My Favourite Posts

I've so enjoyed hearing from all of you about your favourite posts. As the writer, I've taken great pleasure in trying to present a fresh and unbiased perspective on art, books, exhibitions, and other creative works that sit on the boundary between fashion and art. I've had a lot of time to reflect on what I've written here (having been quite ill this past month), and there are some clear favourites that I thought I'd share with you.

Favourite Artist Profile:
I've learned so much from other artists. Two of my favourite profiles include Lessons from Yves Saint Laurent and Lessons from Doris McCarthy. 

Favourite Book Review:
I always have a stack of books beside my bed and on my desk. I read in every spare moment and I've even plowed through some indecipherable Phd theses, trying to deepen my knowledge of costume history. And so it is always a pleasant surprise when a non-fiction book is written with a light-hand, making it a delight instead of a chore to read. Two books come to mind: The Anatomy of Fashion by Susan J. Vincent and The Courtiers by Lucy Worsley. And if the most beautiful book to cross my desk would have to be Fashioning Fashion by LACMA.



Favourite Author Interview: 
Over the years, I've done my share of author interviews and I have to say I always remember the authors who made me laugh. And even though Lucy Worsley has one of the most serious jobs around as curator of the Royal Historic Palaces, she has a wicked sense of humour.  Lucy even invited me for a private tour of the palaces followed by tea and cakes in Kensington. I was tempted to hop on a plane the very next day to take her up on it!






Favourite Exhibition:
Last May, I travelled to London to see three fashion related exhibitions, including The Enchanted Palace at Kensington Palace, The Concise Dictionary of Dress at Blythe House, and Grace Kelly: Style Icon at the Victoria and Albert Museum. These were the first major exhibitions for which I had press status giving me access to materials that I would not otherwise have had. This material gave me a much deeper understanding and appreciation for the exhibits, particularly Artangel's presentation of The Concise Dictionary of Dress, in which no talking was allowed and for which there was no labeling of any kind. As a cross between a contemporary art installation and a fashion exhibition, it truly was ground breaking and with so few tickets available, it was an unforgettable experience.


Favourite Museum:
Although I am a huge fan of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum at FIT, the Bata Shoe Museum is tops for me. This is one of Toronto's finest gems with an extraordinary collection of footwear spanning centuries. With beautifully presented exhibitions that are rotated regularly, it is truly a Shoeaholic's Fantasy. And to make it even better, the curators and staff are as nice as they come.




Favourite Photo:
When I have a camera in hand, I generally like to take my time with lighting and set-up, striving to capture that perfect composition. Although I found it incredibly stressful at the time, two of my favourite photo-ops were ones where I had to work on the fly: photographing Angela Chen's show at Toronto Fashion Week in the spring and a performance of the Opera Atelier's School of Ballet. The light was poor and I could not use a flash. I did not know where people would be or what would happen next.



Favourite Post:
This is a tough one. When I first began this blog, I had great fun writing about Marie Antoinette and those posts continue to draw a large amount of traffic even today. But my favourite post has to be a quiz I created (which probably only a few people ever read) called Do you have Marie Antoinette Style?

Lessons from Artist Doris McCarthy

Doris McCarthy turns 100 years old today! This accomplished artist has created a vast legacy of work that celebrates the beauty and majesty of Canada's landscape. But she is more than just a painter. An art teacher for 40 years, a writer of four published books, and a friend to many, she has lived a full and glorious life. 

Since my recent experience at the painting workshop inspired by the work of Doris McCarthy, I've been rereading the books of her life, searching for tidbits of wisdom. It wasn't an easy task to distill her books into life lessons as her writing tended towards more of an account of her life than an attempt to impart her knowledge. And for that reason, I must note that this list of life lessons is strictly my own interpretation. I've included quotes in some cases, but in many, I've had to read between the lines.

Accept what comes your way! 
Doris did not have an easy life.  She faced setbacks, disappointment and heartache many times. In each of her trials, she tried to accept what life had to offer and look upon each day (and each painting) as a new beginning.

Forgive others.
In several of her books, Doris mentions the rejection of two banners she created for the chancel of St. Aidan's church. Not long after they were installed, they were removed without notice or explanation. As a member of the church, Doris forgave this professional insult and continued to be a full participant in the congregation, although she did admit "it took a lot of prayer and charity". Doris says "why waste my precious life spending energy on righteous indignation....every time my thoughts turn in that direction I pull them away to something else. Eventually I can laugh about it." (Ninety Years Wise, page 61)

Express gratitude.
"I am daily aware of and grateful for being alive and having the energy to work and enjoy people. I am sure that both the awareness and the gratitude are part of the reasons for my being so." (Ninety Years Wise, page 54)


Live simply.
In Doris' words, "As long as I have food and shelter, happiness doesn't depend on my standard of living. All of us who lived through the Great Depression, before the social safety net, learned that. Life wasn't easy, but it was good. Money was so scarce that it offered few options or temptations." This quest for simplicity stayed with Doris throughout her life, and in her books she often mentions how she likes to "know where I have put everything. The simplicity I value so much depends on having few things but keeping them in order." (Ninety Years Wise, page 33).

Exercise and eat well.
For as long as she was able, Doris stayed active with daily exercise including swimming, walking, and skating. And while there are several photos of Doris with a glass of wine in her hand, she learned the lesson of moderate drinking on her first painting trip to the Gaspe. In a comedic account of that incident, she states that it was the first and last time she overindulged. "Moderate drinking is an expression of my respect for my body, and of course moderation applies to food as well. Vanity was the root of my habit of eating temperately, to get rid of excess weight, but it is a habit I recommend." (Ninety Years Wise, page 76).
 
Be open to learning new things.
When Doris was in her seventies, she decided that she wanted a BA and she began her studies at the Scarborough College campus of the University of Toronto. After enrolling in a creative writing course, Doris learned how to use a computer. Doris got her degree and went on to write four books. "Writing gave me a second chance - not to change things, but to savor them. That is a great gift." (My Life, page 3)

Cultivate friendships.
In all of Doris's books, she mentions the many friends who have crossed her path. The reverence with which she describes her friends is proof of the great pleasure that she found from friends, making her life full while respecting her own need for solitude and quiet. Although her longest and dearest friends like Marjorie and Roy Wood passed on years ago, Doris still revels in their spirit citing that "death does not end a friendship.

Be true to yourself.
Given Doris' prolific career as a landscape painter, I was surprised to learn that she had extensive training in figure drawing and sculpture while at OCA. And in her early years as an artist, she even painted flowers when she needed to sell some work to raise cash. But over time, she must have realized that her heart was in the land. She stayed true to herself, not succumbing to the latest trends in the art world and painting what caught her eye and gave her pleasure.

The Doris McCarthy Trail 

Photo by Ingrid Mida 2010

How I wish Doris had written down some of her lessons as an art teacher of 40 years. Her books contain only a few fragments about how she worked as a painter. It is clear that she was disciplined in her work habits and often told others to "just paint". But I have not yet unraveled the mystery behind her powerful work. If I was able to ask her, she might reply:

"You don't need to prove what you know. (Who can prove the power of a great work of art?). You know it because you experience the power." (Ninety Years Wise, page 63)

Books Cited:
Doris McCarthy: Ninety Years Wise.
by Doris McCarthy.
Published by Second Story Press, 2002

Doris McCarthy: My Life
by Doris McCarthy and Chris Wahl
Published by Second Story Press, 2006.

Roughing it in the Ravine

 I don't copy it. I talk about it.


Doris McCarthy used to say this a lot when discussing her paintings. In her prolific career as a landscape painter, Doris captured the essence of her subject matter, whether it was an iceberg, a meadow, a rock or a lake. During last week's workshop at the Doris McCarthy gallery at University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, I had ample time to drink in the deceptively simple beauty of her hard-edged abstract landscape paintings from the 1960s. With forms like a rock refined to their most elemental shapes, the strength of her composition and her masterful use of colour became evident when I attempted to copy one of the works as a learning exercise.

I find it hard to properly express the utter joy I felt while sitting on a riverbank sketching the rocks and while looking up at a towering cedar tree attempting to capture the rhythms and essence of the forms. With all the recent tumult in my life, I drank in the beauty and majesty in nature like a thirsty wanderer.  Doris McCarthy once described the process of drawing as "you are actually constructing...not what your eyes saw, but what your head understood about what your eyes saw" (Art Impressions, Winter 1993).

Workshop instructor Barbara Sutherland told us many stories and anecdotes from her 20 plus years of  friendship with Doris McCarthy. The one that really made me chuckle occurred when Barbara and Doris were on a painting trip together on the east coast of Canada. Barbara began the story by saying that Doris rarely stopped for a break during a day of painting. But one day, Barbara came back to the cabin around 1130 am and found Doris resting on the couch reading the book "Conversations with God". Barbara asked Doris what was wrong and Doris pointed to her painting from that morning and said something like "If I can't be a good painter, I may as well be a good Christian". Thankfully Doris put that painting aside and continued to work. For her, mistakes were an inevitable part of life and a reason to laugh. (This means I  should be laughing on a regular basis!!!)

On July 7, 2010, Doris McCarthy turns 100 and on that day, Mountain Galleries invites artists from across Canada to "go outside and paint a panel to celebrate McCarthy's 100th birthday with us." They will have an on-line exhibition of the results and are hoping to have over 200 participants. From the entries, twenty works will be chosen for a gallery exhibition this coming September and one participant will be invited to join the galleries stable of artists. For more information visit the Mountain Gallery website.

Roughing it in the Bush

Cover image from the exhibition catalogue from Roughing it in the Bush

A 100th Birthday Retrospective of the work of Doris McCarthy

Roughing it in the Bush is the title of an exhibition which celebrates Canadian artist's Doris McCarthy's 100th birthday. Curated by Nancy Campbell, the show highlights work that remains relatively unknown, including her hard-edged abstraction series from the 1960s.  In these paintings, Doris played with movement and form, rendering land, water and sky in simplified abstracted forms. In the words of the curator, "these rarely seen paintings provide a departure point to view the masterful landscapes of Canada for which McCarthy is so well known."

At the packed opening on Saturday at the Doris McCarthy Gallery at University of Toronto's Scarborough Campus, the crowds in attendance spoke to the enormous affection people feel for this gifted painter, teacher and mentor. Besides creating a wide and unparalleled body of work, Doris McCarthy was the first woman President of the Ontario Society of Artists and was a prominent figure in the Canadian art scene for many decades. Although Doris wasn't at the opening, there was a live video feed to allow the birthday girl to hear the remarks, cake cutting ceremony and curator's talk. Happy Birthday Doris!!

To my regular readers, it might seem odd that I am writing about an artist who is known for her abstracted landscape images of Canada. What does this have to do with fashion? And the answer would be very little, but my huge admiration for Doris McCarthy as a person and as an artist is making me step outside my box. 

About ten years ago, I met Doris McCarthy during a Scarborough Arts Week open house. We chatted about painting in the living room of Fool's Paradise, her home and studio since 1932. She autographed her memoir A Fool in Paradise, An Artist's Early Life as follows: "To Ingrid, with good wishes from the fool herself, Doris McCarthy". 

And this week, instead of working in the fashion milieu, I will be taking a painting workshop with her neighbour and painting companion, Barbara Sutherland.  We'll be roughing it in the bush in the beautiful Rouge Valley ravines and I'll be painting landscapes, something that I've never done before. I'm not sure why I am drawn to it now, perhaps it is because I've recently been spending a lot of time in Toronto's ravines using nature as the backdrops for my fashion photographs. The beauty of nature is calling to me. 

From the series My Mother/Myself by Ingrid Mida 2010

I'm going to take a page from Doris McCarthy's life. "I want to be the kind of person who says yes." (A Fool in Paradise, page 234).  

Doris McCarthy: Roughing it in the Bush

June 19 to July 24, 2010

Doris McCarthy Gallery

University of Toronto Scarborough

1262 Military Trail

Toronto, Ontario Canada