You can paint on the crockery, you can print on the banners, you can write a book, but still feel like a pretender. The big victory for Myrna Lemky has finally happened and there is a Churchill-sized V to mark the occasion.
Lemky has been an active part of the Prince George arts scene for many years, but she didn't feel like she'd earned a spot inside the circle of the most significant. It took someone deep within that circle telling her and showing her before she could admit it to herself.
She got a taste of it when she entered a trio of small paintings in the Community Arts Council's 6x6 art auction, and seeing two of them sell, but the irrefutable evidence came with the Alphabet Project. This initiative came from the Prince George Citizen on the occasion of its 100th birthday. As a tribute on this rare kind of centennial, The Citizen partnered with the Community Arts Council to have 26 local artists each take on a letter of the alphabet (the stock-in-trade of newspapers) and make an original painting, sketch, sculpture, etc. that represents that letter.
Scores of artists applied to be one of the 26. Lemky was among those selected. The news resounded in her mind like an overtime goal horn sounds to a hockey player, or the snapping of the race ribbon sounds to the runner in the lead.
Flip through the below slideshow to view the Alphabet Project art and a link to each artist story:
With victory - hers, the artists of the city, the Citizen newspaper, even the municipality itself fresh off its own centennial - resonating all around her, Lemky's artistic sensibilities were sensitive to an abiding spirit of celebration. The letter she was assigned could not have been more apropos - V for victory.
"I wanted to do something that showed the excitement of victory, the celebration of victory," she said. "And I wanted to do something that said thank you, Prince George Citizen, for allowing our city's artists to express themselves on this special occasion. It is a big victory and a big ovation for The Citizen itself."
She doesn't specify her own victory, and in fact her image goes out of the way to underscore The Citizen itself. Of all the submissions, hers was the only one to put the patron of the project in that spotlight. The black background and clean lines of the V - infused with bursting fireworks and flaring like two spotlights cutting the night sky - told a complex story inside a succinct image.
It was the kind of symbolic reduction that salutes newspapering itself - stories, photos and graphic design that strives to say as much as possible with as much efficiency as possible. It was the kind of art that springs from someone used to creating in small spaces.
Lemky's previous art, the creative endeavors that got her to this point, had confinement as part of the medium itself. For about 30 years she did hundreds of paintings on the bodies of jars and jugs and wood, selling this so-called "tole art" at craft fairs.
She branched out into screen printing, especially making banners and pennants for sports teams.
Lemky also applied her language and communication knowledge (she was a teacher and school district administrator at her foundation) to the written word. She wrote a book based on personal experiences and exhaustive research that has become a go-to manual for Canadian families. It is entitled Don't Wait: Put It In Writing Today (A Guide For The Executor Of Your Will). The book has been updated over time and has sold about 5,000 copies. One of the first places it was marketed was at the Community Arts Council's annual mega-fundraiser Studio Fair, but even participating in that did not convince Lemky herself that she was indeed a formidable artist.
"When I applied for the Alphabet Project my first thought was 'I'm definitely not good enough for this' but I also had another thought urging me forward. My second thought was 'Why not? Give it a try' and I was absolutely flabbergasted when I got accepted."
Trial, error, reading and observation have been her only lessons so far. That lack of formal art training played a role in her sense of artistic self, and learning directly from some of this city's acclaimed painters (she specializes in watercolour and acrylic on canvas) is an ultimate goal.
"It's time I ventured outside of my comfort zone," she said. "I have only been doing this kind of art since 2009, I can't even tell you the names for the different brushes or any of the terms for the things I'm interested in doing with art, but that's what I can look towards now. I'm ready for that."
She has only a small space in her home in which to paint, which is partly why she hasn't become prolific, not for lack of desire. Her work room is a small converted bedroom that has three desks - office station, sewing station and painting station - so she is practically forced to do no slow-drying oil painting or large-form canvases.
She also knows her personality. She had to hold herself back, during her active teaching years, but now that she's retired, the gloves can come off.
"When I get going, I'm immersed. I don't stop. I forget everything, like the passing of time or eating meals. Once I'm rolling, I'm totally involved," she said.
Out of sadness also comes creativity and motivation. When a beloved cousin, an active artist, passed away too young, Lemky was gifted with her art supplies. That and a sense, sometimes, that her cousin's spirit is urging her forward.
"I was inspired to paint by my cousin, Gwen, who was a very good artist," Lemky explained. "When she passed away in 2009, her family gave me all her art supplies and that is what really pushed me to become more serious with my painting. Once I painted the first picture, I was hooked. For me, painting is a joyful experience and a great stress release. I shut out everything around me and become fully immersed in the painting. I love working with bright colors, experimenting with different textures and different brush strokes. By the time I finish a painting, it has become a part of me. I am a bit sentimental about each piece."
In that sense, Lemky's art has been a victory for an entire extended family, but the fundamental power of art is how it uplifts communities, countries even cultures over the course of time. One hundred years is only the beginning.
