
Say What? Art Terms For Beginners, Part 9
Abstraction in art is a visual language that uses line, colour, form and composition that are non-representational or independent to a certain degree of any reference to the world.

Abstraction in art is a visual language that uses line, colour, form and composition that are non-representational or independent to a certain degree of any reference to the world.

Emily Carr’s works compare and contrast with the works of David Milne, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Vera Weatherbie and many others, giving the viewer a chance to come to terms with the meanings behind the paintings and the artists’ take on exploring the varied landscapes of Canada.

This is the imagined Emily Carr as a child, dreamed up by the award-winning Victoria-based children’s author, Kit Pearson, in her book A Day of Signs and Wonders (Harper Collins, 2016). We visited Pearson at her Oak Bay home which she shares with artist Katherine Farris and their two dogs, Piper and Brio, for a discussion on her book, and the two protagonists who lived in Victoria in 1881 – 9-year-old Emily and 13-year-old Kathleen O’Reilly.

At December’s Family Sunday, we were happy to welcome our guests, artist Farheen Haq and her son Cairo, as well as the CBC’s Khalil Akhtar. Through art exploration, performance and food, our guests explored ideas about what it means to come “home”.

Activating Emily is a fun and dynamic educational resource targetted at viewers of all ages. Utilizing both a conventional activity-book format and an interactive mobile app with image recognition technology, the experience of enjoying Carr’s paintings is enhanced through the “activation” of the gallery spaces.