Thoughts Today on my Sister
Today would be my sister Esther’s eightieth birthday. She died of breast cancer on 6 December 1991 when she was sixty. I spent the last week of her life with her in a hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, was with her when she died, and with my brother took charge of her funeral as she had requested.
Until then, I had not thought much about the truth that being human means sometime we will all leave this beautiful earth. I remember after I came home from that week in Atlanta, I went for an early morning walk though our twelve-acre field surrounded by the light of a brilliant sunrise, and I felt in every cell of my body my human-ness, how that when the end comes no one can do my dying for me. I learned that from Esther. You can be surrounded by people who love you, but it’s still up to you to take your last breath, something no one else can help you with. This was a new realization for me. Sure, I knew I’d die sometime, but that was very different from what I now knew on a gut level.
As Esther was dying, I watched her gather together the tiny bit of energy she had left, and watched her focus on doing her own dying. Her last words were “Stand back.” I think she did not want me or any of her four children hovering over her and distracting her at that important moment of her life.
I still miss her, but I am grateful for what she taught me about living and dying.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
BILL C-32
The proposed “modernization” to copyright in Bill C-32 threatens to take away the rights of creators. I will give one example to illustrate how this would happen were this Bill passed into law.
As it now stands, revenues are collected through Access Copyright for photocopying services and paid to writers. The problem is that Bill C-32 would expand the current purposes of the broad exemption of “fair dealing” to include “education.” This would allow educational institutions to photocopy any books without compensations to writers. You might think that’s good because it saves money for students. But I ask, why should writers do their work without being paid? We don’t expect that of teachers, nor do we expect that of people in any other professions. So why should writers work without being paid for writing?
Consider this: 600,000 Canadians work as writers, artists, performers, composers, songwriters and producers. Our sector contributes more than $46 bn to Canada’s GDP, more than twice the value of Canada’s forest industry.
And yet, Bill C-32, instead of protecting our rights, as copyright has done for centuries, under the pretext of “modernization” Bill C-32 threatens to take rights away, making our future, and the future of Canada’s digital economy more precarious.
I suggest that you contact your Member of Parliament to ask him or her to work to have this badly written law fixed.
The proposed “modernization” to copyright in Bill C-32 threatens to take away the rights of creators. I will give one example to illustrate how this would happen were this Bill passed into law.
As it now stands, revenues are collected through Access Copyright for photocopying services and paid to writers. The problem is that Bill C-32 would expand the current purposes of the broad exemption of “fair dealing” to include “education.” This would allow educational institutions to photocopy any books without compensations to writers. You might think that’s good because it saves money for students. But I ask, why should writers do their work without being paid? We don’t expect that of teachers, nor do we expect that of people in any other professions. So why should writers work without being paid for writing?
Consider this: 600,000 Canadians work as writers, artists, performers, composers, songwriters and producers. Our sector contributes more than $46 bn to Canada’s GDP, more than twice the value of Canada’s forest industry.
And yet, Bill C-32, instead of protecting our rights, as copyright has done for centuries, under the pretext of “modernization” Bill C-32 threatens to take rights away, making our future, and the future of Canada’s digital economy more precarious.
I suggest that you contact your Member of Parliament to ask him or her to work to have this badly written law fixed.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
ALMA DUNCAN (1917-2004)
I suppose that normally I would not have a lot of interest in drawings and paintings of industrial scenes, but an artist who hangs out on catwalks in a factory to get a good view of a scene has a certain appeal to me. Alma Duncan’s interest in machinery began early in her life when as a child in Philadelphia she had the task of making lace as part of a textile show, and she knew early in her life that she would be an artist because she thought making pictures was very exciting.
Duncan attended McGill University in Montreal and also studied art with Ernst Newmann and Goodridge Roberts at the Art Association of Montreal. The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) hired Duncan, first in the Graphics Division and later in the Animation Department. There she met the photographer Audrey McLaren in 1951. The two became life partners and formed a film-making company, Dunclaren Productions.
A touring show of Duncan’s work, initiated by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario in 1987-1988, focused on her depictions of factories and machinery, the big stuff that men (no women in these paintings) did to make our society hold together, from oil refineries to ship building to making paper. The show was called “Alma Duncan and Men at Work.” In this exhibition, Duncan’s acute powers of observation were obvious in the way she positioned workers and machines. Now she is still known for her drawings of industrial scenes.
Duncan moved back and forth between her several media throughout her career. During the 1950s she made a series of chalk drawings of women. Along with her drawing and film making, from time to time she also worked in teaching and gave talks on a variety of art-related topics such as animation and collage.
During World War II she was given permission to sketch war industries, and some of these works are in the collection of the Canadian War Museum. She is also represented in the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario, among others.
Sources
Joan Murray, "Alma Duncan and Men at Work 1943 to 1986" (Oshawa, Ontario, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1987.
Library and Archives Canada
I suppose that normally I would not have a lot of interest in drawings and paintings of industrial scenes, but an artist who hangs out on catwalks in a factory to get a good view of a scene has a certain appeal to me. Alma Duncan’s interest in machinery began early in her life when as a child in Philadelphia she had the task of making lace as part of a textile show, and she knew early in her life that she would be an artist because she thought making pictures was very exciting.
Duncan attended McGill University in Montreal and also studied art with Ernst Newmann and Goodridge Roberts at the Art Association of Montreal. The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) hired Duncan, first in the Graphics Division and later in the Animation Department. There she met the photographer Audrey McLaren in 1951. The two became life partners and formed a film-making company, Dunclaren Productions.
A touring show of Duncan’s work, initiated by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario in 1987-1988, focused on her depictions of factories and machinery, the big stuff that men (no women in these paintings) did to make our society hold together, from oil refineries to ship building to making paper. The show was called “Alma Duncan and Men at Work.” In this exhibition, Duncan’s acute powers of observation were obvious in the way she positioned workers and machines. Now she is still known for her drawings of industrial scenes.
Duncan moved back and forth between her several media throughout her career. During the 1950s she made a series of chalk drawings of women. Along with her drawing and film making, from time to time she also worked in teaching and gave talks on a variety of art-related topics such as animation and collage.
During World War II she was given permission to sketch war industries, and some of these works are in the collection of the Canadian War Museum. She is also represented in the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario, among others.
Sources
Joan Murray, "Alma Duncan and Men at Work 1943 to 1986" (Oshawa, Ontario, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1987.
Library and Archives Canada
Sunday, August 29, 2010
JACOBINE JONES (1897-1976)
Jacobine Jones was born in England. When she was a child, her Danish-born mother encouraged her and her brother and sister to explore their world. Fortunately, her mother also fostered Jacobine’s spontaneous interest in art. As Natalie Luckyj explains in her book on the artist (see below), her childhood drawings include a happy family of birds with the father leading the flock and the mother at the rear - an indication of Jacobine’s feeling about her family.
Jacobine was educated at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London where she experienced the companionship of a circle of other students also passionate about art, and developed her technical skills in sculpting. In her final year of her studies, she won an award for a stone carving, which was purchased by an art gallery in Glasgow.
In 1932, Jacobine came to Canada for a visit that stretched into more than just a visit. She went camping in northern Ontario with a friend two years after her arrival, an experience that led her to adopt Canada as her home. She became a teacher at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto; there she became the first woman to be chosen as the head of any department - she took on the sculpting department.
Jones’s work was primarily figurative and representational, though she was open to a more abstract approach in later years. She came into her own during a period of time when architectural sculpture was popular; she received many commissions from both corporations and also from government. Her work can be found in private collections, and in such public museums as the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the National Gallery of Canada.
Source
Natalie Luckyj “Put on Her Mettle: The Life and Art of Jacobine Jones” (Manotick, Ontario: Penumbra Press, 1999)
Jacobine Jones was born in England. When she was a child, her Danish-born mother encouraged her and her brother and sister to explore their world. Fortunately, her mother also fostered Jacobine’s spontaneous interest in art. As Natalie Luckyj explains in her book on the artist (see below), her childhood drawings include a happy family of birds with the father leading the flock and the mother at the rear - an indication of Jacobine’s feeling about her family.
Jacobine was educated at the Regent Street Polytechnic in London where she experienced the companionship of a circle of other students also passionate about art, and developed her technical skills in sculpting. In her final year of her studies, she won an award for a stone carving, which was purchased by an art gallery in Glasgow.
In 1932, Jacobine came to Canada for a visit that stretched into more than just a visit. She went camping in northern Ontario with a friend two years after her arrival, an experience that led her to adopt Canada as her home. She became a teacher at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto; there she became the first woman to be chosen as the head of any department - she took on the sculpting department.
Jones’s work was primarily figurative and representational, though she was open to a more abstract approach in later years. She came into her own during a period of time when architectural sculpture was popular; she received many commissions from both corporations and also from government. Her work can be found in private collections, and in such public museums as the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the National Gallery of Canada.
Source
Natalie Luckyj “Put on Her Mettle: The Life and Art of Jacobine Jones” (Manotick, Ontario: Penumbra Press, 1999)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
DOROTHY STEVENS (1888-1966)
Dorothy Stevens is an artist for whom little archival information is available, despite that her work as a print maker is outstanding and her work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery and the Canadian War Museum.
Dorothy was born and raised in Toronto. Her father was a painter and recognized his daughter’s talent, so he sent her to study abroad. She attended the Slade in London as well as the Académie Colorossoi in Paris. During the First World War, Dorothy requested a commission from the Canadian War Memorials Fund. As a result, she created etchings of workers in the shipbuilding yards and munitions plants, focusing especially on female workers whom she captured in poses that suggested the fluidity and grace of dancers. These works are part of the collection of the Canadian War Museum.
Dorothy was a teacher at the Ontario College of Art, and became known as a portrait artist. Her favourite travel destination was Mexico, where she painted portraits of the people as well as landscapes.
Selected Sources
www.fineartandantiques.ca/.../gallery stevens.html
cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists
Dorothy Stevens is an artist for whom little archival information is available, despite that her work as a print maker is outstanding and her work is in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery and the Canadian War Museum.
Dorothy was born and raised in Toronto. Her father was a painter and recognized his daughter’s talent, so he sent her to study abroad. She attended the Slade in London as well as the Académie Colorossoi in Paris. During the First World War, Dorothy requested a commission from the Canadian War Memorials Fund. As a result, she created etchings of workers in the shipbuilding yards and munitions plants, focusing especially on female workers whom she captured in poses that suggested the fluidity and grace of dancers. These works are part of the collection of the Canadian War Museum.
Dorothy was a teacher at the Ontario College of Art, and became known as a portrait artist. Her favourite travel destination was Mexico, where she painted portraits of the people as well as landscapes.
Selected Sources
www.fineartandantiques.ca/.../gallery stevens.html
cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists
Friday, August 13, 2010
YVONNE McKAGUE HOUSSER
Yvonne McKague Housser (1898-1996), a highly regarded educator and painter, studied at the Ontario College of Art before travelling to Paris to study there. Later, she studied in Vienna under Franz Cizek, Arthur Lismer’s mentor in art education for children - Lismer was an influence in Yvonne’s thinking about art. While travelling abroad, Yvonne was exposed to French modern art; Cezanne’s influence can be seen in her work.
Besides working as a painter, Yvonne was also a teacher at the Ontario College of Art. Of all the painters of that time, Lismer was the one who influenced her most. Yvonne was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters and an adviser for the Toronto Art Students’ League patterned after the Students’ League in New York City.
Yvonne made many sketching trips to glean subject matter for her paintings, scenes from mining towns and other villages in Northern Ontario over a ten-year period, from 1925-1935. Her friends often accompanied her: Rody Kenny Courtice, Prudence Heward and Isabel McLaughlin. Yvonne’s paintings from the North were different from those of her predecessors (paintings that gave the impression of lifeless towns) for their evidence of human habitation - details including curtains and lights shining from the windows in night scenes.
A letter from Yvonne to Paraskeva Clark in 1950 reveals her admiration for her friend’s work. Apparently Yvonne was late for an opening at an exhibition and arrived during a talk Paraskeva was giving. In a letter to Praskeva she apologized and concluded with “…perhaps before I die I shall be able to paint a bit of green foliage so that it sings - as yours does - I hope so.” This is an example of how the women artists of that time had a true appreciation for each other.
Two years after Yvonne’s marriage to Fred Housser, in 1936 he died of a heart attack. Her personal tragedy seemed to take her into a new direction in her art. She was one of the artists who was strongly influenced by the move to abstraction in the art world - she studied with Hans Hoffman in the 1950s in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Yvonne’s work can be seen in major museums in Canada.
Selected Sources
Library and Archives Canada Artist Files
"Yvonne McKague Housser," Joan Murray (Oshawa: The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1995)
Yvonne McKague Housser (1898-1996), a highly regarded educator and painter, studied at the Ontario College of Art before travelling to Paris to study there. Later, she studied in Vienna under Franz Cizek, Arthur Lismer’s mentor in art education for children - Lismer was an influence in Yvonne’s thinking about art. While travelling abroad, Yvonne was exposed to French modern art; Cezanne’s influence can be seen in her work.
Besides working as a painter, Yvonne was also a teacher at the Ontario College of Art. Of all the painters of that time, Lismer was the one who influenced her most. Yvonne was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters and an adviser for the Toronto Art Students’ League patterned after the Students’ League in New York City.
Yvonne made many sketching trips to glean subject matter for her paintings, scenes from mining towns and other villages in Northern Ontario over a ten-year period, from 1925-1935. Her friends often accompanied her: Rody Kenny Courtice, Prudence Heward and Isabel McLaughlin. Yvonne’s paintings from the North were different from those of her predecessors (paintings that gave the impression of lifeless towns) for their evidence of human habitation - details including curtains and lights shining from the windows in night scenes.
A letter from Yvonne to Paraskeva Clark in 1950 reveals her admiration for her friend’s work. Apparently Yvonne was late for an opening at an exhibition and arrived during a talk Paraskeva was giving. In a letter to Praskeva she apologized and concluded with “…perhaps before I die I shall be able to paint a bit of green foliage so that it sings - as yours does - I hope so.” This is an example of how the women artists of that time had a true appreciation for each other.
Two years after Yvonne’s marriage to Fred Housser, in 1936 he died of a heart attack. Her personal tragedy seemed to take her into a new direction in her art. She was one of the artists who was strongly influenced by the move to abstraction in the art world - she studied with Hans Hoffman in the 1950s in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Yvonne’s work can be seen in major museums in Canada.
Selected Sources
Library and Archives Canada Artist Files
"Yvonne McKague Housser," Joan Murray (Oshawa: The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 1995)
Friday, August 6, 2010
MARY ELLA DIGNAM (1856-1938)
Mary Ella Dignam was one of those artists who showed an interest in art when she was a young child. Her inclination was hard to miss because she sometimes pulled wool out of carpets to get coloured material for making her pictures. This interest in art stayed with Mary Ella as she grew up. Fortunately, her parents could afford to pay for art classes in London, Ontario not far from their home.
Later, Mary Ella went to New York and studied at the Art Students’ League in Manhattan and also traveled to Europe. She lived an unconventional life for her time; she was married and had children and still followed her professional interests as an arts educator and developed her career as an artist.
Moulton College in Toronto (a girls’ prep-school founded by Susan Moulton McMaster, the widow of Senator William McMaster who founded McMaster University) hired Dignam to establish an art department and be its director.
Dignam knew that women in Canada had little opportunity to develop as artists and began using her energy to change this situation. She started the Women’s Art Association of Canada (WAAC), an organization still alive today with its own building, purchased in 1916, in Toronto. She was also active in other arts organizations.
From what I’ve learned, I think that Dignam, despite her ideas about women - revolutionary for her time - painted oils of “ordinary” subjects that included landscapes and flowers. Nevertheless, she exhibited her work widely and gathered praise from critics, along with having made a great contribution to having women recognized in the art world of her time.
Selected Sources
Library and Archives Canada Artist files
www.womensartofcanada.cahistory
Mary Ella Dignam was one of those artists who showed an interest in art when she was a young child. Her inclination was hard to miss because she sometimes pulled wool out of carpets to get coloured material for making her pictures. This interest in art stayed with Mary Ella as she grew up. Fortunately, her parents could afford to pay for art classes in London, Ontario not far from their home.
Later, Mary Ella went to New York and studied at the Art Students’ League in Manhattan and also traveled to Europe. She lived an unconventional life for her time; she was married and had children and still followed her professional interests as an arts educator and developed her career as an artist.
Moulton College in Toronto (a girls’ prep-school founded by Susan Moulton McMaster, the widow of Senator William McMaster who founded McMaster University) hired Dignam to establish an art department and be its director.
Dignam knew that women in Canada had little opportunity to develop as artists and began using her energy to change this situation. She started the Women’s Art Association of Canada (WAAC), an organization still alive today with its own building, purchased in 1916, in Toronto. She was also active in other arts organizations.
From what I’ve learned, I think that Dignam, despite her ideas about women - revolutionary for her time - painted oils of “ordinary” subjects that included landscapes and flowers. Nevertheless, she exhibited her work widely and gathered praise from critics, along with having made a great contribution to having women recognized in the art world of her time.
Selected Sources
Library and Archives Canada Artist files
www.womensartofcanada.cahistory
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