Marilyn Jones | Emily Carr Chronicler

Emily Carr’s Mysterious Oak Bay Cottage

Published: 1 November, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

In 1913, Emily Carr paid $900 for a plot of land on Victoria Avenue in Oak Bay, according to a story told by Edythe Hembroff in her biography Emily Carr: Untold Story (1978), On the plot of land, she had built a 12 by 20 foot cabin the following year, “nail by nail” at a cost of $150 with the help of “one old carpenter.”. According to Eve Lazarus, author of Sensational Victoria, assessment records…

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The Rise and Fall of Emily Carr’s “People’s Gallery”

Published: 30 October, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

Emily Carr’s People’s Gallery was a deeply personal and innovative initiative she launched in late 1932, in the middle of the Great Depression. At the time, she was living in her boarding house, the House of All Sorts in Victoria which she operated as a sole source of income. She had given up her annual pottery sales and was letting her paintings go for $5 or $10 a piece. She had almost stopped breeding…

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Rug Hooking in Canada and Emily Carr’s West Coast Vision

Published: 17 October, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

From 1916 to 1930 when Emily Carr struggled to make a living from her art, she turned to an unlikely but deeply creative form of work—rug hooking. Living in her boarding house in Victoria, the House of All Sorts, while running a boarding house, Emily designed and produced hooked rugs to support herself through difficult financial years. What began as “breadwork,” as she called it, became another outlet for her restless imagination. Her rugs transformed wool,…

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