Marilyn Jones | Emily Carr Chronicler

My Demon, My Companion: Emily Carr and Her Monkey Woo

Published: 15 September, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

Emily Carr’s pet monkey Woo was one of the most eccentric and beloved companions in her life. Carr was an avid animal lover, and Woo, a small Javanese macaque, became one of the most memorable of her many pets. Woo’s presence added both chaos and joy to Carr’s household, particularly during the years 1913 – 1926 when she was running the boarding house known as the House of All Sorts in Victoria, a residence…

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Love and Loss: How the Death of Emily Carr’s Mother Shaped Her Life and Art 

Published: 12 September, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

Emily Saunders, Emily Carr’s mother, was born in Freeland, a small town in Oxfordshire, on July 3, 1836, to a single mother, Mary Saunders. Her birthplace was less than ten miles from Beckley, where Richard Carr was born — though they didn’t meet in England, as Emily was eighteen years younger and Richard had emigrated to America at age eighteen. Roots in a Large, Devout Family Emily Saunders Carr was one of eleven children…

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Exhibition Review : Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape at VAG

Published: 11 September, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape invites viewers into Emily Carr’s haunting interplay between enclosure and horizon. More than 20 of her signature forest paintings dominate one wall in dense succession, creating an almost tactile mist of foliage and trunks that deliberately resists entry. Opposite, a single work depicting a clear‑cut landscape stretches toward an open horizon, offering contrast—a moment of visual space that recalls Carr’s own spiritual longings. The curatorial design accentuates the…

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