Chronicle 2017

PROFILES

Piecing together pioneer stories

ELISABETH MARANI BACQUE 1951

Profile by Stephanie Stronell 1995

The inspiration for Elisabeth Bacque’s most recent art series, PioneerWomen and Paper Patchwork , may have begun at Havergal when, in Grade 7 history class, Elisabeth was asked to recreate the diary of an English woman who crossed the Atlantic in the early 19th century to settle in the town of York. Elisabeth’s earlier exhibitions

of Toronto and later worked at the Stratford Festival, led tours at the AGO and taught visual arts to North York high school students. This work was intertwined with raising four children and creating her own pieces to showcase at home or in intimate galleries. Elisabeth, her husband Jim and

have included paintings of canoeing (featured at the Mackenzie Gallery in Peterborough) and Gardens and Scarecrows (at the Civic Garden Centre in Toronto). This latest series, recently on display at the Huronia Museum in Midland, is her favourite project. Over several years, Elisabeth researched the lives of 13 Canadian pioneer women from the 19th century, among them European settlers such as Catharine Parr Traill and Susanna Moodie, several fur traders’ wives, a painter, a black newspaper editor, an Ojibwe activist and a mapmaker. To convey their stories through art, she used letters, diaries, maps, recipes, birch bark and other materials arranged in patchwork-like collages based on traditional quilt patterns. This unique approach provides a visual experience in which the viewer lives vicariously through these women, evoking admiration for their struggles and achievements. Elisabeth began her education at Havergal College in the fall of 1944, just before the end of the Second World War. Her mother Constance Blake Marani 1915 graduated from the old school on Jarvis Street. An interest in art came naturally as her father, an architect, encouraged her to sketch. Elisabeth went on to study art and archaeology at the University

their children grew up close to nature. During canoe trips in Algonquin Park (their honeymoon) and in northern Ontario and Quebec, and sojourns in the south of France, the sounds, tastes, touch, sights and smells of each locale inspired her many forms of artwork. Whether it is a painting of her family, flowers, a landscape, or even a scarecrow, each piece captures and translates a moment’s experience onto canvas. From her beginnings at Havergal, Elisabeth has come full circle with Pioneer Women and Paper Patchwork . Through the careful process of collecting and interpreting relevant artifacts, she honours strangers from another time in a way that makes them seem familiar to many of us today. Within each piece, one finds a personal connection along with inspiration and gratitude. As wemark our country’s 150th birthday, Elisabeth’s art is a timely celebration of the brave women who contributed to Canada’s foundation. Many Old Girls may recall reading Maria Chapdelaine in French class – the story of a French-Canadian woman in the days of the coureurs du bois. Pioneer Women and Paper Patchwork captures a similar theme in intricate and beautiful detail.

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