Marilyn Jones | Emily Carr Chronicler

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…

In the early decades of the 20th century, Victoria’s artists lived in a world of informal networks and makeshift exhibition spaces. Schools, churches, and private homes became galleries by necessity, and the Island Arts and Crafts Society, founded in 1909, provided one of the few organized platforms for artists to display their work. Yet even in this close-knit community, opportunities for serious public engagement were limited. For Emily Carr, the city she called…

In her autobiographical writing, Emily Carr was careful to portray herself in the tradition of the romantic individual by highlighting historical facts about herself that conformed to the modernist image of the artist as a professional and a genius, and downplaying those that did not. Born during a snowstorm, “contrary from the start,” she emphasized her difference from the rest of her family and insinuated that her “fondness for drawing” was not only…