{"id":1754,"date":"2018-10-28T22:59:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T02:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1754"},"modified":"2018-10-28T23:03:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T03:03:43","slug":"fwd-first-dance-and-she-was-there-64-years-later-she-is-still-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=1754","title":{"rendered":"Fwd: FIRST DANCE AND SHE WAS THERE…64 YEARS LATER SHE IS STILL THERE"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
Begin forwarded message:<\/div>\n


<\/p>\n

From: <\/b><\/span>Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com<\/a><\/a>>
<\/span><\/div>\n
Subject: <\/b><\/span>Fwd: FIRST DANCE AND SHE WAS THERE…64 YEARS LATER SHE IS STILL THERE<\/b>
<\/span><\/div>\n
Date: <\/b><\/span>December 12, 2017 at 10:54:37 AM EST
<\/span><\/div>\n
To: <\/b><\/span>diane <diane.poloczek@gmail.com<\/a><\/a>>
<\/span><\/div>\n


<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n

<\/div>\n
ALAN
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
FIRST DANCE…AND  SHE WAS THERE\u202664 YEARS LATER SHE IS STILL THERE<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
alan skeoch<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
oct. nov. 2017<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
So the 125th is over.  Return of the Native has happened.   Lots to think about\u2026old friends, older teachers, still older hallowed halls of the old school.   Mistakes made.<\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
Achievements that surpassed me.  Probably a few grads who considered me a fool.  And a few good friends who liked me in spite flaws.  That is how you know colleagues are more than just fellow travellers.  Friends forgive.  Friends like each other in spite of differences.   All these thoughts tumbled through my mind as I sat alone<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
in the HJumverside quadrangle.   Escaping from the pushing and shoving\u2026the rubbernecking\u2026the fondling\u2026of those who came to the reunion.  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
What am I doing here?  Why did I come back?  What should I expect after a half century absence?  \u201cI wandered lonely as a cloud..\u201d came to mind.   <\/o:p><\/div>\n
\n
And then I remembered.  I 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.   <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Marjorie did not want to come to the reunion.  \u201cWho would I know?\u201d  Then she commented on the possibility that my old girlfriends would<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
be there.  Flattering but unlikely.  I always liked  girls.   None showed up.    But one ex-girlfriend  was there.  I never knew her name\u2026never spoke to her\u2026never held her hand\u2026never walked her home from school\u2026never danced with her..<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
But I liked her.  Looked at her often.  And there she was in the Humberside auditorium now called  the Lismer Hall.  She had not aged a bit.  Looked as young<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
and attractive as ever.  Semi-clothed as well.   She  was on the wall\u2026a dominating feature of the magnificent Arthur Lismer mural that the staff and students commissioned<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
in1929.  It took Lismer four years to finish the mural.  I spent more years than that mesmerized by this image of a young aboriginal girl.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_949b8.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/rsz_lismer_mural_-_photo_courtesy_of_humberside_collegiate_institute.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
FIRST DANCE<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Hard to forget that  first dance at Humberside.  It was the fall  of 1953, early October and there was a bit of  frost in the air.  The auditorium seats had been-usher  back to expose thence floor.  I was a bit  nervous, a Grade Niner.  Fifteen years,old with lottos testosterone but clumsy on the dance floor.  The big guys in the upper grades<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
were both intimidating and role  models.   I expected them to be stand offish\u2026ignoring the presence of the new kids but some were supe social.  From the side  door<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
exit severe gallon stone crocks were delivered\u2026surreptitious hands looped the crocks to slurping mouths.  Not too accurately  for some  sloshed down their cheeks.  First the seniors sucked back  a good slug of whatever those crocks contained.  Then the crocks moved from hand to hand \u2026 from boy to boy until  it was my turn.  Hard cider.  Rough cider.  Alcohol from rotting  apples and sugar.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThat will put hair on our chest, kid, take another drag.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
There  must  have been teacher chaperones although I don\u2019t remember them.  Maybe they spent their time the staff room with <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
coffee cups.  No one stopped the crocks anyway.  Seems there were three or four circulating but  imagination exaggerates  things.  Maybe only one crock.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Certainly one.  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
We  danced.  One of my dance partners was Elizabeth Kilty who I knew from our church.  She was very short.  I was tallish and lanky infused with the<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
extra energy  of the hard cider.  The opening dances were square dances.   Lots of swinging.  With hard  cider energy I whirled  Elizabeth around\u2026and up.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Not a good idea.  Should never have lifted  her.  She went up.  I released her and down she came\u2026flat on her bum\u2026legs in the air\u2026underwear exposed.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Some thought her landing was funny.  Both Liz and I  were mortified.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
As the  evening wore on the revelry  changed.  a fight broke out  among couple of senior boys.  Their names are lurking in my long term memory but just won\u2019t spill forward right now. The fight was serious business.  It began near the Exit door and then spilled out into  the darkness of that autumn evening.  Some followed.  Most<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
continued  dancing.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Why should  you be interested?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Because that cute semi-clothed  Mohawk girl was looking down at us\u2026just above our heads  on the wall.  Watching. Perhaps disapproving of the hell raising, the dress flipping, the cider<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
slugging, the cursing, the fist fighting, the romancing\u2026all done by people  who had taken her land and did not seem to give a sweet goddamn about  her  and the Mohawk<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
brave who sat along side her with his tomahawk flat to the ground\u2026flat grounded  in defeat. A people soon to be  forgotten.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
And that was the way the Lismer Mural became part of my life.   Not some grand lecture of the art of the Group of Seven.  Not some art historian pointing out<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
how Arthur Lismer had combined oil paints wit pastels to make this grand masterpiece.  My experience was as earthy as those  cider apples  sitting bruised and perhaps wormy in the orchards not far from the Humberside  auditorium.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
There have  been many  books  and crtiques written about the Lismr mural.  Educated stuff.  Intelligent.  Critical. Today there  are people who are offended by the murals.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
With good reason.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Let me talk to myself for awhile.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAlan, how come the Lismer mural is so much a part of you?  You don\u2019t have much knowledge of art.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYou  got that right.I ama doodler\u2026not an artist.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThen why so interested?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cGet real!  it\u2019s that girl.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhat girl?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe brown skinned girl sitting  beneath the big image of Sir Isaac Brock.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cDo you mean the girl  with exposed breasts.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cOh?  I hadn\u2019t noticed.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYou must be kidding.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cShe is only  half clothed. \u201c<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI wonder why Lismer did that\u2026.painted her half nude?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cMaybe because  he knew 15 year old  males like you would be fascinated. Painted in the 1930\u2019s\u2026I saw it in 1953\u2026to me that was really risqu\u00e9.  Had  to look at<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
her surreptitiously as did most of my classmates it seems.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC08122.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a  timeworn trick\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cUsing sex to fan the flames of imagination.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cMeaning?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cMeaning, maybe Lismer thought  you would  begin to appreciate the  full meaning of the mural\u2026the big  picture.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWell, it did not work until now in 2017\u2026that\u2019s 64 years later.  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSlow learner?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cReckon so.   Now that I see the big picture,  I am not too sure I like it.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSeems sort of sad\u2026she seems sad\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cShe?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe Mohawk girl.  Look at her posture.  Posture of defeat… resignation… accepting  that her world<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
of innocence and the splendour of living in harmony with  nature are gone forever. And soon she will be gone.  Forgotten.  Perhaps assimilated.  Perhaps moved to some godforsaken corner of Canada and forgotten.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC08123.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSomething a little odd here.  The other Mohawk (maybe Mohawk) image  is  so much larger\u2026strange.  Does size of the people in this mural have significance.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYou might be on to something here, Alan.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cShe is so small\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLook at the  other\u2026odd posture of resignation also.  But bigger.  Sitting on a bearskin.  Maybe that represents  something.  The wilderness life\u2026dependence on the natural world which is under threat maybe.  The  bear is dead.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cMaybe we should look at this mural the way Lismer intended.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHow is that?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe mural tells a story.  Best to start at the beginning.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe first panel?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cRight, there are four panels\u2026apparently there were five originally.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC08127.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) was commissioned by the Humberside Collegiate Literary Society to produce a  mural for the school auditorium. The mural<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
was intended to  \u2018raise national consciousness\u2019 so Lismer decided to represent Canadian history in five parts.  Four of these have<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
been restored an placed  in the new  auditorium thanks to Mel Greif and his Centennial Committee who raised $100,000 to retrieve and repair the mural after <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
the  old auditorium was  demolished and  the mural rolled up and  almost forgotten.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSo this is the first panel, seems to be dominated by the  Union Jack flag held by Wolfe  after he defeated  Montcalm on the Plains of<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Abraham. Motcalm sits there defeated.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI  doubt that this mural would be  popular in a Quebec High  School.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYou got that correct.   But suitable for Toronto in the 1930\u2019s\u2026a largely anglo pro British city.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWho is the other guy\u2026in blue cape with his arms  crossed.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Sir Isaac Brock who defeated the Americans in the War of 1812\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSeems to me Tecumseh and his warriors had big role in that defeat. <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThey did\u2026see him standing behind Brock.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
 But I am not sure if that is Tecumseh.  Maybe just a symbolic native person\u2026see how his war axe is<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
cast down\u2026symbolic of acceptance that the original people are now secondary.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cNot exactly  a prominent position but at least he is given recognition.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cBetter than Montcalm\u2026head bowed and  perhaps weeping into the French flag.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWeeping? Not bloody likely, he was dead\u2026as  was Brock.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC08125.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Panel 2: Lismer Mural<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Dominating the second panel are well dressed European explorers and \u2018discoverers\u2019 standing on a high hill and marvelling at their<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
new possessions.   The First Nations people, a man and a woman, are secondary and seem submissive.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cMy  favourite panel\u2026makes me think of my shocked surprise in 1953\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHow come she is only partly dressed\u2026naked almost?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cNever though much about a reason.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWould a white woman have been treated this way?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cDo  we have to see sexism in everything we say and do?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWish it were not so but that seems to be a fact of life these days.  Don\u2019t think Lismer gave it a second thought but were he alive today he would <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
have changed  his mural I think.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHow?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cFirst off would be the native woman. She would be clothed and given a role.  As it stands she seems to have nothing to do  but stare wistfully<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
at those European explorers.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cExplorers?  They called themselves discoverers.  And to prove ownership of their discoveries  they planted their flags\u2026both French and English up here and<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
elsewhere in the Americas were the Dutch, Portuguese  and Spanish.   All planting flags as if the lands were empty.  In truth, there were  millions of people<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
already here.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhy did they allow Europeans to take over?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThey tried  to fight back but failed.  Diseases got hundreds of thousands  of them\u2026measles, smallpox\u2026and  then there  was malnutrition after the wonton slaughter of the buffalo in the  west.  European explorers found whole  villages dead because smallpox moved faster than the  European adventurers.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSomeone said Lismer\u2019s mural is Eurocentric, what does that mean?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cEuropeans, and  that includes  the English and the Scots, believed they were superior people with the God given right to dominate  the world. It was natural for hem to<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
write  history books that took European domination for granted.   And in art,  like the Lismer mural, the conquest of North America is interpreted through  European eyes.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cTake a close look  at the first  two  panels.  Proves the point.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC08124-2.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Panel 3: Lismer Mural<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Each  of the people  portrayed  stand  for worthy values.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u2026Truth, Beauty, Wisdom, Courage and Motherhood.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
This panels  dominates all the others as the eyes of observers<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
are drawn to the high peak\u2026the worthiness these values are  to be emulated.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI have trouble with this panel.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cBecause  the people portrayed are wearing what looks like Greek or Roman togas. Canadians do noter these things.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLismer made this is dominant panel for a reason.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAnd  the reason?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI am not sure but I  think the purpose of education is touring out the best in students.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhat has that got todo with wearing a bedsheets?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSort of  emphasis on purity\u2026maybe innocence.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cIdeals?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYes, something  like that\u2026not sure though.:<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cTruth, Wisdom and Courage are ideals we  value are they  not?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAnd  Beauty?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cMakes  me think of that Mohawk girl in Panel Two.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cBeauty  is  broader than that.  How about a sunset or the pattern of a snowflake or a Monarch butterfly?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cOr a newborn child\u2026Motherhood..\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/DSC08119.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
Panel 4:  Lismer Mural     What  is the result of people who value Truth, Wisdom, Courage, Beauty and Motherhood?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Canadians trump over the natural world\u2026Canada.  There is a boy reading a book, a mother with a child, and <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
sturdy pioneers  shaping the land with axes and scythes\u2026tools poised for action.  Victory over  the land by Europeans.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
With the help of the original people who carry the packsacks for white adventurers.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cNow this  panel makes  sense,  People doing things.  Men clearing away the forests with axes and logging hooks.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWho is that guy carrying the pack sack?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cBrown skin\u2026must be  a native.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHow  would you interpret his role in this panel.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cPretty damn obvious\u2026he is working  for he  white men\u2026carrying their loads.:<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWho is the dominant figure?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThe guy in the blue shirt.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u2018Who is he supposed to  be?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cA farmer.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cbreaking up land after the trees have felled  and hauled away by the second  largest figure\u2026the logger.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cTriumph ,right?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cCarving  up the land into blocks of 100  acres\u2026crushing the wilderness.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhat do you  think the person with the packsack is  thinking.?”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Panel 5:  Lismer Mural<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
No loner extant. But it was installed in 1932 . Thispanel featured representatives of Canadian young people standing in front of  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
images of 20th century such as sky scraping office buildings, vast ploughed fields and aviation symbols.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
WHAT ABOUT THE \u2018HOT MUSH\u2019?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Arthur Lismer\u2019s paintings are strkingly different from his  Humberside  Mural.  Perhaps he undertook the job just as he  undertook<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
other  commercial art projects\u2026for the money.  Six members of the Group of Seven supported themselves by commercialart projects. Designing<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
packages, sales signs,   Maybe the Humberside  Mural was just a job.  I doubt it.   But the mural does stand in sharp contrast to his<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
wilderness paintings of twisted pine trees in agony from  water storm winds or lashing turbulent waves of Georgian Bay.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/small_ArthurLismer-A-September-Gale-Georgian-Bay-1921.jpeg\"<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
WHO WAS  ARTHUR LISMER<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSo, why is the mural famous?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cPainted by Arthur Lismer\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSo?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLismer\u2026LISMER\u2026helped found Group of Seven.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cGroup of  whom?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cCome on\u2026don\u2019t kid around.  You are just playing with me.   The Group of  Seven was crested in 1920 by a bunch of artists who believed Canadian landscapes were astounding\u2026Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris,  A.Y. Jackson, Franz Johnson, J.E.H. MacDonald, F.H Varley and Arthur Lismer\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYou forgot Tom Thompson\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cNo\u2026Thompson mysteriously drowned in1917 in Algonquin Park.  If he had lived they would have called themselves the Group of  Eight\u2026does not sound so romantic.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI thought those guys painted  bashed up mountains and ragged jack pines with waves and  wind  lashing them?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what most Canadians think\u2026obviously not true\u2026look at the mural here\u2026mostly people\u2026a history of Canada  in huge panels\u2026perhaps the largest<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
mural of its time.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHow long did it take to do.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cFour years, maybe longer.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAnd  isn\u2019t it odd for a man like Lismer to spent his time painting the wall of a high School auditorium?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYou said \u2018a man like Lismer\u2019\u2026what did you mean by that?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHe was rich, wasn\u2019t he?  I read somewhere  that a painting of his sold for nearly a million dollars.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cYour  thinking of \u2018Spring on the Sackville River\u2019 which sold for $855,500.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cRich man, right?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThat was sold in 2016\u2026Arthur Lismer died in 1969.  He never got rich..few painters ever do until long after<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
they die.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/A16F-E14216-050.jpg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Spring on the Sackville River, Nova Scotia, sold for $855,500 in 2016<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Record\"Record\"Record<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Values of Lismer paintings   1) Dark Pine,  Georgian Bay, $241,500 in 2007<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
2) Reflections, Georgian Bay, $140,400 in 2010   3)  Pines,  Georgian Bay,  $152,100,  in 2010<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThese paintings are so different when compared to the Humberside mural. ..could  have been done by a different painter\u2026\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAgree\u2026may be possible because I see  the word  \u2018collaboration\u2019 mentioned\u2026seems others  may have been involved but  Lismer is  dominant\u2026and  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
different.  Of course  he was  different\u2026grew up in a tough place.  Sheffield, Yorkshire  as a kid  sketching.  Just fooling around as kids do. Some of his work involved cartoons later\u2026like the cartoons on the  editorial pages  of newspapers.  He was versatile\u2026even humorous.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cEducated guy I bet.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cParents were not wealthy\u2026his  dad was a textile salesman.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cPoor, then?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLet\u2019s just say his family was getting by but they were certainly not toffs\u2026gentry.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cBorn in Sheffield\u2026good silverware came from Sheffield. England\u2026sold all over the world\u2026must be nice place.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAre you joking?  It was a grubby industriAL city when Lismer was a kid.  Working  class.  Low  wages, dirty jobs\u2026even <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
dangerous jobs.  Early deaths for workers.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHow can manufacturing knives and forks and spoons and silver plated tea pots be dangerous.?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cGrinding metal without face masks\u2026put tiny pieces metal in the air\u2026then into lungs\u2026silicosis must have been result for many just like the coal miners in Newcastle which was not that far  away. Frederick Engels described Sheffield in 1844 this way:\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
     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]<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/sup><\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
“Now that was  more than 50 years  earlier but the city does not seem to have change much. On the streets of Sheffield Little Arthur Lismer had difficulty finding natural; beauty that he seems to have craved. indeed,  Even the footpaths seem to be  barren. <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cSterile is a better word\u2026that footpath below doesn\u2019t even have weeds.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cGrim.  Yes.  But not far away were the hills  and dales of rural Yorkshire.  Sheep, stone barns, cattle, cheese factories, grist mills and miles and miles  of green grass  field hemmed in by stone fences.  Arthur saw these fields at some point.  Maybe not often but any visit to rural Yorkshire is remembered  forever.  I\u2019ve been there.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 \u201cQuite a contrast.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
“Contrast aids thought.  Lismer\u2019s upbringing was in sharp contrast to the overwhelming beauty he found in the Canadian wilderness.   He seems to have been particularly  overwhelmed by the way wild winds twisted and contorted the Jack Pines of Georgian Bay.  Just imagine the impact by looking at the footpath (below) and then his \u201cPines on Georgian Bay (above)”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Sheffield circa 1900.  Not a tree in sight.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

Dirty Old Town<\/o:p><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The Pogues<\/span><\/a><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\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<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\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<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\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<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\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<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\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<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Dirty old town
Dirty old town<\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
“You may find these lyrics too much to handle.  Stick with me.  I have always loved Dirty Old Town (sung by many including The Pogues) because it adds music and poetry to  the visual impact of industrial England.  Little wonder that so many migrated to  Canada in those years before World War One.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/p718299348-4.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Sheffield factory circa 1900<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Sheffield street scene circa 1900.  Canadian officials had much success  encouraging<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
young men fro Sheffield to migrate to Can appears similar to Arthur Lismer, even holding what could be a sketch pad.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
As boy, Arthur Lismer would go on long walks at night which worried his mother for the city streets were dangerous.  Lismer loved the natural world of trees and country lanes.  Such were  hard to find in Sheffield around 1900.  The countryside outside Sheffield  was beautiful and  is currently one of the largest heritage regions of Britain\u2026YorkshireHills and dales.   Did  Lismer ever get that far?  Doubtful.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image\"Image\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Sheffield craftsmen  adwomen produced some of the finest metalware in the world.  But there was a cost.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
LISMER AND THE GROUP OF SEVEN<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThat\u2019s Arthur Lismer with the prominent forehead, second from the right.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
“In 1920 Carmicael, Harris, Jackson, Johnston, Lismer, Macdonald and Varley got together \u2026 formed theGroup of Seven\u2026lasted until  1921\u2026another guy joined them in<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
1926 called A.J.Casson.’  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThey were an odd  lot.  Landscape painters\u2026loved our northern wilderness. Toured our empty lands.   \u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLike?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLike the north shore of Lake Superior\u2026brutal place, images of a  harsh and stark land.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cWhere did  they get  that name?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cHaving a  coffee or a beer, the seven of them were trying to  think of a name that would give them character\u2026a name they could use to market <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
their paintings.  Critics and friends , later, would call their work \u201chot mush\u201d, a slur more than a name.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThen one of them, perhaps Lismer, said \u2018Why not call ourselves the Group of Seven\u2019?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cFunny name but let\u2019s run with it\u2026and  now the name is known by most Canadians and their paintings sell for millions of dollar.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Must have been rich men to be able to wander around so much.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
“Only Lawren Harris was  wealthy. Inheritted  money from the Massey Harris Company, manufacturers  of farm machinery made in Ontario  but sent<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
around the world in the earl 20th century.  Harris bankrolled some things. The rest of the fellows worked as commercisl artists doing advertising broasdsheets and such.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cVery odd that Lismer became famous\u2026cards  stacked  against him.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThat\u2019s  for sure. Luckily he got a scholarship to a Sheffield art school.  Night courses for seven years. Then more years doing commercial art in England… came to realize prospects  for work in Sheffield were close to nil.  Associates and friends had  already buggered off to Canada.  Lismer decided to do the same and  migrated to Toronto.  Best move  heever made.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cExplain this term \u2018Hot Mush\u2019<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cLet me try.  Get a canvas and lots of bright coloured oil paint, thick brushes.  Now drive  to Georgian Bay or some God forsaken lake in Algonquin Park.  Pick a distressed Jack Pine maybe and then start to paint\u2026FAST.  A trunk twisted and contorted, a dark green blob for living matter, some red and gold for underbrush, perhaps a dark grey<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
slash across  the top for stormy sky and steel blue water with white  foam, rocky red granite outcrop ground smooth long ago by the age of ice…  Hot Mush. Canadian wilderness.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cGet off it, the Group of Seven did  lots of different things.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cJust trying to simplify…Hot Mush\u2026do an impression with gusto and  colour\u2026and do it with energy. How\u2019s that?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cOK, but keep your day job.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cI am just trying to give a short version. You want the big picture?\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cyes.\u201d<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cThen go to the McMichael Gallery in Kleinberg\u2026just a stone\u2019s throw north of Toronto\u2026you\u2019ll find 6,000 pieces of their work and the<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
graves of  six of the fellows.”<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
ARTHUR LISMER\u2026TEACHER<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_94a30.jpeg\"<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"quote\"<\/span> 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 <\/span><\/span>
of good guides and teachers.  <\/span>\"quote\"<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Lismer was a social person.  He thought art should be shared and encouraged  by all classes of people.  So  he gathered young people together<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
and  prompted them to press themselves.  He likely noticed that children love art when they are very young and their imaginative representations<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
are exciting.  Somehow, as  they grow older, their artistic endeavours end  for most young people.  Why?  Criticism maybe.  Lismer wanted<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
art \u2026 doing art \u2026 to become part of daily life for as many people as possible. <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Lismer believed artistic expression was in all of us, particularly young children.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
One of Arthur Lismer\u2019s sponsored Children\u2019s art classes <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Image<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Artistic expression \u2026 having fun with art \u2026A Lismer comment of the JazzAge.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The original Group of Seven included <\/span>Franklin Carmichael<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Lawren Harris<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>A.Y. Jackson<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Franz Johnston<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Arthur Lismer<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>J.E.H. MacDonald<\/span><\/a>and <\/span>F.H. Varley<\/span><\/a>. They befriended each other in Toronto between 1911 and 1913.<\/span><\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
LISMER WAS NOT ONLY AN ARTIST<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Just because Sheffield was  ugly\u2026streets without greenery, houses built row on row,  smoke with sharp edges enclosed, long hours of work  with little reward\u2026.just because of all  this and more Does not mean Sheffield was a backwater.   Quite the opposite.  Engels quote in 1844 associates Sheffield with social thought of the day\u2026Karl Marx in particular.  Remember the opening of the Communist Manifesto?  Here\u2019s  a reminder, \u201cThe  history of all hitherto existing people is the history of class struggle.\u201d Marx argued that violence  was inevitable since the rich would never give up their wealth voluntarily.  Through the 1860\u2019s Sheffield had  confrontation  between workers and capitalists that cumulated in the ‘Sheffield Outrages\u2019\u2026bombings and murders  by union extremists.  In1866 the Sheffield Trades Council formed the United Kingdom Alliance of Organized Trades which would ultimately become the Trades Union Congress.   <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Where  did  Lismer fit?  Did he nuzzle up to the owners of capital, traditionally funders of art, or was he sympathetic  to the earthy and confrontation prone labour  movement?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Lismer only became an artist after years of studying  art at night  school.  But his mind was in harmony with the labouring classes.  \u201cIn Sheffield,  he came to  believe that art was the right of the many, not a  privilege of the few.\u2019   <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Arthur Lismer\u2019s family were  Unitarians and this liberal approach to religion was another factor that affected his approach to art.  The 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  Father, Son and Holy Ghost basis of much Christian thought.  Lismer\u2019s parents and their unitarian fellow travellers admired  Jesus Christ but considered  him a normal human being<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
whose ideas\u2026ideals\u2026were worthy of emulating.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Sheffield was quite a city for a young boy to mature from child to adult.  It is  worth noting that five of Lismer\u2019s fiends in the Group of Seven also had to work in commercial<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
art in order to support their adventures as interpreters of the Canadian wilderness.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
They had their detractors\u2026lots of  them\u2026who rejected their work describing it as  \u2018hot mush\u2019\u2026just splashing of colour on a canvas\u2026waste of good paint and stretched canvas.  Being born and raised in Sheffield  gave Lismer the guts to go against the tide.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
LOTS OF QUESTIONS IN My  MIND<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
When I looked at the Lismer  Mural  at Humberside Collegiate in October 2017, a  lotto questions came to mind.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
1) I noted  the huge panels were  described as the result of Lismer’s collaborative approach  to  are.  Collabrative?  Does that mean a bunch of unrecognized artists also contributed  to the massive work?   Likely.  No about  someone can answer that question.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
2) The Mural was a gift of <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
the staff  and students of Humberside to their high school.  And it was a gift stretching over many years from 1927 to1933.  Did it take 6 years to<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
finish the painting.  What prompted staff and students to commission such a piece  of work?  How much did  the pay Lismer?  Who led?  There must have been a person<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
who came up with the idea of the mural.  Who was he\u2026she?  There must have been a  powerful argument presented by someone.  Was it Lismer?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
3) The Great Depression was triggered by the stock market collapse of 1929.  This happened  in the middle of the years  when the mural was being painted.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Did the Depression have any effect on the project?<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
4) The Mural is not typical of the work being done in those years by the Group Seven.  No Hot Mush.  Human beings dominate the panels.   Hints  of the Canadian wilderness are present but definitely background hints.  Would it be safety say that the Humberside  Mural is not typical of Group of Seven.  Maybe but other members<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
were also doing urban paintings\u2026villages in Southern Ontario for instance.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
BACK TO THE DANCE FLOOR:  AN ENDING OF SORTS<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\u201cAll this began for me on that October night in1953\u2026first dance. I was just a lowly and frightened Grade Nine kid suddenly <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
immersed in something far bigger than myself.  So big it was mystifying.   Turning Liz Kilty, ma dane partner upside down  was only part of it.  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
The senior boys  passing around those hard cider crocks. (Was it several  or just one crock?).  God awful taste that made me  feel  adulthood<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
would not be all sweeties and  light.  Then a fist fight occurred and bled out the auditorium door into the shadowy  movements of a moonstruck night.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
So exciting.  Especially when the whole affair was being politely watched  by that beautiful young Mohawk girl painted larger than life on the  west wall, a mural<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
painting so large that my neck had to twist upward.  <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
She was so sad. I wondered why.. Only now do I realize she was watching her culture disappear, watching her people  be moved to the  periphery of<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Canadian life.  Watching us.  And not too sure we were worthy inheritors of the land.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
alan skeoch<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Nov. 2017<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
(thoughts  after 125th reunion of Humberside Collegiate)<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
1) Canadian Historical Murals, 1895-1939 – Material Progress, Morality and the disappearance  of Native People,  by Marilyn McKay , Nova Scotia College  of<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Art and Design, Halifax, Nova Scotia.<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
2)Lismer in Sheffied, by Anita  Grant, Montreal<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
3)  Arthur Lismer\u2019s drawings for the Humberside mural; development of  a grand patriotic theme,  Hodkinson, Ian,  1935- , 1992, book, 48 pages, Toronto Public Library, 751.73074 L39 H57 reference only<\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
n<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

%3CD65BF627-B901-4A41-849E-AA69319DE06D@hitronhub.home<\/a>“>%3C2375180A-162D-4648-9297-69B6F3A8DF01@hitronhub.home<\/a>“><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n



<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n


<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"<\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Begin forwarded message: From: Alan Skeoch <alan.skeoch@rogers.com> Subject: Fwd: FIRST DANCE AND SHE WAS THERE…64 YEARS LATER SHE IS STILL THERE Date: December 12, 2017 at 10:54:37 AM EST To: diane <diane.poloczek@gmail.com> ALAN   FIRST DANCE…AND  SHE WAS THERE\u202664 YEARS LATER SHE IS STILL THERE   alan skeoch oct. nov. 2017     So the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}