"Elle"

Recently I was asked by the organizers of the Cabot Trail Writer's Festival to participate in their Artist's Gallery (10 Cape Breton Artists in all were asked)  to paint a 'cover' for my favourite Canadian book.  I accepted,was honoured to be asked and my painting was showcased along side some really great works by other Cape Breton artists. Below is a little bit about the terrific book I chose as well as my contribution. 
Many thanks to the Cabot Trail Writer's Festival for the challenge and the opportunity to have my work on display at their event.

Title: “Look at me - quatgathoma”

Inspired by the book “Elle” by Douglas Glover

Artist: Teena Marie Fancey

Medium: acrylic on wood

Size: 8”W x 10”L

Douglas Glover’s book “Elle” left a very visual impression on me, as did the character.  Marguerite is a young 16^th Century French noblewoman who is forcibly marooned on a desolate island at the mouth of the St. Lawrence in the Strait of Belle Isle with her lover, old nursemaid and an odd and lacking assortment of supplies. She is a quick witted, intellectual with a taste for sex and the grotesque and narrates her memoir in a ribald and thoughtful fashion. In it she recounts her life, abandonment, quest for survival and coming of age. She describes for us her observations, vivid dreams and spiritual connections to the wildness of the land and its inhabitants as well as the hard lessons she quickly learns as the Eurocentric misconceptions of the Colonists of her time have left her completely unprepared for her encounters in the wilds of the New World, Canada.

I’ve chosen to depict our protagonist in her barren surroundings. Above her is a black and clouded sky. She appears to be mildly amused at her predicament and slightly bored or put out as she waits for rescue or, perhaps, the moment when she will transform, rise up like a bear and show us the wild heart that Canada has given her.

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The Cure for a Slow-starting Spring?

After a successful showing at the Craig Gallery in November and a long winter's nap on my spare bedroom's walls, the characters from Altered Egos have now come out of hibernation to appear in the exhibition space at the
Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design.

Once numbering 22 works, the exhibition is compiled of the remaining 16 works
( 6 works found new homes while they were on view at the Craig--thank you to all of you who made that possible!) and I am thrilled to be able to have the opportunity to show them to my hometown crowd!

If you want a bit of comic relief from this long drawn out winter or to take in some colourful characters as opposed to looking at the snow that just won't go, head down to the Gallery at 322 Charlotte Street. Gallery hours are 10am - 4pm  Monday thru Friday and Saturdays 12 - 4pm.

"Boundless" by Teena Marie Fancey
vintage ephemera,acrylic, paper and handpainted embellishment on board
 4" x 5"