"This is really a Canadian story"

 

Alex Janvier in 2022

Three years ago, I wrote about the impact of seeing a 2017 retrospective of the art of Alex Janvier, who lived in Cold Lake, Alberta, and descended from the Dene Suline and the Saulteaux peoples. 

Janvier was one of the great artists, indigenous or Canadian.  He has just died, at the age of 89.  

This video, made two years ago, captures his gentle, but pointed truths.  It also shows a tiny fraction of his art, which is beautiful, but trust me, if you're standing in the same room as his paintings, it's like being overcome.  They are that amazing.

Brolly secrets

Beautiful sunny morning, after a bleak rainy day filled with reports of up-Island rivers sloshing over their banks.

My National Gallery of Canada umbrellas fortuitously arrived early in the soggy afternoon. Now, I'm sort of hiding them from the Resident Fan Boy, who got me a lovely, if small and flimsy umbrella for Christmas, festooned with First Nation moons, and made in China.

Empress Hotel and the Butchart Gardens

Oak Bay Marina and BC Legislature

Emily Carr's birthplace 

Craigdarroch Castle and Tally-ho carriage

It was meant to replace my treasured, but now leaky and rusted Robert Amos umbrella, which gave me such comfort (and limited shelter) in Hades.

I've secreted my new William Morris patterned "Strawberry Thief" umbrella in my packsack, and concealed my larger and sturdier Norval Morrisseau behind other brollies. The Resident Fan Boy, not the keenest of observers at the best of times, hasn't noticed yet. He will, and his feelings will be hurt.

But this morning is blue and clear, and the first thing I spot is a crow hopping along the curb in front of our building. One for sorrow.

I exclaim out loud when I spy another crow up the road on the next block: "And two for joy! Thank you!"

I realize, too late, that I'm right next to a lady in a wheelchair, parked on the sidewalk just around the corner, having a smoke. I explain the folk-rhyme to her.

"I'll have to remember that," she says, squinting up into the sunshine.

I stroll off to rescue worms.