Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
28 June 2022 Vol 7 No 13 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2022
Portia Priegert
From the Editor
I’m a sucker for books about the joys and struggles of the creative life. So, no surprise that The Artist’s Journey: On Making Art & Being an Artist caught my eye during a recent visit to the library.
The back-cover blurb promised emotional honesty from American sculptor Kent Nerburn, as well as advice both practical and spiritual. On the front cover, a brief quote ("Helpful ... straight-shooting, celebratory") from Margaret Atwood sealed the deal. Home it came.
I recommend the book here as it offers useful discussions about everything from dealing with rejection to subtler questions about inspiration, figuring out when a work is done, and pushing your boundaries.
Since I left daily news reporting and shifted into the arts, I’ve been fascinated by artists. What makes them tick? Where do their ideas come from? How do they find success? How do they survive financially?
Making art – good art – is no easy task. Earning a living at it can also be daunting. Most artists spend their lives in relative obscurity with little recognition or remuneration. But if you love the arts, can’t see yourself working at anything else – except, as is often the case, a day job – and are emotionally equipped to thrive amid uncertainty, it may be your path.
Obviously, I can’t summarize a 145-page book in a short note like this, but I’ll quote one of Nerburn’s pep talks for dark nights of the soul: “Remember that in choosing to create you have acted with a rare courage. You have let down the mask; you have called forth your best self; you have taken a chance and revealed your heart to the world. This, no matter how struggling and unformed the creation it brings forth, is a praiseworthy act. For all creation is an act of love, and in the merest making of your art you have, in your own small way, made the world a little richer a little warmer, and a little more filled with love. And for that you need feel no shame and make no apology, no matter what others say about your work.”
Moving on to this issue of Galleries West, we offer, in our own humble way, stories about artists who are persevering.
One favourite is East Coast painter Jack Bishop, who offers a psychedelic take on the road trip at Calgary’s Newzones gallery. In Vancouver, we look at two shows, one by Natalie Purschwitz at Artspeak that defies easy categorization, and another, Indivisible, at the New Media Gallery, which uses technology to reveal unseen worlds of stardust, radio waves and magnetic fields.
Meanwhile, at Winnipeg’s Platform Centre, In Deep considers extractive industries and human connections to the land, no small issue as the world shifts in troubling ways. We also review Alone Together, a remarkable book that features Leah Hennel’s emotionally resonant photographs of the pandemic from inside the hospital.
Our final read is Doug Maclean’s report on Canada's spring auction season, a demanding project that occupies all of us here for several days. Along with the wonderful lead image of a record-breaking sale of a watercolour by Walter Phillips, I was fascinated by the story behind another work, Mrs. Varley in Front of Her Tent. The 1925 oil painting by Frederick Varley, of Group of Seven fame, documents a summer his family spent living in a tent after their mortgage default. It sold for $61,250.
Looking ahead, we are working on articles about Montreal-based Adrian Norvid, as well as Ghosts of the Machine, a show at the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver that looks at the relationship between humans, technology and ecology.
Keep up the battle, all you artists!
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Lindsay Inglis, Yani Kong, Doug Maclean, Agnieszka Matjeko, Lissa Robinson, Dion Smith-Dokkie
We acknowledge the support of the Government of Alberta Media Fund, the Government of Canada Special Measures for Journalism Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts.
