{"id":117,"date":"2017-11-05T03:46:03","date_gmt":"2017-11-05T08:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=117"},"modified":"2017-11-13T19:15:46","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T00:15:46","slug":"first-dance-and-she-was-there64-years-later-she-is-still-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=117","title":{"rendered":"FIRST DANCE…AND SHE WAS THERE\u202664 YEARS LATER SHE IS STILL THERE"},"content":{"rendered":"
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

So the 125th is over. \u00a0Return of the Native has happened. \u00a0 Lots to think about\u2026old friends, older teachers, still older hallowed halls of the old school. \u00a0 Mistakes made.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Achievements that surpassed me. \u00a0Probably a few grads who considered me a fool. \u00a0And a few good friends who liked me in spite flaws. \u00a0That is how you know colleagues are more than just fellow travellers.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Friends forgive. \u00a0Friends like each other in spite of differences. \u00a0 All these thoughts tumbled through my mind as I sat alone in the Humberside quadrangle. \u00a0 Escaping from the pushing and shoving\u2026the rubbernecking\u2026the fondling\u2026of those who came to the reunion.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

What am I doing here? \u00a0Why did I come back? \u00a0What should I expect after a half century absence? \u00a0\u201cI wandered lonely as a cloud..\u201d came to mind.<\/p>\n

And then I remembered. \u00a0I came back to see the mural\u2026the Arthur Lismer extravaganza\u2026the largest piece of Canadian art I had ever seen short of a Yukon sunset wile standing on the edge of a hanging mountain valley.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Marjorie did not want to come to the reunion. \u00a0\u201cWho would I know?\u201d \u00a0Then she commented on the possibility that my old girlfriends would be there. \u00a0Flattering but unlikely. \u00a0I always liked \u00a0girls. \u00a0 None showed up. \u00a0 \u00a0But one ex-girlfriend \u00a0was there. \u00a0I never knew her name\u2026never spoke to her\u2026never held her hand\u2026never walked her home from school\u2026never danced with her..<\/div>\n
But I liked her. \u00a0Looked at her often. \u00a0And there she was in the Humberside auditorium now called \u00a0the Lismer Hall. \u00a0She had not aged a bit. \u00a0Looked as young and attractive as ever. \u00a0Semi-clothed as well. \u00a0 She \u00a0was on the wall\u2026a dominating feature of the magnificent Arthur Lismer mural that the staff and students commissioned in 1929.\u00a0 \u00a0It took Lismer four years to finish the mural. I spent more years than that mesmerized by this image of a young aboriginal girl.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
FIRST DANCE<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Hard to forget that \u00a0first dance at Humberside. \u00a0It was the fall \u00a0of 1953, early October and there was a bit of \u00a0frost in the air. \u00a0The auditorium seats had been-pushed\u00a0 back to expose the floor. \u00a0I was a bit \u00a0nervous, a Grade Niner. \u00a0Fifteen years, old with lots of testosterone but clumsy on the dance floor. \u00a0The big guys in the upper grades were both intimidating and role models. \u00a0 I expected them to be stand offish\u2026ignoring the presence of the new kids but some were super social.\u00a0 \u00a0From the side door exit several gallon stone crocks were delivered\u2026surreptitious hands looped the crocks to slurping mouths. \u00a0Not too accurately poured, for some,\u00a0 sloshed down their cheeks. \u00a0First the seniors sucked back \u00a0a good slug of whatever those crocks contained. \u00a0Then the crocks moved from hand to hand \u2026 from boy to boy until \u00a0it was my turn. \u00a0Hard cider. \u00a0Rough cider. \u00a0Alcohol from rotting \u00a0apples and sugar.\u00a0 \u201cThat will put hair on our chest, kid, take another drag.\u201d<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There \u00a0must \u00a0have been teacher chaperones although I don\u2019t remember them. \u00a0Maybe they spent their time in the staff room with\u00a0coffee cups. \u00a0No one stopped the crocks anyway. \u00a0Seems there were three or four circulating but imagination exaggerates \u00a0things. \u00a0Maybe only one crock.\u00a0 Certainly one.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
We \u00a0danced. \u00a0One of my dance partners was Elizabeth Kilty who I knew from our church. \u00a0She was very short. \u00a0I was tallish and lanky, infused with the<\/div>\n
extra energy \u00a0of the hard cider. \u00a0The opening dances were square dances. \u00a0 Lots of swinging. \u00a0With hard \u00a0cider energy I whirled \u00a0Elizabeth around\u2026and up.<\/div>\n
Not a good idea. \u00a0Should never have lifted \u00a0her. \u00a0She went up. \u00a0I released her and down she came\u2026flat on her bum\u2026legs in the air\u2026underwear exposed.<\/div>\n
Some thought her landing was funny. \u00a0Both Liz and I \u00a0were mortified.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
As the \u00a0evening wore on the revelry \u00a0changed. \u00a0a fight broke out \u00a0among a couple of senior boys. \u00a0Their names are lurking in my long term memory but just won\u2019t spill forward right now. The fight was serious business. \u00a0It began near the Exit door and then spilled out into \u00a0the darkness of that autumn evening. \u00a0Some followed. \u00a0Most continued \u00a0dancing.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Why should \u00a0you be interested?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Because that cute semi-clothed \u00a0Mohawk girl was looking down at us\u2026 just above our heads \u00a0on the wall. \u00a0Watching.\u00a0 Perhaps disapproving of the hell raising, the dress flipping, the cider slugging, the cursing, the fist fighting, the romancing\u2026 all done by people \u00a0who had taken her land and did not seem to give a sweet goddamn about \u00a0her \u00a0and the Mohawk brave who sat along side her with his tomahawk flat to the ground\u2026 flat grounded \u00a0in defeat. A people soon to be \u00a0forgotten.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And that was the way the Lismer Mural became part of my life. \u00a0 Not some grand lecture of the art of the Group of Seven. \u00a0Not some art historian pointing out how Arthur Lismer had combined oil paints with pastels to make this grand masterpiece. \u00a0My experience was as earthy as those \u00a0cider apples sitting bruised and perhaps wormy in the orchards not far from the Humberside auditorium.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
There have \u00a0been many \u00a0books \u00a0and crtiques written about the Lismr mural. Educated stuff. \u00a0Intelligent. \u00a0Critical. Today there \u00a0are people who are offended by the murals.\u00a0 With good reason.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Let me talk to myself for awhile.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan, how come the Lismer mural is so much a part of you? \u00a0You don\u2019t have much knowledge of art.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou \u00a0got that right. I am a doodler\u2026not an artist.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThen why so interested?<\/div>\n
\u201cGet real! \u00a0it\u2019s that girl.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat girl?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe brown skinned girl sitting \u00a0beneath the big image of Sir Isaac Brock.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo you mean the girl \u00a0with exposed breasts.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOh? \u00a0I hadn\u2019t noticed.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou must be kidding.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cShe is only half clothed. \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cI wonder why Lismer did that\u2026. painted her half nude?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMaybe because \u00a0he knew 15 year old males like you would be fascinated. Painted in the 1930\u2019s\u2026 I saw it in 1953\u2026 to me that was really risqu\u00e9. \u00a0Had \u00a0to look at her surreptitiously as did most of my classmates it seems.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a \u00a0timeworn trick\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cUsing sex to fan the flames of imagination.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMeaning?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMeaning, maybe Lismer thought \u00a0you would \u00a0begin to appreciate the \u00a0full meaning of the mural\u2026 the big \u00a0picture.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWell, it did not work until now in 2017\u2026 that\u2019s 64 years later.<\/div>\n
\u201cSlow learner?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cReckon so. \u00a0 Now that I see the big picture, \u00a0I am not too sure I like it.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSeems sort of sad\u2026 she seems sad\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cShe?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe Mohawk girl. \u00a0Look at her posture. \u00a0Posture of defeat… resignation… accepting \u00a0that her world of innocence and the splendour of living in harmony with nature are gone forever. And soon she will be gone. \u00a0Forgotten. \u00a0Perhaps assimilated. \u00a0Perhaps moved to some godforsaken corner of Canada and forgotten.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/div>\n
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\n
\u201cSomething a little odd here. \u00a0The other Mohawk (maybe Mohawk) image \u00a0is \u00a0so much larger\u2026strange. \u00a0Does size of the people in this mural have significance.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou might be on to something here, Alan.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cShe is so small\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLook at the \u00a0other\u2026 odd posture of resignation also. \u00a0But bigger. \u00a0Sitting on a bearskin. \u00a0Maybe that represents \u00a0something. \u00a0The wilderness life\u2026 dependence on the natural world which is under threat maybe. \u00a0The \u00a0bear is dead.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMaybe we should look at this mural the way Lismer intended.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow is that?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe mural tells a story. \u00a0Best to start at the beginning.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe first panel?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRight, there are four panels\u2026apparently there were five originally.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) was commissioned by the Humberside Collegiate Literary Society to produce a \u00a0mural for the school auditorium. The mural<\/div>\n
was intended to \u00a0\u2018raise national consciousness\u2019 so Lismer decided to represent Canadian history in five parts. \u00a0Four of these have<\/div>\n
been restored an placed in the new \u00a0auditorium thanks to Mel Greif and his Centennial Committee who raised $100,000 to retrieve and repair the mural after\u00a0the \u00a0old auditorium was \u00a0demolished and \u00a0the mural rolled up and \u00a0almost forgotten.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cSo this is the first panel, seems to be dominated by the \u00a0Union Jack flag held by Wolfe \u00a0after he defeated \u00a0Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham.\u00a0 Montcalm sits there defeated.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI \u00a0doubt that this mural would be popular in a Quebec High \u00a0School.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou got that correct. \u00a0 But suitable for Toronto in the 1930\u2019s\u2026 a largely Anglo pro-British city.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho is the other guy\u2026in blue cape with his arms \u00a0crossed.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Sir Isaac Brock who defeated the Americans in the War of 1812\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSeems to me Tecumseh and his warriors had a big role in that defeat.<\/div>\n
\u201cThey did\u2026 see him standing behind Brock.\u201d<\/div>\n
\n
\u00a0But I am not sure if that is Tecumseh. \u00a0Maybe just a symbolic native person\u2026see how his war axe is cast down\u2026symbolic of acceptance that the original people are now secondary.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot exactly a prominent position but at least he is given recognition.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cBetter than Montcalm\u2026head bowed and \u00a0perhaps weeping into the French flag.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWeeping? Not bloody likely, he was dead\u2026as \u00a0was Brock.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Panel 2: Lismer Mural<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dominating the second panel are well dressed European explorers and \u2018discoverers\u2019 standing on a high hill and marvelling at their new possessions. \u00a0 The First Nations people, a man and a woman, are secondary and seem submissive.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cMy \u00a0favourite panel\u2026makes me think of my shocked surprise in 1953\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow come she is only partly dressed\u2026naked almost?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNever though much about a reason.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWould a white woman have been treated this way?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDo \u00a0we have to see sexism in everything we say and do?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWish it were not so but that seems to be a fact of life these days. \u00a0Don\u2019t think Lismer gave it a second thought but were he alive today he would\u00a0have changed \u00a0his mural I think.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFirst off would be the native woman. She would be clothed and given a role. \u00a0As it stands she seems to have nothing to do but stare wistfully at those European explorers.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cExplorers? \u00a0They called themselves discoverers. \u00a0And to prove ownership of their discoveries \u00a0they planted their flags\u2026both French and English up here and elsewhere in the Americas were the Dutch, Portuguese \u00a0and Spanish. \u00a0 All planting flags as if the lands were empty. \u00a0In truth, there were \u00a0millions of people already here.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy did they allow Europeans to take over?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThey tried \u00a0to fight back but failed. \u00a0Diseases got hundreds of thousands \u00a0of them\u2026 measles, smallpox\u2026 and \u00a0then there \u00a0was malnutrition after the wanton slaughter of the buffalo in the west. \u00a0European explorers found whole \u00a0villages dead because smallpox moved faster than the \u00a0European adventurers.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSomeone said Lismer\u2019s mural is Eurocentric, what does that mean?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cEuropeans, and \u00a0that includes \u00a0the English and the Scots, believed they were superior people with the God given right to dominate \u00a0the world. It was natural for them to write history books that took European domination for granted. \u00a0 And in art, \u00a0like the Lismer mural, the conquest of North America is interpreted through \u00a0European eyes.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTake a close look \u00a0at the first \u00a0two \u00a0panels. \u00a0Proves the point.\u201d<\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Panel 3: Lismer Mural<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Each \u00a0of the people \u00a0portrayed \u00a0stand \u00a0for worthy values.<\/div>\n
\u2026Truth, Beauty, Wisdom, Courage and Motherhood.<\/div>\n
This panels \u00a0dominates all the others as the eyes of observers<\/div>\n
are drawn to the high peak\u2026 the worthiness these values are \u00a0to be emulated.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cI have trouble with this panel.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBecause \u00a0the people portrayed are wearing what looks like Greek or Roman togas. Canadians do note wear these things.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLismer made this the dominant panel for a reason.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd \u00a0the reason?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI am not sure but I \u00a0think the purpose of education is drawing out the best in students.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat has that got to do with wearing a bedsheets?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSort of \u00a0emphasis on purity\u2026maybe innocence.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIdeals?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, something \u00a0like that\u2026 not sure though.<\/div>\n
\u201cTruth, Wisdom and Courage are ideals we \u00a0value are they \u00a0not?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd \u00a0Beauty?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMakes \u00a0me think of that Mohawk girl in Panel Two.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBeauty \u00a0is \u00a0broader than that. \u00a0How about a sunset or the pattern of a snowflake or a Monarch butterfly?<\/div>\n
\u201cOr a newborn child\u2026 Motherhood.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Panel 4: \u00a0Lismer Mural<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
What \u00a0is the result of people who value Truth, Wisdom, Courage, Beauty and Motherhood?<\/div>\n
Canadians trump the natural world\u2026 Canada. \u00a0There is a boy reading a book, a mother with a child, and\u00a0sturdy pioneers \u00a0shaping the land with axes and scythes\u2026 tools poised for action. \u00a0Victory over the land by Europeans.<\/div>\n
With the help of the original people who carry the packsacks for white adventurers.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cNow this \u00a0panel makes \u00a0sense, \u00a0People doing things. \u00a0Men clearing away the forests with axes and logging hooks.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWho is that guy carrying the pack sack?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBrown skin\u2026 must be \u00a0a native.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow \u00a0would you interpret his role in this panel.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPretty damn obvious\u2026 he is working \u00a0for he \u00a0white men\u2026 carrying their loads.:<\/div>\n
\u201cWho is the dominant figure?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe guy in the blue shirt.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u2018Who is he supposed to \u00a0be?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cA farmer.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBreaking up land after the trees have been felled and hauled away by the second \u00a0largest figure\u2026 the logger.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTriumph, right?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCarving \u00a0up the land into blocks of 100 acres\u2026 crushing the wilderness.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat do you \u00a0think the person with the packsack is \u00a0thinking.?”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Panel 5: \u00a0Lismer Mural<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
No longer extant. But it was installed in 1932 . This panel featured representatives of Canadian young people standing in front of<\/div>\n
images of 20th century such as sky scraping office buildings, vast ploughed fields and aviation symbols.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
WHAT ABOUT THE \u2018HOT MUSH\u2019?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Arthur Lismer\u2019s paintings are strikingly different from his Humberside \u00a0Mural. Perhaps he undertook the job just as he \u00a0undertook other \u00a0commercial art projects\u2026 for the money. \u00a0Six members of the Group of Seven supported themselves by commercial art projects.\u00a0 Designing packages, sales signs, \u00a0 Maybe the Humberside \u00a0Mural was just a job. \u00a0I doubt it. \u00a0 But the mural does stand in sharp contrast to his wilderness paintings of twisted pine trees in agony from \u00a0water storm winds or lashing turbulent waves of Georgian Bay.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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WHO WAS \u00a0ARTHUR LISMER<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cSo, why is the mural famous?<\/div>\n
\u201cPainted by Arthur Lismer\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLismer\u2026LISMER\u2026helped found Group of Seven.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGroup of \u00a0whom?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cCome on\u2026 don\u2019t kid around. \u00a0You are just playing with me. \u00a0 The Group of \u00a0Seven was crested in 1920 by a bunch of artists who believed Canadian landscapes were astounding\u2026 Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, \u00a0A.Y. Jackson, Franz Johnson, J.E.H. MacDonald, F.H Varley and Arthur Lismer\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYou forgot Tom Thompson\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo\u2026 Thompson mysteriously drowned in 1917 in Algonquin Park. \u00a0If he had lived they would have called themselves the Group of \u00a0Eight\u2026does not sound so romantic.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cI thought those guys painted \u00a0bashed up mountains and ragged jack pines with waves and \u00a0wind \u00a0lashing them?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what most Canadians think\u2026obviously not true\u2026look at the mural here\u2026mostly people\u2026a history of Canada \u00a0in huge panels\u2026perhaps the largest<\/div>\n
mural of its time.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow long did it take to do.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFour years, maybe longer.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAnd \u00a0isn\u2019t it odd for a man like Lismer to spent his time painting the wall of a high School auditorium?<\/div>\n
\u201cYou said \u2018a man like Lismer\u2019\u2026 what did you mean by that?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHe was rich, wasn\u2019t he? \u00a0I read somewhere \u00a0that a painting of his sold for nearly a million dollars.”<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cYour \u00a0thinking of \u2018Spring on the Sackville River\u2019 which sold for $855,500.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRich man, right?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat was sold in 2016\u2026Arthur Lismer died in 1969. \u00a0He never got rich… few painters ever do until long after they die.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Spring on the Sackville River, Nova Scotia, sold for $855,500 in 2016<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"\" \"\" \"\"<\/div>\n
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Values of Lismer paintings:<\/div>\n
\u00a01) Dark Pine, \u00a0Georgian Bay, $241,500 in 2007<\/div>\n
2) Reflections, Georgian Bay, $140,400 in 2010<\/div>\n
3) Pines, \u00a0Georgian Bay, \u00a0$152,100, \u00a0in 2010<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\u201cThese paintings are so different when compared to the Humberside mural… could \u00a0have been done by a different painter\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAgree\u2026 may be possible because I see \u00a0the word \u00a0\u2018collaboration\u2019 mentioned\u2026seems others \u00a0may have been involved but \u00a0Lismer is \u00a0dominant\u2026and<\/div>\n
different. \u00a0Of course \u00a0he was \u00a0different\u2026 grew up in a tough place. \u00a0Sheffield, Yorkshire \u00a0as a kid,\u00a0sketching. \u00a0Just fooling around as kids do. Some of his work involved cartoons later\u2026 like the cartoons on the \u00a0editorial pages \u00a0of newspapers. \u00a0He was versatile\u2026 even humorous.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cEducated guy I bet.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cParents were not wealthy\u2026 his \u00a0dad was a textile salesman.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPoor, then?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just say his family was getting by but they were certainly not toffs\u2026gentry.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cBorn in Sheffield\u2026 good silverware came from Sheffield. England\u2026 sold all over the world\u2026 must be nice place.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAre you joking? \u00a0It was a grubby industrial city when Lismer was a kid. \u00a0Working \u00a0class. \u00a0Low \u00a0wages, dirty jobs\u2026 even\u00a0dangerous jobs. \u00a0Early deaths\u00a0 for workers.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow can manufacturing knives and forks and spoons and silver plated tea pots be dangerous?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGrinding metal without face masks\u2026 put tiny pieces metal in the air\u2026 then into lungs\u2026 silicosis must have been the result for many just like the coal miners in Newcastle which was not that far away.\u00a0 Frederick Engels described Sheffield in 1844 this way:\u201d<\/div>\n
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In Sheffield… certain branches of work are to be noticed here, because of their extraordinarily injurious influence upon health. Certain operations require the constant pressure of tools against the chest, and engender consumption in many cases; others, file-cutting among them, retard the general development of the body and produce digestive disorders; bone-cutting for knife handles brings with it headache, biliousness, and among girls, of whom many are employed, an\u00e6mia. By far the most unwholesome work is the grinding of knife-blades and forks, which, especially when done with a dry stone, entails certain early death. The unwholesomeness of this work lies in part in the bent posture, in which chest and stomach are cramped; but especially in the quantity of sharp-edged metal dust particles freed in the cutting, which fill the atmosphere, and are necessarily inhaled. The dry grinders’ average life is hardly thirty-five years, the wet grinders’ rarely exceeds forty-five.<\/span>[73]<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\n
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“Now that was more than 50 years \u00a0earlier but the city does not seem to have change much.\u00a0 On the streets of Sheffield Little Arthur Lismer had difficulty finding natural; beauty that he seems to have craved. indeed, \u00a0Even the footpaths seem to be \u00a0barren.”<\/div>\n
\u201cSterile is a better word\u2026that footpath below doesn\u2019t even have weeds.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGrim. \u00a0Yes. \u00a0But not far away were the hills \u00a0and dales of rural Yorkshire. \u00a0Sheep, stone barns, cattle, cheese factories, grist mills and miles and miles \u00a0of green grass \u00a0field hemmed in by stone fences. \u00a0Arthur saw these fields at some point. \u00a0Maybe not often but any visit to rural Yorkshire is remembered forever. \u00a0I\u2019ve been there.”<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u201cQuite a contrast.”<\/div>\n
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“Contrast aids thought. \u00a0Lismer\u2019s upbringing was in sharp contrast to the overwhelming beauty he found in the Canadian wilderness. \u00a0 He seems to have been particularly \u00a0overwhelmed by the way wild winds twisted and contorted the Jack Pines of Georgian Bay. \u00a0Just imagine the impact by looking at the footpath (below) and then his \u201cPines on Georgian Bay (above)”<\/div>\n
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Sheffield circa 1900. \u00a0Not a tree in sight.<\/div>\n
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Dirty Old Town<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
The Pogues<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/div>\n
Clouds are drifting across the moon
Cats are prowling on their beat
Spring’s a girl from the streets at night
Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/div>\n
I heard a siren from the docks
Saw a train set the night on fire
I smelled the spring on the smoky wind
Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/div>\n
I’m going to make me a good sharp axe
Shining steel tempered in the fire
I’ll chop you down like an old dead tree
Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/div>\n
I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
I kissed my girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/div>\n
Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
“You may find these lyrics too much to handle. \u00a0Stick with me. \u00a0I have always loved Dirty Old Town (sung by many including The Pogues) because it adds music and poetry to \u00a0the visual impact of industrial England. \u00a0Little wonder that so many migrated to \u00a0Canada in those years before World War One.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sheffield factory circa 1900<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sheffield street scene circa 1900. \u00a0Canadian officials had much success encouraging young men from Sheffield to migrate to Canada.\u00a0 The boy on the right in the lower right corner appears similar to Arthur Lismer, even holding what could be a sketch pad.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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As a boy, Arthur Lismer would go on long walks at night which worried his mother for the city streets were dangerous. \u00a0Lismer loved the natural world of trees and country lanes. \u00a0Such were \u00a0hard to find in Sheffield around 1900.\u00a0 The countryside outside Sheffield \u00a0was beautiful and \u00a0is currently one of the largest heritage regions of Britain\u2026 Yorkshire Hills and Dales. \u00a0 Did \u00a0Lismer ever get that far? \u00a0Doubtful.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\"\"\"\"\"\"<\/div>\n
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Sheffield craftsmen \u00a0and women produced some of the finest metalware in the world. \u00a0But there was a cost.<\/div>\n
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LISMER AND THE GROUP OF SEVEN<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s Arthur Lismer with the prominent forehead, second from the right.”<\/div>\n
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“In 1920 Carmicael, Harris, Jackson, Johnston, Lismer, Macdonald and Varley got together \u2026 formed theGroup of Seven\u2026lasted until \u00a01921\u2026another guy joined them in 1926 called A.J.Casson.’<\/div>\n
\u201cThey were an odd \u00a0lot. \u00a0Landscape painters\u2026loved our northern wilderness. Toured our empty lands. \u00a0 \u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLike?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLike the north shore of Lake Superior\u2026brutal place, images of a \u00a0harsh and stark land.”<\/div>\n
\u201cWhere did \u00a0they get \u00a0that name?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHaving a \u00a0coffee or a beer, the seven of them were trying to \u00a0think of a name that would give them character\u2026a name they could use to market\u00a0their paintings. \u00a0Critics and friends , later, would call their work \u201chot mush\u201d, a slur more than a name.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThen one of them, perhaps Lismer, said \u2018Why not call ourselves the Group of Seven\u2019?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFunny name but let\u2019s run with it\u2026 and \u00a0now the name is known by most Canadians and their paintings sell for millions of dollars.\u201d<\/div>\n
Must have been rich men to be able to wander around so much.”<\/div>\n
“Only Lawren Harris was \u00a0wealthy. Inherited \u00a0money from the Massey Harris Company, manufacturers \u00a0of farm machinery made in Ontario \u00a0but sent<\/div>\n
around the world in the early 20th century. \u00a0Harris bankrolled some things. The rest of the fellows worked as commercial artists doing advertising broadsheets and such.”<\/div>\n
\u201cVery odd that Lismer became famous\u2026 cards \u00a0stacked \u00a0against him.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s \u00a0for sure. Luckily he got a scholarship to a Sheffield art school. \u00a0Night courses for seven years. Then more years doing commercial art in England… came to realize prospects for work in Sheffield were close to nil. \u00a0Associates and friends had \u00a0already buggered off to Canada. \u00a0Lismer decided to do the same and \u00a0migrated to Toronto. \u00a0Best move \u00a0he ever made.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cExplain this term \u2018Hot Mush\u2019<\/div>\n
\u201cLet me try. \u00a0Get a canvas and lots of bright coloured oil paint, thick brushes. \u00a0Now drive \u00a0to Georgian Bay or some God forsaken lake in Algonquin Park. \u00a0Pick a distressed Jack Pine maybe and then start to paint\u2026FAST.\u00a0 \u00a0A trunk twisted and contorted, a dark green blob for living matter, some red and gold for underbrush, perhaps a dark grey slash across \u00a0the top for stormy sky and steel blue water with white \u00a0foam, rocky red granite outcrop ground smooth long ago by the age of ice… \u00a0Hot Mush.\u00a0 Canadian wilderness.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cGet off it, the Group of Seven did lots of different things.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cJust trying to simplify… Hot Mush\u2026 do an impression with gusto and \u00a0colour\u2026and do it with energy.\u00a0 How\u2019s that?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cOK, but keep your day job.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI am just trying to give a short version.\u00a0 You want the big picture?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cyes.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThen go to the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg\u2026 just a stone\u2019s throw north of Toronto\u2026 you\u2019ll find 6,000 pieces of their work and the graves of six of the fellows.”<\/div>\n
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ARTHUR LISMER\u2026 TEACHER<\/div>\n
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An understanding of psychology, a touch for the maternal, and a capacity for looking at the world through the eyes of a child – these are the marks\u00a0of good guides and teachers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Lismer was a social person. \u00a0He thought art should be shared and encouraged by all classes of people. \u00a0So \u00a0he gathered young people together and prompted them to press themselves. \u00a0He likely noticed that children love art when they are very young and their imaginative representations are exciting. \u00a0Somehow, as \u00a0they grow older, their artistic endeavours end \u00a0for most young people. Why? \u00a0Criticism maybe. \u00a0Lismer wanted art \u2026 doing art \u2026 to become part of daily life for as many people as possible.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lismer believed artistic expression was in all of us, particularly young children.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One of Arthur Lismer\u2019s sponsored Children\u2019s art classes<\/div>\n
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Artistic expression \u2026 having fun with art \u2026 A Lismer comment of the Jazz Age.<\/div>\n
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The original Group of Seven included<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Franklin Carmichael<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Lawren Harris<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>A.Y. Jackson<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Franz Johnston<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Arthur Lismer<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>J.E.H. MacDonald<\/a>and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>F.H. Varley<\/a>. They befriended each other in Toronto between 1911 and 1913.<\/span><\/div>\n
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LISMER WAS NOT ONLY AN ARTIST<\/div>\n
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Just because Sheffield was \u00a0ugly\u2026streets without greenery, houses built row on row, \u00a0smoke with sharp edges enclosed, long hours of work \u00a0with little reward\u2026. just because of all \u00a0this and more does not mean Sheffield was a backwater. \u00a0 Quite the opposite. \u00a0Engels quote in 1844 associates Sheffield with social thought of the day\u2026 Karl Marx in particular. \u00a0Remember the opening of the Communist Manifesto? \u00a0Here\u2019s \u00a0a reminder, \u201cThe \u00a0history of all hitherto existing people is the history of class struggle.\u201d Marx argued that violence \u00a0was inevitable since the rich would never give up their wealth voluntarily. \u00a0Through the 1860\u2019s Sheffield had \u00a0confrontation \u00a0between workers and capitalists that culminated in the ‘Sheffield Outrages\u2019\u2026 bombings and murders \u00a0by union extremists. \u00a0In 1866 the Sheffield Trades Council formed the United Kingdom Alliance of Organised Trades which would ultimately become the Trades Union Congress.<\/div>\n
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Where \u00a0did \u00a0Lismer fit? \u00a0Did he nuzzle up to the owners of capital, traditionally funders of art, or was he sympathetic \u00a0to the earthy and confrontation prone labour movement?<\/div>\n
Lismer only became an artist after years of studying \u00a0art at night \u00a0school. \u00a0But his mind was in harmony with the labouring classes. \u00a0\u201cIn Sheffield, \u00a0he came to believe that art was the right of the many, not a \u00a0privilege of the few.\u2019<\/div>\n
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Arthur Lismer\u2019s family were \u00a0Unitarians and this liberal approach to religion was another factor that affected his approach to art. \u00a0The free expression the Group of Seven when they broke away from the European art strait jacket could be expected for the Unitarians had broken away from the concept of the Three in One\u2026i.e. the \u00a0Father, Son and Holy Ghost basis of much Christian thought. \u00a0Lismer\u2019s parents and their Unitarian fellow travellers admired \u00a0Jesus Christ but considered \u00a0him a normal human being whose ideas\u2026ideals\u2026were worthy of emulating.<\/div>\n
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Sheffield was quite a city for a young boy to mature from child to adult. \u00a0It is worth noting that five of Lismer\u2019s fiends in the Group of Seven also had to work in commercial art in order to support their adventures as interpreters of the Canadian wilderness.<\/div>\n
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They had their detractors\u2026 lots of \u00a0them\u2026 who rejected their work describing it as \u00a0\u2018hot mush\u2019\u2026 just splashing of colour on a canvas\u2026 waste of good paint and stretched canvas. \u00a0Being born and raised in Sheffield \u00a0gave Lismer the guts to go against the tide.<\/div>\n
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LOTS OF QUESTIONS IN MY\u00a0 MIND<\/div>\n
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When I looked at the Lismer \u00a0Mural \u00a0at Humberside Collegiate in October 2017, a \u00a0lot of questions came to mind.<\/div>\n
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1) I noted \u00a0the huge panels were \u00a0described as the result of Lismer’s collaborative approach to art. \u00a0Collaborative? \u00a0Does that mean a bunch of unrecognized artists also contributed to the massive work? \u00a0 Likely.\u00a0 \u00a0No sure anyone can answer that question.<\/div>\n
2) The Mural was a gift of\u00a0the staff \u00a0and students of Humberside to their high school. \u00a0And it was a gift stretching over many years from 1927 to 1933. \u00a0Did it take 6 years to finish the painting. \u00a0What prompted staff and students to commission such a piece \u00a0of work? \u00a0How much did \u00a0they pay Lismer? \u00a0Who led? \u00a0There must have been a person who came up with the idea of the mural. Who was he\u2026 she? \u00a0There must have been a \u00a0powerful argument presented by someone. \u00a0Was it Lismer?<\/div>\n
3) The Great Depression was triggered by the stock market collapse of 1929. This happened \u00a0in the middle of the years \u00a0when the mural was being painted.<\/div>\n
Did the Depression have any effect on the project?<\/div>\n
4) The Mural is not typical of the work being done in those years by the Group Seven. \u00a0No Hot Mush. \u00a0Human beings dominate the panels. \u00a0 Hints \u00a0of the Canadian wilderness are present but definitely background hints. \u00a0Would it be safe to say that the Humberside \u00a0Mural is not typical of Group of Seven.\u00a0 Maybe but other members were also doing urban paintings\u2026villages in Southern Ontario for instance.<\/div>\n
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BACK TO THE DANCE FLOOR: \u00a0AN ENDING OF SORTS<\/div>\n
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\u201cAll this began for me on that October night in 1953\u2026 first dance. I was just a lowly and frightened Grade Nine kid suddenly\u00a0immersed in something far bigger than myself. \u00a0So big it was mystifying. \u00a0 Turning Liz Kilty, my dance partner upside down \u00a0was only part of it.<\/div>\n
The senior boys \u00a0passing around those hard cider crocks. (Was it several or just one crock?). \u00a0God awful taste that made me feel \u00a0adulthood would not be all sweet and light. \u00a0Then a fist fight occurred and bled out the auditorium door into the shadowy \u00a0movements of a moonstruck night.<\/div>\n
So exciting. \u00a0Especially when the whole affair was being politely watched \u00a0by that beautiful young Mohawk girl painted larger than life on the \u00a0west wall, a mural painting so large that my neck had to twist upward.<\/div>\n
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She was so sad. I wondered why… Only now do I realize she was watching her culture disappear, watching her people \u00a0be moved to the \u00a0periphery of<\/div>\n
Canadian life. \u00a0Watching us. \u00a0And not too sure we were worthy inheritors of the land.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov. 2017<\/div>\n
(thoughts \u00a0after 125th reunion of Humberside Collegiate)<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
1) Canadian Historical Murals, 1895-1939 – Material Progress, Morality and the disappearance \u00a0of Native People, \u00a0by Marilyn McKay , Nova Scotia College \u00a0of<\/div>\n
Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia.<\/div>\n
2) Lismer in Sheffied, by Anita \u00a0Grant, Montreal<\/div>\n
3) Arthur Lismer\u2019s drawings for the Humberside mural; development of \u00a0a grand patriotic theme, \u00a0Hodkinson, Ian, \u00a01935- , 1992, book, 48 pages, Toronto Public Library, 751.73074 L39 H57 reference only<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

alan skeoch So the 125th is over. \u00a0Return of the Native has happened. \u00a0 Lots to think about\u2026old friends, older teachers, still older hallowed halls of the old school. \u00a0 Mistakes made. Achievements that surpassed me. \u00a0Probably a few grads who considered me a fool. \u00a0And a few good friends who liked me in spite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}