The Artist and Muse: the 13th Canadian Portrait

A muse’s job is to penetrate the male artist and bring forth a work from the womb of his mind, right? Historically speaking, the artist’s muse, is a great source of artistic inspiration. In mythology, the Muses were nine goddesses who symbolized the arts and sciences. There have been many famous traditional artist/muse relationships over the years such as Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol’s poor little rich girl, or Dora Maar who inspired several of Picasso’s most famous paintings. For women throughout art history, the relationship between female artist and male muse has often been more subtle, hidden behind the canvas, rarely depicted.

In today’s world, a muse is a person who serves as an artist’s inspiration, and there are more female artists painting their male muses. Traditionally male artist’s, and men in many professions provided, and women raised the family and took care of the household. Gendered expectations of women as primary caretakers of others, would get in the way of women pursuing cultural production.

My grandmother was one of these women, as she was busy raising a family and helping run a business on the Canadian prairies. Recently I discovered my grandmothers hand written recipe book, with about twenty blank pages at the end. Thinking there was nothing more most would just close the book and toss to the side. I thought it was strange and flipped to the back of the book where I found lists. These lists were ideas, and information, perhaps read in newspapers or seen on TV and heard on radio. The lists included a budget for art supplies and painting lessons. It seemed in later years my grandmother found a way to save her pennies and put this money towards making art, mostly in secret. My grandmother owned and ran a gas station, ran a restaurant and nightclub, sewed and weaved traditional Ukrainian textiles. My mother was very close with my grandmother and she also began cooking, and enjoying creative pursuits such as drawing and painting. These women instilled a love for the arts in my life. I did not take to the domestic side of life, I dreamed of grander pursuits and envisioned a wildly creative life.

Fast-forward to 2014, I began creating a body of work that would rely on collaboration with everyday Canadians, and people not necessarily connected to the arts or near major art centers. I suppose looking back now, it is like I am reaching back in time and trying to bring art to those that did not have access or see the value of artistic pursuits, or perhaps it is that I am reaching out to everyone in hopes to touch their lives through art, to speak to them through painting. This project, the ‘People of Canada Portrait Project’ relies on Canadians to send me a photo of themselves, in their authentic clothing, central to their identities. Through the process of interview questions, I decide on a background for the painting and then paint the subjects into the background, in many cases.

Now five years in and 13 paintings, the project has grown organically and at a much slower pace than I had originally anticipated. As the project has been a side-bar to my core work as an artist, I give it what time I can as I work on several projects concurrently, including running my business as an independent artist. As such I have been able to watch my work grow as my technical abilities for portraiture mature.

As I am coming into my 13th year working as a full-time professional artist, it seemed appropriate to paint a self portrait and the person who is integral to my life. Not only is he my greatest muse, he is my greatest supporter and sometimes collaborator. He is my husband and as I write this I realize that we will also be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary this December. Seems like the number 13 is our lucky number.

In numerology the number 13 tends to accomplish most things without the need of others or relying on them to make the decisions. Most of the goals are about building the foundation for the future. 13’s are very determined and tend to go after their goals with persistence. The basic meaning of 13 is composed of the ideas of focus, pragmatism, secure foundation, independence, and creative self-expression.

Referenced as #ICONICCANUCK and the #KILTPIPER on the People of Canada Portrait Project website, we are a couple of gregarious and life loving Canadians who live for the moment, and road trips in our ruby red JEEP.

As with the previous portraits we will participate in answering questions about ourselves and our thoughts about being Canadian, through grilling one another. For now here is the portrait; The Artist and The Muse. More to follow…