St. John’s, NL, about 1908 (via The Commons)
Yesterday I had a studio visit with artist Luanne Martineau who has an exhibition coming up at the Musee d’art contemporain du Montreal this month. She was nominated for the Sobey Award last year and is presently just finishing a year of sabbatical from teaching at University of Victoria in BC. Man, she’s one smart cookie. She gave a talk earlier in the day about her work and I only wish I could have just an ounce of her articulate intelligence. Holy moly.
Anyway, her studio visit was fantastic. I haven’t had many new people come in to view my work for a while (I should really arrange some kind of ’open studio’ evening or something) so I was pretty eager to hear her feedback. We talked a lot about regionalism and how someone can become “more Newfoundland (or wherever)” if they just move away. It’s way more than patriotism, I think. Maybe it is a denial of current circumstances, or culture shock, or grasping at straws to identify with a community in the midst of anonymity. It has really made me think about why I idealize Newfoundland, something I’m truly reluctant to investigate because I’m afraid of what I’ll find out about myself. That I might burst my own bubble.
But I think that is something I’m going to explore at further depth a little later because right now I really want to share some amazing news!
View from Signal Hill, St. John’s, NL, about 1900 (via The Commons)
Right after the studio visit I had with Luanne, I received e-mail notification that I have been accepted to do a residency in Newfoundland this spring! All the details still have to be sussed out but what I can tell you is that I will be hooking mats and hosting knitting circles in Terra Nova National Park for four weeks during May and June. I cannot quite articulate how excited I am about this. I’ve never gone to Newfoundland in this context before. I’ve always gone to visit family and friends and soak up the landscape–that yearly trip to the Atlantic that is necessary for clearing out one’s sinuses. This time I am heading to Newfoundland on my own to go to the woods to make art on my own. Holy! I’ve never driven through the Province without being in the car with family. I have never explored the Island without having family leading the way. I realize this is kind of sounding like “OMFG, PPL! IMA GROWN-UPZ” but a little of that is totally true. I have never experienced my home in this way before and I’m completely thrilled about it!
Contracts still have to be signed, plane tickets will have to be booked and an extended stay in St. John’s will have to be planned. The most exciting thing? I’ll be able to show Newfoundland to my partner, Ryan, who has never been. Maybe we’ll both love it so much that we won’t even want to leave! Sigh……
Drying cod in St. John’s, about 1900. (via The Commons)
5 Responses to “I am too excited to talk about regionalism.”
That is SUPER EXCITING!!! Congratulations on the residency– it sounds like it’s going to be one amazing time!
My thoughts on regionalism: thank goodness I’m a tiny bit immune to this. I don’t think I would like myself very much if I kept idealizing C-A-L-G-A-R-Y!! I’m sort of at the opposite end of the spectrum, distancing myself as much as I can from ‘Alberta-ness’, except maybe to glorify the Rocky Mountains or Kananaskis. OK, so I’m not totally immune…
Congratulations again about the residency! I’m going to miss you (even though we don’t even live in the same province), but I’m so excited for it to happen!
Also, your entire second paragraph – just replace “Newfoundland” with “Ontario” and I feel it too, 100%.
Congratulations Suzen! That sounds awesome. And its true, being away from a place makes you love that place and identify with it more. When people ask ‘what’ I am I say “Dutch” even though I have never lived there. But it feels like where I am from.
Congratulations on the residency! That’s wonderful news!
[...] My dear friend Suzen and I, among the many things we have in common, share the unique preoccupation with Home that only being away from it can bring. Admittedly, her Home, Newfoundland, is a bit more picturesque and immediately evocative than mine. However, Ontario works its way into almost everything I write. There’s even a literary style named for my home region, though I don’t think my fiction fits into it – much as I’d love it to. [...]