Newfoundland artist Mary Pratt speaks from the heart
Vaughan Citizen
By Adam Martin-Robbins
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection’s exhibition of work by renowned Newfoundland artist Mary Pratt kicked off last weekend.
The feisty 78-year-old painter is best known for creating luminescent pieces depicting ordinary moments or objects — glowing jars of jelly or rumpled sheets piled at the foot of a bed — in an effort to raise up and celebrate what many of us consider mundane.
The McMichael gallery’s show, dubbed Mary Pratt, boasts more than 60 paintings created during the past 50 years. It runs until April 27.
Ms Pratt sat down with The Vaughan Citizen Friday for a candid discussion. The following is an excerpt from that interview (it has been edited for length):
VC: Where do you get your inspiration from for your art?
MP: …. One day when I was doing the housework, I opened the bedroom door, it was our bedroom – Christopher’s and mine — and the light was flooding the room, just flooding the room.
The bed was just full of light. And the sheets were all tumbled down and it was a bit of a mess. … The pillows were squashed together and I had put one of the blankets in the dryer and it was just felted down. I had dyed the chenille bedspread, which was a pathetic job of dying, and it had dripped onto the floor. That’s what I saw, but it was a real erotic reaction I had to what I was looking at and I couldn’t believe it. … I thought this is what I have to feel before I paint.
And once it happened, it happened over and over again. I didn’t have to look for it, it just happened. And I became, I think, sensually attached to things around me.
VC: You said earlier you haven’t seen some of the paintings in this exhibit in a great deal of time; is there one when you see it now walking through the gallery looking at them that is your favourite?
I like the baby in the bath, that’s my favourite. … And of course there is, This is Donna. I mean that’s an amazing feat.
VC: What’s the hardest part of being a Canadian artist?
MP: The fact that the Americans can’t be bothered with you. They just think you’re stupid and provincial. Yeah well, I’m provincial, so what. I’d rather be provincial than not.
You know, I like being alone. I like being in my house by myself. And it’s a damn good thing because that’s where I’m going to be staying.
VC: Is there a contemporary Canadian artist whose work you think is brilliant and who people should be paying attention to?
There’s Alex Colville — he’s amazing. I don’t know Canadian art very well. I don’t know the art world, but Alex was a friend.
… (Figure skaters) Patrick Chan and Kaetlyn Osmond, these people are also artists. There are artists in every area and I’m happy to think that. … I think Canadians need to enjoy what Canadians do and celebrate what Canadians do.
I just love Canada; I think it’s a wonderful country. I’m a little bit worried about it right now.
VC: What worries you about Canada?
MP: I’m worried that we are losing our social sense of how things should be. I think the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and the divide is getting too great. The middle class is suffering and that worries me.
The idea of trying to make everything owned by big companies or something like that, I don’t like it. That worries me. … I think the CBC, and those things that have been always been so important to Canadians; I think they should remain government corporations. And I think the government should be responsible for them.
… We are living next to a country that is totally screwed up. The Americans don’t know what they’re up to. They haven’t let Obama do anything. They’ve killed him in the Senate and in Congress. I’m just so fed up with them down there.
Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) is so stupid. You have to go through an insurance company and the insurance company puts up the premiums. Dear God in heaven, how unkind can you be? It’s terrible and I’m a conservative.
SIDEBAR
Three things you might not know about Mary Pratt:
- She enjoys watching television shows about “bad boys” including Mad Men, Lilyhammer and Breaking Bad.
- Politically, she considers herself a “Mulroney Conservative.”
- She is a mother of four children, two of whom — Ned and Barbara — are also artists. Some of their work will be on display at the McMichael gallery as part of the exhibition called Changing Tides: Contemporary Art of Newfoundland and Labrador, opening Jan. 25.
For more information about the show at the McMichael gallery, visit mcmichael.com
