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archival diaries and letters, archival photographs, art exhibits, Marlena Wyman, pioneer prairie women
Reporting on my goings-on in both art and unart: I continue my prairie women paintings, inspired by their archival diaries and letters. But first I will explain what I mean by unart, that resulted in a group exhibit in which I participated at the Penticton Art Gallery.
Artists in general, but especially those who are represented by commercial galleries, need to concentrate seriously on producing artworks that will hopefully be sold. Artists also tend to lead solitary work lives, beavering away by ourselves in our studios. A group of senior artists in Edmonton get together regularly to stave away some of that isolation, and to have fun creating crazy stuff that is not meant to be permanent or saleable. It was decided that it should be called unart, just to keep us from getting too serious about it. We bring these creations, that are made of torn magazine pages, plastic bits, egg shells, expired light bulbs, stir sticks, and other bits of recycling and garbage, for show and tell at our coffee meet-ups.
One of our group artists who used to live in Edmonton now lives in the Okanagan, and was preparing for a solo exhibit at the Penticton Art Gallery. He suggested that we have an unart exhibit in an adjacent area of the gallery. We put the proposal forward to the gallery, and it was accepted! Here are some photos at the exhibit opening:
The exhibit took place 22 September to 4 November 2023. Here is the exhibit statement:
UnArt UnCommons exhibit statement
A group of established senior Edmonton artists have been meeting every Saturday for almost two decades at coffee shops (and by Zoom during the pandemic) to let loose art conventions and find kinship with each other within what can often be an isolating experience as solitary studio artists. Most of the group share the common bond of having been students of Dave Cantine’s painting classes at the University of Alberta beginning in the 1970s. The members exchange ideas, have fun playing with colour, shape and material, and create spontaneous, unarty objects that are meant to be transitory and unprecious. No need for philosophical pondering required here – please just enjoy!
Here are some of my unart-works in the exhibit:
Media: shoebox, pages cut from a book, wooden spools, pigmented beeswax
Media: bakery box, pages cut from a magazine, lightbulb dipped in pigmented beeswax
Media: pencil box, pages cut from an agricultural pamphlet, leaves dipped in pigmented beeswax
Media: paper jewelry boxes, pages cut from an agricultural pamphlet, leaves dipped in pigmented beeswax
Now for my studio art activities! After I finished all of the autumn yard duties, I began my annual autumn/winter hunkering down in the studio. Here are details from two paintings that I recently completed. To see the full paintings, and others, I have included links for both to my Imprimo art website.
24″ x 18″ Oil and mixed media on Mylar and birch panel
Full painting can be viewed here.
Many of my paintings are inspired by the hardships that the first immigrant settler women wrote about in their diaries and letters, speaking of the isolation and challenges of their early life on the prairies. However, they also wrote of some of the joys, and nature provided them with both joy and solace.
The flowers were grand last summer is inspired by a letter from Gertie Chase to her mother in Tonasket, Washington. Gertie Chase came to the in Halcourt/Wapiti River AB area, from Tonasket, Washington ca. 1915. (Letters: Provincial Archives of Alberta #PR1973.0569)
Dec 11, 1918: The flowers were grand last summer. A perfect flower garden all over the country. Some kind of big red lillies [sic] by the thousands. They are something like tiger lillies [sic], and blue bells or hare bells, large ones by the millions. And roses lots of them. And all kinds of other ones. Crocuses in the early spring.
24” x 18”, Oil and mixed media on Mylar and birch panel
Full painting can be viewed here.
Always watching and waiting inspired by Ella (Lees) Inderwick’s diary, 1883-1884. Ella came to the Cowley, Alberta area from Perth, Ontario in 1883. (Diary: Glenbow Alberta Archives #M559)
Ella Lees arrived in Alberta with her family in late 1883, and married Charles Inderwick in 1884. They had three sons. Theirs was not a happy marriage. Even before marrying, Ella writes in her diary repeatedly that Charlie often did not show up when promised. That pattern continued after their marriage.
24 February 1884: “Expected Charlie this eve – was so awfully disappointed that I feel as if I do not want to see him at all now – what ever possessed him to stay so long…”
It is apparent in her diary entries that she is trying to see the positives in her life there, but the entries about her distress and loneliness caused by Charlie are numerous and repeated.
29 June 1884: “Charlie would not take me to Pincher Creek for some reasons best known to himself. I wish I was a boy. I could go where I chose by myself. I think Charlie very mean.”
13 August 1884: “Four months married today and have to acknowledge I am a great failure – I make Charlie wish himself ‘dead and buried’. I wish myself disposed of too.”
30 August 1884: “Prepared a nice dinner for Charlie and his people and they did not come and we are all so awfully disappointed … but it is always this way. I am always watching and waiting for him and am always being disappointed.”
However, the hardships of pioneer life also showed women that, even although the inequitable laws of the time made it difficult, they could make it on their own. The ranch was not a success, and the Inderwicks returned to Ontario in 1888. They moved to Ceylon to run a tea plantation, ca. 1891, but in 1894 Ella returned to Perth ON to raise her sons without Charlie.
Ella (Lees) Inderwick’s wedding photo, 13 April 1884. Glenbow Archives, University of Calgary #NA-1365-2
I will report on more results of hunkering down in the studio over the winter…
Posted by Marlena Wyman
The Prairie Line 
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