Emily Carr

Replica of the Victoria Emily Carr statue

Each month the kids and I focus on a new big subject to study- have I mentioned how much I adore homeschooling? We all learn together- it is something I cherish and hope that we can continue.

This month we decided to focus on art, both applications and history. This month we have researched the life and art of Emily Carr, one of Canada's most beloved artists. Emily was from Victoria, BC and was a woman ahead of her time. She loved spending time in nature as well as with the indeginous people and a majority of her work either focuses on the beautiful West Coast forests or the West Coast Native peoples. She was not accepted initially but he public though, many frowned upon her, a single woman who paraded around with her many pets (dogs, cats, birds, a rat and a monkey!) filled with early feminism ideals who disagreed with the way European settlement was affecting the Native tribes. She was also the first woman in Victoria to ride a horse with split legs, rather than sidesaddle!

Emily Carr featured with one of her painting

Emily's childhood home in Victoria, BC

Her writings, rather than her paintings, is what intially made her famous. The CBC featured many of her stories on the radio and the public wanted to hear more. Klee Wyck, a collection of stories Emily wrote about her time spent with the Native tribes was published and became required reading for all BC students. Unfortunatley, it was not published in its entirty. At that time the BC government was removing all Native children from their tribes and sending them to residential schools. The purpose of removing them from their culture was to groom these children into a European (white) and "accepted" way of life. Emily was disgusted by this and voiced this opinion in her writing and any text pertaining to this was removed. It was not until much later that the book was published in its original entirety.  

Ross Bay Cemetary in Victoria, BC

Emily died in 1945 and is buried in the historical Ross Bay Cemetery.Her grave is simple, just a stone and visitors leave paintbrushes and other art mementos. There is a small beautiful monument built in her memory highlighting one of the things that Emily loved best, nature.

A beautiful yet humble monument featuring Emily's words

The kids loved visiting Emily Carr's childhood house in Victoria. They enjoyed viewing her art in the Art Museum. We have plans to visit the BC Museum as well which is featuring a huge Emily Carr exhibit. Aidan, Mia and I are reading "Emily Carr's Woo" and "Emily and Her Dogs", books featuring Emily and her many pets. Brandon is reading her autobiography and I picked up a copy of the beautiful Klee Wyck. We have also watched a documentary about her life and also hope to visit the Vancouver Art Museum, which features the largest collection of Emily Carr's work. This has been our family's favourite subject by far!

Chemainus, BC

Chemainus, BC

A few weeks ago we went to the cutest little town, Chemainus, BC. We have lived in the Cowichan Valley for a year and a half and have only discovered this old sawmill town that is now filled with art and artists.

The town is "word famous" for its outdoor murals featured on buildings all around downtown Chemainus. Many of these murals feature real people, both natives and English settlers and shows a beautiful way to study the past of this pioneering town. I recommend buying the $3 map that shows where each mural is located as well as information on each one.

Chemainus is also where we discovered The Crafty Cuppa, a paint your own pottery store. We had so much fun picking out our pieces and designing them. I will have to add pictures of our finished projects, they turned out very nicely.

Aerial Acrobatics on Horseback

I got some disturbing news today. Apparently I have a concussion after having a pretty bad fall off of my horse last night. Everything is ok but it was a little worse than I had thought last night after it happened.

In February I adopted a sweet but green thoroughbred from the BCSPCA. We actually fostered him first and I fell in total love with him. Since then I have been working very closely with a wonderful trainer to get him back under saddle. My main goal is to remain safe for both him and I and I really feel like we have made wonderful progress. He is a great horse- kind, sensitive, usually quiet and very eager to learn but last night I got a taste of his other side.

Our session started out nice. We worked on transitions on the lunge line and he did great so I decided to hop up in the saddle. I kept it at a walk and went around the ring nice and calm. As we were going toward the side with the opening he started to go a little faster. (note to self: must get the damn gate up so that there is an actual barrier!) I calmly asked for a "whoa with my seat and voice and then a little with the reins. Because he is a green horse, he is still learning to deal with contact. We have worked on it through long lining and now I feel some lunge work with side reigns may not be a bad idea. Instead of slowing down he went a little faster and again I asked for a whoa but the next second I was flying over his head chest first onto the ground. It was definitely the biggest buck I have had under saddle and I was terrified when I hit the ground because it knocked the wind out of me. I never lost conciseness and was with it enough to tell my daughter to go get my husband (even though I had a cell phone in my pocket, stupid me!)

 After a few minutes I realized I was not paralyzed or dead and was able to walk it off but later that night I developed a bad headache. It lasted all night and by morning I had pretty severe nausea. I went to the doctor and he confirmed that I did in fact have a concussion and I am not allowed to do any horsey things for at least a week :( My bruises have started to show a little darker and I have owies  on my chest, shoulder, knee, thigh, and I have swelling one side of my forehead and eye... that part could have been MUCH worse but I wear a helmet!

Sigh. I called my coach and she put me at ease. We will work on him accepting contact better and I am determined to not let this ruin my confidence with him! Next week I will be back on his back (although it will probably be on a line with someone at the other end, lol!)

**After going to the doctor again, we found out that all of my ribs in the front were fractured and a back rib was completely broken. It took over six months to heal and even now (in Jan 2012) I feel uncomfortable in my chest area.  I even rebroke some of my ribs after a spell of large sneezes this past summer!