Artist Emily Carr And The Spirit Of The Land

Emily Carr, often called Canada’s Van Gogh, was a post-impressionist explorer, artist and writer. In Artist Emily Carr and the Spirit of the Land Phyllis Marie Jensen draws on analytical psychology and the theories of feminism and social constructionism for insights into Carr’s life in the late Victorian period and early twentieth century. Presented in two parts, the book introduces Carr’s émigré English family and childhood on the "edge of nowhere" and her art education in San Francisco, London and Paris. Travels in the wilderness introduced her to the totem art of the Pacific Northwest coast at a time Aboriginal art was undervalued and believed to be disappearing. Carr vowed to document it before turning to spirited landscapes of forest, sea and sky. The second part of the book presents a Jungian portrait of Carr, including typology, psychological complexes, and archetypal features of personality. An examination the individuation process and Carr’s embracement of transcendental philosophy reveals the richness of her personality and artistic genius. Artist Emily Carr and the Spirit of the Land provides captivating reading for analytical psychologists, academics and students of Jungian studies, art history, health, gender and women’s studies.

Emily Carr (1871--1945) is one of Canada's most beloved artists. An independent woman and a Westerner who gained prominence at a time when female painters were not recognized internationally, her life and work reflect a profound commitment to the land she knew and loved. Carr's sensitive evocations reveal an artist grappling with spiritual questions inspired by the Canadian sea, land, and people. Although more than half a century has passed since her death, any artist who engages with the West Coast must contend with her legacy. Her paintings continue to inspire generations of artists. Along with the Group of Seven, Carr became a leading figure in Canadian modern art in the early twentieth century. Emily Carr: Life & Work traces the artist's trajectory from her life in Victoria, where she struggled to receive acceptance, to her status as one of Canada's most influential painters. With insight and intelligence, author Lisa Baldissera explores how although during Carr's life she endured hardship, personal isolation, and rejection, she persevered to create an iconic vision for the nation. This book explores how Carr travelled extensively, learning from European, American, and Indigenous forms and receiving formal training at art academies as well as from private tutors. In doing so, she continued to grow in artistic power as a result of her own intense observation and of her vigorous experimentation with a variety of methods and media, reflecting the fusion of wide-ranging influences. Baldissera reveals why Carr's art remains relevant today and its legacy interests many contemporary West Coast artists.

One of Canada's best known and best loved artists, Emily Carr's passionate nature paintings have been compared to those of Georgia O'Keeffe, Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh. She was also a popular writer whose engaging books are still widely read. The 40 full-colour paintings chosen for Beloved Land: The World of Emily Carr from the collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery are among Emily Carr's most popular, and they are accompanied by short quotations from her writing. The introduction by Robin Laurence presents revealing insights into the life of this unconventional and gifted woman.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Fresh Seeing" by Emily Carr. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Although Emily Carr is now considered a Canadian legend, the most enduring image is that of her pushing a beat-up old pram into downtown Victoria, loaded with dogs, cats, birds—and a monkey. Woo, a Javanese macaque whom Carr adopted in 1923, has become inextricably linked with Carr in the popular imagination. But more than that, in her short lifetime Woo became equally connected to Carr’s life and art. Born to a strictly religious family, Carr was never able to reconcile her wild and passionate nature with the stifling mores of the well-to-do Victorian society in which she was raised. Over the years, she increasingly turned to the company of animals to find the love and trust missing from her human relationships. Across the world in an Indonesian jungle lagoon, Woo (like Carr) was parted from her mother at a young age. The tiny ape with a “greeny-brown” pelt and penetrating golden eyes was then shipped across the world. When Carr spotted Woo in a pet store, she recognized a kindred spirit and took her home. Woo was many things to Carr—a surrogate daughter, a reflection of herself, a piece of the wild inside her downtown Victoria boarding house. Welcoming the mischievous Woo into her life, Carr also welcomed a freedom that allowed a full blooming of artistic expression and gave Canada and the world great art unlike any other before or since. However, despite Carr’s clear love for Woo, her chaotic life did not always allow Carr to properly care for her. Tragically, after Carr was hospitalized due to heart failure, she arranged for Woo to be sent to the Stanley Park Zoo. Bereft of Carr, Woo died alone in her cage only a year later. Hayter-Menzies approaches his subject from a contemporary perspective on bringing wild animals into captivity while remaining empathetic to the unique relationship between artist and monkey.

Though fame came late to Emily Carr, today she is hailed as a major and influential figure in the history of Canadian art and as a writer of unique and extraordinary talent. In this book, Courtney Milne has taken the best of Carr's writing about the land she loved and has matched it to a stunning selection of his own photographs of the West Coast. In a vigorous and colourful post-impressionist style, Emily Carr painted the vanishing native villages and totem poles of her beloved coastal British Columbia, and later in her career produced beautifully lyrical paintings expressive of the spirit and rhythms of Western forests, beaches, and skies. She also poured her talent into books about her life and art, her love of animals and nature, her frustrations and disappointments, her many sources of joy. An annual visitor to the West Coast, Courtney Milne has been making photographs with the words of Emily Carr in mind for close to 20 years. To put this book together he has collected his favourite quotes from Carr and combed through many thousands of his photographs to find the perfect image to match a chosen piece of prose. The result is a spellbinding duet of text and pictures from two gifted and sympathetic artists.

Published in conjunction with the exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery on November 1, 2014-March 8, 2015 and Art Gallery of Ontario on April 11-July 12, 2015.

Emily Carr in this book talks about her challenging days as a landlady with the parade of tenants causing distractions on her passion as a painter. The Canadian painter and writer reiterate how the building she purchased for living in pursuit of her passion became a place where she cleaned up other people's mess. Filled with over 40 incredible stories that both the old and young will learn from.