Emily Carr 1871 - 1945. Portrait by John Mardon

Under the Distinguished Patronage of
The Honourable Steven L. Point
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia.

Emily Carr, is a world famous, female, BC Artist who lived on Vancouver Island. In fact, she was born in Victoria on December 13, 1871.
For the Chemainus Festival of Murals Society, the Emily Carr Outdoor Gallery was the next step in artistic appreciation away from the practical purpose of art as historical representation, towards a finer more in-depth appreciation of art, for art sake. (Part of comment by Paul Marcano)

Comments by the Chemainus Festival of Murals on Emily Carr.

Emily, being a naturalist, had a reverence and fascination for the First Nations of the British Columbia coast.
She was one of Canada’s foremost woman artists of her day and during the last few years her fame has grown as the greatest and most loved BC artist.
In 1924, Carr visited the Chemainus Valley and painted Chemainus Bay, 1924-25.
During her visit to the Ucluelet Indian Reserve on Vancouver Island in 1898, the Nuu-Chah-Nulth people gave her the name "Klee Wyck", which means "laughing one”. She once said, "Indian people and their art touched me deeply". Her work reflected her interest in First Nations culture, as well as the forest landscapes and skies of the British Columbia coast.
She was repeatedly told that the West Coast was not paintable and the forest was monotonous. She was fascinated by the First Nations villages and their totem poles. They revealed to her that these villages had an amazing, compelling and dramatic artistic achievement. They had, in effect, a great cultural heritage that was not appreciated or respected by the settler population of her day. She was very struck by the First Nations’ respect for nature, their sense of environment and living presences, that objects and animals all had a spirit that had to be respected.
In 1927, following an exhibit of 65 pieces of her works of art, the National Gallery in Ottawa started buying a number of her paintings. It was then that the world discovered Emily Carr for preserving the Indian Art and they realized that her work was a distinguished visual image of Western Canada – west coast art. At that stage, she was 57 years old, and she had struggled a good deal until that point. Emily was deeply moved by the work of the Group of Seven, whose works were similar to her own in its vivid interpretations of wilderness and landscape. Lawren Harris told her in 1928, “YOU ARE ONE OF US”, welcoming her into the ranks of Canada’s leading modernists. Emily's works underscore for all of us the richness and importance of her enduring legacy.

Emily Carr remains one of the most discused and most studied Canadians. Her profound imagery and deeply moving writings touch the hearts of many.

The Chemainus Festival of Murals Society firmly believes that the Emily Carr project will and already has brought new visitors, but will, in time, change the demographics of the Chemainus visitor. Every individual who was educated in a North American university knows about Emily Carr and we are so proud she was a Vancouver Island artist whose paintings now sell for well over one million dollars.


 Emily Carr research information and guidance:

Virtual Museum of Canada - Emily Carr  - Educational Video - Teachers resources link - bcpcp video - Leading North Video - Winds of Heaven video (sneak peek - for sale) - Mature period video.

Emily Carr ~ Wind in the Tree Tops Auction

Emily Carr Biography.

Emily Carr was born on December 13, 1871 in Victoria, BC. She was the eighth of nine children. Her parents died when she was in her early teens. Emily, who began drawing lessons at the age of eight, asked her financial guardian for permission and monetary support to attend art school in San Francisco, at the California School of Design. She moved to San Francisco in 1890 and resided there for three years. She also studied in London and in the English countryside, for five years, under many different teachers. Then, after a brief period of teaching children and the Ladies Art Club classes in Vancouver, Emily travelled to France in 1910 to study under Harry Gibb and Douglas Ferguson.

Carr’s work was not well received when she returned from her studies in France. Financial considerations forced her to find means, other than painting, to supplement her income. During the years 1914-1926, Emily was a landlady. She also sold hens, rabbits, fruit and pottery, and bred English bobtail sheepdogs. Her strong bond with the animal world was evident in a life full of many different sorts of animals, including a monkey named Woo, cats, rats, birds and many dogs of various breeds.

Emily had a reverence and fascination for the First Nations of the British Columbia coast. During her visit to the Ucluelet Indian Reserve on Vancouver Island in 1898, the Nuu-Chah-Nulth people gave her the name "Klee Wyck," which means "laughing one." She once said, "Indian people and their art touched me deeply" (Carr, Growing Pains, p. 211). Her work reflected her interest in First Nations culture, as well as the forest landscapes and skies of the British Columbia coast.

In 1924, Carr visited the Chemainus Valley and painted Chemainus Bay, 1924-25, which is now part of Calgary’s Glenbow Museum collection.
Emily was deeply moved by the work of the Group of Seven, which was similar to her own in its vivid interpretations of wilderness landscape. In 1927, at an exhibition in Ottawa, she met Lawren Harris, a person with whom she would begin a lifelong friendship. Carr admired Lawren Harris' work and he encouraged her and gave her confidence throughout the later part of her painting career.

Although she was never officially a member of the Group of Seven, Carr became a charter member of the Canadian Group of Painters, an organization that came together in 1932, after the Group of Seven disbanded. Her work became more valued in the years following her membership into this society of artists. She was given her first solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1938, at the age of 67.
Emily's writing career bloomed later in her life, as her health failed. She began writing at the age of 70. She was in the hospital, after her second heart attack, and writing was a way of passing the time. Her first book Klee Wyck, was an instant success and won the Governor General's Literary Award. The Book of Small, her second novel, was named Canadian Book of the Year in 1942. Growing Pains, her acclaimed autobiography, was completed just before her death.

After many years of heart problems, Emily Carr died on March 3, 1945 at St. Mary's Priory, a Victoria nursing home. Three days before her death, she was overjoyed to receive the news that the University of British Columbia planned to honour her with a Doctor of Letters degree at its May 1945 convocation. Carr's paintings and writings fill galleries and libraries across Canada, and she will always be remembered as one of Canada's most talented artists. Link to history of Emily video.

Why Emily Carr Murals?
 
The Chemainus Festival of Murals Society firmly believes that the Emily Carr mural project will, in time, change the demographics of the Chemainus visitor. Every individual who was educated in a North American university knows about Emily Carr. Many books have been written about her and she, herself, wrote a number of books. One of British Columbia’s oldest post-secondary institutions and one of the world's leading arts institutions, is the Emily Carr University of Art + Design which was founded in 1925. As the most famous female artist of her time and a Canadian icon today, she has admirers in every country, all potential visitors to Chemainus.

Even before its inauguration the project had an impact on our economy. The first public project was the vision banners on the welcome tower, which was designed by Mairi Budreau. This project provided work for the graphic artist to design the banners, the manufacturer who made the material for the banner, the company who created the finished product, the hardware store for supplies, the bucket lift and its operator who installed the banners, as well as many volunteer hours by the Festival of Murals to coordinate the project.

For the October 15, 2008 event, almost every organization in Chemainus worked in partnership to create a successful event. The Vancouver Island Soap Factory has created a new Emily Carr inspired soap. There will be Emily Carr clothing, new postcards, a special Emily Carr portrait and Emily Carr stamps. The list of new products and potential for job creation goes on and on, limited only by our imagination.

One of our first mural artists, Paul Marcano, wrote: “Well, looks like that Emily Carr idea is going to unfold sooner than I thought. I get a pang of nostalgia for losing the exclusivity of the Chemainus historic theme, however 25 years has certainly covered the subject and this is a revitalizing concept in itself so I can see it is good evolution for the town. In some ways, it may be the next step in artistic appreciation, away from the 'practical' purpose of art as historical representation towards a finer more in depth appreciation of art for art sake. Emily Carr being a naturalist will add a nice bread basket of imagery for embedding the forest industry theme of the current Chemainus murals.   
Stay in touch with Emily Carr on Youtube.

NEW:
Chemainus Dollars
Chemainus Medallions

The Chemainus Monetary Foundation presents Dollars that are legal tender in Chemainus!
The currency is available at our front desk in several denominations; buy them as a souvenir, collect them or buy them
to spend them showing your support for Chemainus and its economy.

email: info@muraltown.com for purchase and shipping quote
 

Silver Medallion is 99.9 % Silver $ 75.00 plus HST
Gold in gold Medallion is 24 karat Gold $ 150.00 plus HST

                                                    Next linked page Emily Carr series # 1 >

The"Emily Carr" series are partnered with the Emily Carr House in Victoria.
 
_______________________ 

Letter from Emily Carr Executive Director Mrs Jan Ross
Emily Carr House | A Canadian National & Provincial Historic Site in Victoria, BC

Dr. Schutz
It was such a pleasure meeting you when you came with your tour group to visit Carr House. The purpose of this correspondence is to follow-up on some of the points we discussed then and in subsequent conversations.
Like you I am very excited about the opportunities for promotion and cross marketing between Chemainus and Emily Carr House. As you know Emily Carr is very famous in Canada but you may not be aware that
interest in her art and writing is international in scope. We have visitors from all over the world visit Carr House as well as our websites. Our educational website Emily Carr: At Home and At Work has over 250,000 hits a year.
Within Canada she is an icon and her paintings are represented in public galleries from coast to coast. Currently there are nine books by Emily Carr in print and over a dozen others about her for sale.
Emily Carr has been dead for over fifty years and her images and words are now all in the public domain.
This gives rise to your question to me about whether I could envision Emily Carr images as murals. I enthusiastically respond- yes, I can! I am very familiar with your wonderful town and its world famous murals.
My family annually holiday in Parksville after we have closed Carr House for our visitor season and Chemainus is always a stopover for lunch, shopping and a walkabout.
Although not a native to your part of the island, Emily did spend time painting in your area and she is very much a part of the fabric of Vancouver Island.
As someone who understands the importance of renewal in the tourism market, I am aware of the need to keep giving visitors a new reason to come.
To this end we are continually looking for potential partners and cross marketing opportunities that may provide just such a reason. Currently we work within Victoria with the other historic sites,heritage attractions,
galleries and museums to provide umbrella marketing for cultural tourists. Additionally we partner further a field with the Vancouver Art Gallery, the National Art Gallery and others.
There is for example a major retrospective of Emily Carr’s paintings traveling throughout Canada and with plans for it to extend into the United States.
There are numerous s, films and even a video of Emily Carr available for production. You may have heard of the musical production “The Wonder of It All”, written by the same team who wrote “Anne of Green Gables”.
When it was performed in Victoria, actress Margaret Martin played Emily- her name may be familiar to you, she performs regularly in your Chemainus Theatre. Here is a wonderful production which could play
beautifully in your Theatre. As mentioned there is also a wealth of collateral material available for sale in regards to Emily Carr. Books, posters, art cards, framed prints- Rogers Chocolates even has two boxes with
Emily Carr images on the lids! In terms of Carr House itself we are completely open to suggestions for ways in which we could cross market our site and Chemainus should you have an Emily Carr component to your murals.
In closing I would just like to add that in my twelve years as Director/Curator of Emily Carr House I have continued to see Emily’s star rise-both nationally and internationally, Emily Carr is one of our few
Canadian icons and her story, her writing and her art make for tremendous opportunity within the context of cultural tourism. I hope that together we can find a way to introduce this amazing woman and her work to
an even greater audience through our joint efforts.
Sincerely Jan Ross