Emily Carr, Lewis DeSoto

Emily Carr is a significant artist of the NW she captured the art and story of the totem pole unlike any other artist.  Recognized as one of the most significant artists in Canada her story is told in an interesting way by DeSoto without any effort to probe and personalize the information.  He does undo some of the mythological stories that are bound to build up around an artist who was unmarried all her life and had numerous animals as constant companions.

He major works on the forests of British Columbia are where her fame can be found today, but not in her life.  It was her books that finally got her national attention and she became known as Klee Wyck as a result – a friend and associate of the NW Indians.  In fact, her record of the Indians and the Totems is essential, but her relationship to them is overrated.  Eccentricity does boil out even though DeSoto does his best to control it.

The following four paragraphs from the Epitaph chapter is an excellent summary of both Emily and the book: 

“Emily Carr’s life reads as one of these quest stories.  The naïve young girl leaves home with only one ambition, to be an artist, but she does not yet understand the true meaning of art.  She completes one task, to study in San Francisco, but finds it is not enough, and sets off again, this time for England.  There she encounters prejudice, loneliness, and isolation.  She must also sacrifice the hope of love.   A setback comes in the form of illness that temporarily ends her quest.  Once recovered, she journeys to France, and finds success when she develops a new painting style and has two of her pictures shown at the Salon.  But the success brings no immediate benefit.  The goal has not yet been achieved.

“Then the journey takes her into the deep forest, where she encounters a world that is different and mysterious.  She begins to develop as an artist, yet the world turns away from what she offers.  She gives up the fight, having sacrificed personal happiness and her youth for an unattainable goal.  The years of retreat follow.

“The benevolent helper appears in the form of Lawren Harris [one of the Group of Seven who are trying to establish a Canadian style of painting].  Like the wizards of old, he gives her the key, by indicating where the path might lie.  Once more, she journeys into the forest.  She think she has found her goal at last, in the totem pole paintings, which now bring her recognition and acceptance.  But the totem poles are only signposts.  She goes beyond them, into the true mystery, and it is there [in the trees and forest], in her spiritual transformation, that the journey reaches its conclusion.

“At the end, Emily has become a wizard herself, and her magic- in the form of paintings and books-spread outward to touch lives everywhere.  The apotheosis comes only after her death, when she is elevated into a kind of myth herself, and what was a solitary journey by one woman becomes a story for all.”