How often do we enjoy an art show, a book, a TV show, a film, but don’t take the time to thank the people who created these efforts? I certainly don’t do it often enough, I’ll admit. But, I did it today and imagine my surprise when the artist I e-mailed actually called me from Victoria, BC to tell me she appreciated my thank you.

This is artist Manon Elder in a photo from her blog. The photo is credited to the Victoria News.
Here’s the story. In a few earlier posts I wrote about Canadian artist and author Emily Carr, who I knew nothing about until I visited Victoria, BC last month as part of a Road Scholar program. Two of the many activities we did were visiting the Emily Carr original family home—and the Royal BC Museum where a wonderful exhibit called The Other Emily is on display until Oct. 10. The Other Emily was curated by Kathryn Bridge, with artist Manon Elder painting her version of some of Emily Carr’s old photographs. She is called a realism portrait painter. I dropped each woman a congratulatory e-mail today saying how much I enjoyed the exhibit.
And now more about Emily Carr. I have almost finished a fictionalized version of Susan Vreeland’s "The Forest Lover" which is about a certain period in artist Emily Carr’s life and now I’m ready to launch into the actual journals that Emily Carr wrote later in her life. To my frustration, none of the local libraries have any of Carr’s journals, but I did check out a wonderful book from the PV Library called “Carr, O’Keeffe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own," written by Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall.
In our conversation today Manon told me that she doesn’t believe in coincidences and I don’t either. Both of us have a sense that we’ve just begun our electronic connection, or whatever you may call it. Isn't the Internet a wondrous thing? I've had this happen a handful of times in my lifetime, a few before the Internet, the rest more currently. I have met most of the people on my long-time international writer's list over the years, as an example, and others from this blog including dear Ardi in Seattle who always takes time from her schedule to show me Washington sites when I'm up that way.
Can you tell I am enthusiastic about Emily Carr, Manon Elder and Kathryn Bridge? I'm hoping I can introduce them to you, too. And if you are anywhere near Vicgtoria, BC, I can't recommend the Other Emily exhibit enough.
To whet your appetite, I thought you might enjoy this little video featuring Manon Elder that is on her website. I'm sure looking forward to getting to know her and her work better.
Searching For Emily Trailer from Kristina Campbell on Vimeo.
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