“An Art Worthy of Our Great Country”

Yesterday I had the good fortune to experience a wonderful Vagabond Photography Adventure at The Vancouver Art Gallery and Stanley Park. Vancouver is sparkling on sunny spring days and I felt the need for adventure more keenly than I have since moving here 3 short months ago. Prompted by a series of recent conversations about the art and writing of Emily Carr, I knew I needed to visit The Vancouver Art Gallery’s new exhibit called Beyond the Trees which explores the work of Emily Carr, along with local artists whose work reflect Carr’s unique use of pattern and movement to depict the brooding, immense landscape of beautiful British Columbia.

I have long been a fan of Emily Carr’s work, but it was not until I moved here and experienced this rugged, mysterious landscape first hand that I realized her gift for expressing the feeling one gets when left alone under the immense sky or canopy of ancient trees that pervades outdoor life in BC. At the gallery’s gift shop I picked up a copy of Carr’s journals called Hundreds and Thousands and have just scratched the surface of the inner workings of Emily Carr…the “why” of her gracious art.

I was interested to learn that much of her later work was in fact influenced by a visit to The Group of Seven in 1927. Carr was amazed at the boldness of their works and very humbly wrote: “They have arrested the art world. They are not afraid of adverse criticisms. They are big and courageous. I know they are building an art worthy of our great country, and I want to have my share, to put in a little spoke for the West, one woman holding up my end.”

Little did she know that history and time would look back on the entirety of her work and realize that she too was making an art worthy of our great country, as the painter of the landscape and spirit of British Columbia. In her journal she writes “There is something bigger than fact: the underlying spirit, all it stands for, the mood, the vastness, the wildness, the Western breath of go-to-the-devil-if-you-don’t-like-it, the eternal big spaces of it. Oh the West! I’m of it and I love it!”

I’m sure as I continue down this path of discovery in my new home province that there will be more posts about Emily Carr as her work and spirit also influences me. I hope too that you can enjoy some of the photos I take along the way on this journey, like the snap above of one of the newest totems to adorn Stanley Park, one of three wondrous welcome portals from the Coast Salish people. You can find my latest photos over on my website.

If you would like to learn more about Emily Carr, please take a walk through the lovely Beyond the Trees Exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery, or pick up Hundreds and Thousands at your local book store for an intimate, inside look at what inspired her work. You can also watch the much-loved Heritage Minute by Historica Canada. Or, just step outside and appreciate the beauty that surrounds we lucky Canadians each and every day!