Arrgh!!!!

Yes it is!

Here is the link  http://www.nfb.ca/film/maud_lewis_a_world_without_shadows

and it is beautiful to watch

 Maude Lewis really was a SOMEBODY!

A small in stature but big in imagination somebody!

Here is another great one about the installation of her little house in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

PS

Arrgh!  Again!

I tried to embed again using a different computer this time, I am truly a glutton for punishment, it is there above these words, in my editor, playing away, but will not post.  Arrgh

What an amazing woman.  Wonderful that people recognized her artistic genius and have given her work and house a permanent place in the Art Gallery.

Thanks for sharing.

Both very nice videos.  :)  

It made me sad to see her little house in disrepair before they restored it.  Loved the music in the National Film Board one.  It made me happy to see pictures from the 70s...felt like a happier time.

I had heard Everett didn't treat her very well; I hope that wasn't true.  :(

Sterton,

I felt the same about seeing her house; sadder watching Everett tenderly care for her overgrown grave, in a cemetry of overgrowth.  I hadn't heard how he treated Maud except from those videos.  Hearing that it was he who gave her proper brushes and oils, even when they were so poor, and obviously encouraged her art makes me suspect he treated Maud as most men of his generation and culture did with no sign of overt public affection but a deep private one.

I see other evidence as well.  Her paintings are so happy, despite all that she had to endure; the twinkle in her eyes was observed by others and seen in pictures.  She found that joy somewhere and while I suspect a great deal was her's naturally it had to been nutured by those around her to be sustained.

So glad others enjoyed her joy.

 Yeah the grave upset me as well.  I'm sure today (forty years later) it's well cared for.

I too felt Everett came off as nice.

According to http://www.folkartlife.com/articles/maudlewis.shtml,

"Everett Lewis was a bachelor who lived in Marshalltown, Digby County, Nova Scotia, he was looking for a housekeeper. When he met Maud, he was impressed by the distance she walked to apply for the job. Everett decided that the best way to solve the problem was to marry Maud.

Everett and Maud married in 1938 and lived their whole married life in a small twelve foot by thirteen foot one room house with a sleeping loft, without benefit of electricity or plumbing.

Everett continued to live in the house until a burglar killed him in an attempted robbery in 1979."

I hadn't realized what happened to Everett!

According to http://www.redkettle.com/biographies/everett-lewis.htm

"Later he made his own horse templates and began to paint.

President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Robert Stanfield were among those who visited their home to buy a painting done by Maud."

 A 2002 play review:

"The two actors have put their heart and soul into two masterful performances in Lance Woolaver's intense play about famous Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis and her mean-spirited, miser of a husband, Everett Lewis."

"Her husband was of a miserly spirit, hiding her profits under floor boards and taking the batteries out of the radio to conserve power."

"Her husband Everett tried his hand at painting, managing to make forgeries of her pieces that were then selling for huge fees." (http://www.suite101.com/content/nova-scotia-artist-maud-lewis-a463130

The word "misery" is commonly used to describe her husband on the net.  Perhaps it's because indoor plumbing, electricity, and TVs were available but not at their house.  Also I noticed he died in either '75, '80, or '81.  I wonder how come no one can agree on this.

More things I didn't know (according to http://www.scotiapages.com/article/nova-scotia-artist-maud-lewis.html)

"At Christmastimes for years, Maud’s mother taught her daughter to paint and they created and sold festive cards to family and friends. This was the only art training Maud received. Attending school until Grade 5, Maud left school, probably due to the endless mean teasing of classmates, said Canadian Encyclopedia. She was 14 years old."  Another website said grade 3 at age 11.

"Maud’s parents died in the 1930s, first her father in 1935, then her mother in 1937. She lived with her brother and his family briefly then moved in with an aunt in Digby, Nova Scotia. Her brother claimed the family inheritance as his own, leaving Maud dependent. Maud bore a child in the 1930s who was put up for adoption and disappeared from her mother’s life."

I'm not able to play the clip on my dial up. : (  The kitties look cute though.

Ah, Elanorgold, dial up, my sympathies.  Do a google image search of Maud Lewis, her paintings will bring some sunshine on a gray day.

Sterton, there are indeed many legends to be found on the Wild Woolly Web.  Personally I think Everett is getting a bad rap from people who have never lived in real poverty and as a result do not understand how that experience shapes one's life.

On another site, it gives a time line for the significant events in Maud's life.  It says she died from complications of a broken hip.  This makes more sense to me based on the comments Everett makes about her going into hospital and her lifelong arthritis which often coincides with osteoporosis in later life.

Canadian Artist Biography Database - Maud Lewis

As with any legend it becomes impossible to discern the facts from the presumptions.  As a romantic I see the light in Maud's eyes, the colours she chooses, as evidence that while her life was tragically hard there had to be some joy to be found.  As I watched Everett talk about the gulls coming to her hospital window and their leaving when she died, I see a man with heart and imagination, neither quality I associate with a cruel miser.  These are my presumptions based on snippets of a life presented and my personal desire to find positives in negatives.

Life is like art.  The viewer will always project themselves into the painting.  The artist creates the image but after that the viewer completes the story, filling in the blanks with their own experiences, making it their own.  It may not be The Truth, but it can be one of many truths.

LB

A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing.
     William Dobell

Simple joy.

LB

Wonderful!