group of large healthy trees, even just driving through a forest on the way somewhere will remind me of the absolute power and beauty of nature and man's place in it all. Many of Emily's paintings were done along the west coast of British Columbia on tiny, remote islands, in rainy or windy and overcast weather. Her paintings look exactly how it feels, and the colours, all of them, are bang on. The smell of wet soil, grass, moss, new wood, old wood, salt air, wild growing mushrooms, the sound of pebbles rolling up and down the beach with the waves, the constant changing of light and colour patterns as clouds are pushed across the sky and the way light and colour plays on distant hillsides and reflects off the water is amazing. Everything is so alive! The way gigantic, lushly curved tree branches near the edge of the forest (just feet from a rocky shore or at the edge of a clearing) will wave dramatically in the wind and noise, but just steps inside the forest all will be quieter, calmer, safer, with only the tree tops above you affected by the wind. Rocking in long slow arcs, each tree's individual pattern different from the next, but the movements have a unity with each other. Very exciting! There is such energy, mystery and beauty everywhere you look.

In Scorned as Timber she shows the beauty of nature even when near death or destruction. The stripped spar tree still has its dignity and is loved. Perhaps this feeling of 'forest' is necessary to identify with Emily's work. When I look at her work, I unconsciously inhale through my nose, smell the beauty and relax. I want to be there.

Many women took offense to your
digitally altered photograph comments in 'Breaking the Curse' , inferring that the outward appearance of a woman may sacrifice her ability to let others focus upon her work rather than her(self). I know myself that I hear your blindness to gender, but others only hear the unanswered anger that women, like many other groups in history, have continually had to endure. I think that your comment may deserve further clarification.

It seems that within the context of societal parameters, there are many barriers to cross. Crossing those barriers, though, requires tact and compassion for those who are slow to come around. While I believe I understand your point, I think both views have served to cause people to think differently, and therefore neither approach is wrong, but each may have need for greater understanding regarding the practice and the outcome.

I agree totally that repressive, non-educated societies depress women, literally and figuratively. Education is certainly the key. I wonder, however, at the "time and patience" philosophy. When you think back to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, after a century of repression, socially, intellectually, educationally, financially, the rampant segregation of American Blacks from mainstream American society, the only way their civil rights became an issue was pressing the issue and forcing the changes. Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy as Attorney General, and eventually the court system all applied pressure. No passive "time and patience" there.

To initiate change there has to be pressure applied. I'm not necessarily an advocate of women in art, women in professions, etc. I am an advocate of women pressing issues, pushing and applying pressure, critiquing and not accepting the 'norm.' Women are going to have to generate the pressure to change their circumstances. In those situations, it is not socially pleasant to be around the 'pushy, aggressive, assertive, in-your-face female. But it will create change.