Emily Carr Part Three

As you know this week I have been writing on Emily Carr - painter, writer, Canadian icon. Today I am just going to inform you of some of her works and a bit of her legacy.

I found a list of seven books credited to her. The first is one I mentioned on Wednesday, Klee Wyck. This is a collection of anecdotes that tell of Carr's interaction with the First Nations' people and of her experiences while travelling to paint.

The second one tells of her life as a child and is entitled The Book of Small.

The House of All Sorts which related Emily's experiences as a landlady and then there is the book Hundreds and Thousands which is a recounting of Emily's journals. Her autobiography is entitled Growing Pains.

The Heart of A Peacock is a collection of short stories and vignettes especially about her pet monkey Woo. Pause: A Sketchbook is contains sketches and stories from her time in a sanatorium.

The Complete Writings of Emily Carr contains all her writings and was published in 1997.

To list all of Carr's paintings would take more room than I have here but some of her more famous are The Big Raven, Scorned as Timber and Beloved of the Sky.

Lawren Harris once asked Emily what was going to be done with her paintings after she died. Carr's response reportedly was "Give them to the old folks' home. I suppose they would put them in the basement, and there they would rot."

I think artists everywhere are glad that didn't happen.

If you visit Victoria you can go to the Emily Carr House which was a childhood home of Carr's. Now it is a National Historic Site of Canada where artists can display their work.

Carr's name has been used for education as well. There is the Emily Carr Secondary School in Woodbridge, Ontario; Emily Carr Elementary School in Vancouver, BC; Emily Carr Middle School in Ottawa, Ontario and there are Emily Carr public schools in Oakville, Toronto and London Ontario. And, of course, there is the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver.

In 1994 a crater on Venus that is approximately 31.9 meters in diameter was named the Carr crater by the International Astronomical Union. I think Emily would have gotten a kick out of that.

But I think she would have been honoured when a sidewater of the Chapplet Inlet on the North Coast of British Columbia was named the Emily Carr Inlet.

This is my last entry for 2011. I will start posting again on January 2, 2012 I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my readers and to wish you all the best of the holiday season. May the next two weeks be filled with love and happiness. And may you all stay safe.

As always, I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill, Emily Carr, Vancouver, DVBIA, schools, art, Chapplet Inlet, British Columbia