Emily Carr

Emily Carr is one of those iconic women who challenged the world she lived in. She fought to be accepted as an artist at a time when art by women was mostly seen as part of their domestic lives.

Emily - almost everyone in British Columbia will know who you're speaking of when you say Emily the painter - was an amazing woman and a terrific artist.

She travelled alone when it was almost unheard for women to do so. She travelled to parts of the province so isolated almost no one had seen them. She lived alone when it was more than eccentric for a woman to do this. She painted when she had no money to buy canvas.

Also an amazing writer, her books are the best possible accompaniment to her visual art. giving the reader a sense of what she went through to create, what it cost her, and what it gained her.

This sculpture sits at the corner of Granville and 7th Avenue in Vancouver. Emily's monkey and donkey are at the centre of much of her writing. You might try Hundreds and Thousands, her journals - one of my favorite books. And you can learn more and take a look at some of her paintings at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Carr

She's a part of British Columbia and if you don't know her, she's definitely worth a read and a look.

Kate