A few days ago I visited Emily Carr House on Government Street here in Victoria BC.
I went with three lovely women – Shirlee, Susan, and Donna, girlfriends and art colleagues – who travelled from Salt Spring for a Victoria art get-together – first my studio, then Emily Carr House then a quick visit to Opus….and you can’t get out of there without spending some $$!!
The main reason we ended up at Emily Carr House was to view Jill Sharpe’s short film, Bone Wind Fire.
Using the words from their letters and diaries, the film gives impressions of the lives of three 20th-century women artists – Georgia O’Keeffe, Emily Carr, and Frida Kahlo – and speaks of their creative process, the entry of their work into the public eye, the sometimes hurtful reviews they received. Their environments are shown with such specific detail and beauty – O’Keeffe’s sunbleached American Southwest, Carr’s dark and wet Canadian Northwest, Kahlo’s lush and steamy Mexico – and the film reveals their corresponding response in artwork.
Enjoy this clip from the 30-min documentary. Although it shows perfectly and intimately the differences between the three artists – their characters, their dress, their voice, their drinking habits (!) – it also reveals their similar thoughts about life and artmaking. I enjoyed the way Jill Sharpe used actors with their backs to you and voices that had the sound of place rather than a more obvious method of showing the personalities of O’Keeffe, Carr and Kahlo. I highly recommend seeing the film.
Here are O’Keeffe, Carr and Kahlo with a sampling of their work.
I have always appreciated O’Keeffe’s work, have never been very drawn to Carr’s, and am not very acquainted with Kahlo’s but having seen the film, my interest is piqued and I have books about each on hold at the library. You’ll probably be hearing more..
I was curious to know more about why Jill Sharpe made this documentary about three seemingly disparate artists and came across this interview with her. This is part of what she has to say:
“I’ve always been fascinated by creative process; going deeper and deeper with the creative process as an artist myself. Creativity is an un-nameable thing buts it’s so important.
What initially got me started was there were these incredible women who followed their own voice and listened to their own voice at a very interesting time in art history when women were more models than painters. They were all defining their own vision for themselves. I thought that that was an amazing feat in the time in which they lived.
What was interesting about all three of those women was that their creative process was part of their whole life: a lifelong process and relationship with painting.”
And here are my three friends 🙂
That’s it for this time. What do you think about O’Keeffe, Carr and Kahlo? You know I’d looooove to hear from you. Just click on the comment link below. And as always, if there’s something in this blog you’d like to share, I encourage you to do so – just click the ‘share’ button.
Thanks for reading,
~ Gail
PS. I love this outfit of Frida’s (a copy). Check out the red crushed velvet (?) jacket on the chair.
