Emily Carr
‘Nobody bought my pictures; I had no pupils; therefore I could not afford to keep on the studio. I decided to give it up and go back to Victoria.’
‘I tried in every way to augment my income. Small fruit, hens, rabbits, dogs – pottery.’
‘Sketch-sack on shoulder, dog at heel, I went into the woods singing…household tasks shrivelled as the importance of my painting swelled.’
‘How completely alone I’ve had to face the world, no boosters, no artist’s backing, no relatives interested, no bother taken by papers to advertise, just me and an empty flat and the pictures…How extraordinarily alone everyone is!’
‘There are themes everywhere, something sublime, something ridiculous, or joyous, or calm, or mysterious. Tender youthfulness laughing at gnarled oldness. Moss and ferns, and leaves and twigs, light and air, depth and colour chattering…you must be still in order to hear and see.’
‘What I am after is out there in the woods – even sketches to me are canned food. I like it fresh. Carry it right home and use it.’
‘turning from my beloved woods for fear that all this honeyed stuff, this praise, should send me to them smug.’
‘Real success…to feel down in your own soul that the thing you have striven for has been accomplished.’
