Emily Carr Research Essay

Emily was accepted by the Group of Seven, and by far is British Columbians favorite artist. Emily Carr was a rave girl who strode to be different and was not afraid to show off her unique style of art. Her interest and talent for art was recognized when she was still just a small girl. Emily was born on December 13, 1871 , in what was then, the small provincial town of Victoria, BC. She was the second youngest in her family Out Of the six children. Both of her parents, Richard and Emily, were English; therefore, English manners and values were followed in Scars family.

Emily had a pretty good relationship with her family during her childhood. Her mother although was almost always sick, and that left her eldest sister to raise and discipline the younger children along with Email's father. All in all, Emily respected and loved her siblings, which is clearly demonstrated in her writing in "The Book of Small. "My sister Alice was two years older than I and knew a lot. Leslie was two years older than Alice and thought she knew it all. My big sister did know everything. Emily began art lessons while she was still in school, receiving instructions from some resident artists of Victoria. While still a teenager her parents passed away, and finances became tight. Art was really the only thing that separated her from her sisters who couldn't understand her work or desire to pursue It in spite of their financial problems. Out of all her sisters, Emily was the only one who took art seriously. Carr didn't find school to be of any appeal to her, and she didn't want to follow in her sisters' footsteps.

So at age 17, after getting permission from her legal guardian Edith, she attended the San Francisco Art School. San Francisco turned out to be just the start of Car's journey. Although it med like she learned a lot, Emily still wanted more. "l had not learned very much, not half what I had intended to absorb once I got into the Old country. "After spending more than three years in San Francisco, Carr returned to Victoria. For six years Emily taught art to children in Victoria, while saving up enough money for her to travel to England and continue her studies. This wasn't the only thing that Emily did over those couple of years. Carr had a fascination with Indians from childhood, and it grew with her as Emily matured into a woman.

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After returning from San Francisco, and spending mom time in Victoria, Emily set off for a real life adventure in Clientele to spend some time living with Natives on their reserve. The native people accepted her easily in their homes and lives, and she developed a special relationship with them. Emily preferred to live a different lifestyle than most Victorians; she was more interested in learning the indigenous way of life. She often traveled by boat, and spent nights alone, sleeping in a tent. As she deepened herself in the native spirituality and grew stronger relationships with the Clutter people, they named her Kale Wick, The Laughing One. After a few years Carr took her savings and finally continued her formal studies in England at the Westminster School of Art, and also in private studios of a number of British watercolors.

Later she traveled to France, which turned out to be more inspiring for her. Finding Paris too stressful for her, she chose to tramp through the French countryside. Staying in small towns and villages she painted, and this is where her art journey started to take on a more Post-Impressionist style. In the small town of Creche-en-Erie and later on in SST. Flame, Carr studied under Philae Gibbs. It was from him that she finally found her true art passion, learning to translate the landscape from a realistic impression to a new, abstract realization, influenced by the Fauves and Cubists, then in vogue in Paris. Although Carr learned a lot in France, she did not feel that she wanted to stay there for long. She was not respected by many, and she struggled to communicate with most French people, especially men. Most importantly, Emily felt homesick in this foreign land. So after spending about 14 months in France she returned to Victoria in 1911. As it turned out, Car's art wasn't appreciated in the more traditional, strait-laced artistic world of Victoria and Vancouver. In the summer of 1912, Carr created a great amount of watercolors paintings using her new French style. Her work didn't sell well, and she received lots of negative criticism.

After that Carr almost gave up art, but her spirit changed as did her luck when an ethnologist bought two of her paintings. That same ethnologist came back 12 years later to show Email's painting to the director of the National Gallery in Ottawa. 1927 was the official year that everything changed for Emily; it was the year that she traveled to Ottawa to attend the December opening of the Canadian West Coast Art show at the National Gallery. There she met the members of the Group of Seven. Even before Emily arrived, she could already feel that she was heading towards some sort of destiny. The trip did become a huge event for Carr that spun her whole life around. The painting that the Group of Seven presented to her caused a great impression on her. Words weren't necessary; the sight was enough to change Car's whole view on what she needed to do, and even on what she could do. That night in her diary Emily Carr confidently wrote: "Oh, God, what have seen? Where have I been? Something has spoken to the very soul of me, wonderful, mighty, not of this world.

The lingering memory of Harris' art was still "surging through my whole being the wonder of it alarm like a great river rushing on, dark and turbulent, and rushing and irresistible, and carrying me away on its wild swirl like a helpless little bundle of recharge:" Lawyer Harris later approached Carr and declared to her "You are one Of us," welcoming her into the ranks of Canada's leading modernists despite her own self-deprecating attitude. With that statement Emily Carr got associated with the group of seven. After this successful trip Carr returned to Victoria where the most fertile period of her career as an artist began. Until 1931 , she generally used aboriginal themes in her paintings. Then, taking Harris' advice, she stopped focusing so much on native art, and began to focus more on what her inner elf wanted to create. With that, her love of trees, forests and the nature of coastal skies was transferred onto her paintings. The last ten years of Email's life were her most successful as an artist. Although life started to be good to Emily, those ten years were the ones where Carr started to experience major health problems. Still Emily didn't lose spirit, and as she worked she could finally feel that she was satisfied with her paintings.

She could see clearly the main purpose of her life, and so those ten last years became the happiest for her. In 1 937 Carr experienced her first angina attack. Her doctor restricted her painting activities, and so she focused more on her writing. The following year though, Emily life showered her with happiness when her first solo exhibition took place at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 1939 Car's health took another blow when she suffered a serious heart attack.

That same year, Air Dilators, who was a teacher, editor, and conductor, agreed to edit Emily Car's stories for publication. The year later after her heart attack Carr moved in with her sister Alice, right behind their old family home. Emily Scars first book "Kale Wick" was finally published in 1941. It was met with great success and won the Governor General's Award for Non-fiction. Shortly after 'The Book of Small" was published, and Emily went on her last sketching trip. During the last few years of her life, Emily felt weak, tired out, and feeble. Her poor health conditions restricted her from painting very much, but she still wrote books.

Recognition of her work grew steadily as her paintings were Ewing exhibited in London, Paris, Washington, Amsterdam, and as well as in major Canadian cities. In 1943 there was a major exhibition of her art in the Art Gallery of Toronto. Her books kept on being published one after another. Emily Carr passed away on March 2, 1945 in Victoria, shortly before she was to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the university of British Columbia. She died at peace with herself, happy to have achieved her dreams as an artist. More importantly for her was that she died having discovered her true self and her main purpose in life.

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