Few letters have the dexterity of N.
It can be used to create a catchy phrase by replacing an entire word (rock 'n' roll, Gun 'n' Roses, The Dr. Is N, etc.).
When numbers needed phonetic notation, they looked to N to get their very word of origin, foundation and definition started it off.
It is entrusted with some of the language's most emphatic words: no, nay, never, nada.
It is the one-letter symbol of every new driver's rite of passage.
It is also the word that marks a new beginning for June Swanky Parker.
Although Swanky Parker is one of Prince George's best known and best loved painters, recent weeks have been a rebirth for her. She suffered severe health difficulties, but is now eclipsing those difficulties. She is not able to produce new works of art, presently, but just as her well-being was on the rebound, the Letter N got its turn in the Alphabet Project and this was the work of art she had been tasked to do for this benchmark art program.
Flip through the below slideshow to view the Alphabet Project art and a link to each artist story:
Swanky Parker was not available to comment herself on this painting, but there was a lineup of others more than happy to offer their thoughts, starting with Lisa Redpath, the project coordinator for the Community Arts Council. The CAC was The Citizen's partner on the Alphabet Project, and also the agency that most recently held an exhibition of her work.
"When anyone from that group comes in here, we do whatever they want," said Redpath. "I'd move mountains for that group. June wanted another show so we did one, with pleasure. She is one of our pioneers and our pillars."
The group to which Redpath refers is The Milltown Artists. This collective is far and away the most definitive painters' group to ever apply their brushs to our community. Like The Group of Seven did in Ontario in the 1920s and '30s, this team of artists - the others were Vivian Antoniw, Anne Bogle, Doris Dittaro, Ruth Hansen and Caroline Moorhouse - created a body of work that defined this time and place. They were active from the 1970s through '90s but individually continued on their own after their combined efforts slowed to a halt.
None was more public in their solo endeavours than Swanky Parker. She was one of the founding businesses upstairs at Books & Company when that space was opened under the Art Space name. It and her studio are still there. She shares it - it is called Upstairs Art - with fellow artist Carol Whetter, and although the door is locked beyond the posted hours of operation, a handwritten note is posted there saying "June Swanky Parker is on the mend at the moment."
Her Art Space neighbour concurs. Krystal Leason, executive director of the Historic Huble Homestead, has the office across the room. After working together on numerous projects, Leason considers Swanky Parker much more than just a fellow arts entrepreneur.
"She's the sweetest. She's like a grandma to me, I just want to take her home," Leason said. She's been in to visit Swanky Parker during her recovery. "She didn't look like she belonged in the hospital at all, she was fully dressed, talkative, cheerful, doing sudoku."
They are already planning their next book together. Three children's titles have already been produced by the Huble Homestead society, and it was Swanky Parker who provided the vibrant illustrations.
"When we came up with the idea for the first book, Mr. Huble Builds A House, who better to do the artwork than our wonderful neighbour," Leason said, thinking back. "I remember she was so, so flattered and I was thinking 'why are you surprised, you're one of the most talented artists I've ever seen' but she is always so taken aback by compliments. In a cute way."
Leason said the book projects showed her exactly why Swanky Parker was a cut above the average artist. Her skills with the brush were self evident, but Swanky Parker often came to ask her questions about historical details because Swanky Parker did not want to trip up the credibility of the images with continuity errors or getting visual facts incorrect. Clothing, tools, the way bodies moved with those practical realities - she wanted to paint it rightly.
"I met her at the Artists' Workshop. We all met there," said Bogle of her longtime collaborator in the Milltown Artists. "A lot of us dabbled in different kinds of painting, and I'm sure she tried different ones, but for June it was always watercolours. She really worked hard at the one medium and became a specialist in watercolours."
"She and I were the ones who did watercolour, so to me she was a great friend in art, but she's a good friend as a person too," said Dittaro. "She just kept at it and kept at it. It seemed like no matter what, she would go in and maintain her hours at her studio, and do full classes of students. She was constantly teaching art or painting and painting."
Dittaro said one of the Milltown Artists' most important projects together was to do a group depiction of the Alexander Mackenzie Trail. Many of them could handle the flying and hiking, Dittaro said, but she and Swanky Parker had mobility challenges and enjoyed working together on the less onerous parts of the terrain.
"I don't know how else to say it: she's such a very nice person; a fine, fine person. She was born and bred in Prince George, she raised her family (five children) in Prince George, and she's got all this art that tells the story of this area."
Art was part of life's adventure, for Swanky Parker. She travelled to France, the United States, Central America and other parts of Canada, painting all the while. She was adept at landscapes, views of buildings, streetscapes, the human figure, but her specialty has always been flowers. Her work has been formed into cards, calendars, prints and a steady business in selling originals.
She took as much joy in teaching, with the full understanding that she was passing on skills to future generations as well as leaving behind a legacy, an ever-growing watercolour document of the times and places of June Swanky Parker. Even though her spot in The Alphabet Project has now arrived and we move on to next week's letter O by Melanie Desjardines, this is not where the story Ns. It is a beginning.
