GG: David Blackwood

["Junichi Miyazawa" <walkingtune@bigfoot.com>]

Dear f_minorians,

Last week I went to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo,
where "The David Blackwood Survey Exhibition" is held
(November 7 - January 5).

Is David Blackwood a famous print artist in Canada?

According to the press release, "he received the Government
of Canada National Heritage Award in 1993.  This exhibition was
originally created to celebrate the opening of the Blackwood Gallery
at Erindale College, University of Toronto in 1992."

There were many prints describing the nature and the life of
Newfoundland.  He was born in Wesleyville, Newfoundland on the
north shore of Bonavista Bay in 1941, "where harsh natural
conditions and Methodism dominated the life of the people."

I did not like the prints so much, for they were too depressing for me,
but, nonetheless, they were very impressive for me,
because they might have been ideal landscape GG loved
(he happened to produce the radio documentary *The Latecomers*
on Newfoundland, as you know).

Blackwood recalls:
"The region is very flat and barren, the dominating features are the
sea and the sky.  In winter you feel only all shades of grey, and black

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and white which is a big influence.  The Methodists were very, very
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severe. . . .  It was a sin to be greedy and lazy.  One of the
greatest sins was to be ungenerous, and to be insiderate of their
people.  So everybody in the community was looked after.. . .
Surrounded by its austere nature, those people lived in life and
death situations on a daily basis."

Very Gouldian, isn't it?

Are the landscapes of Newfoundland really like what Blackwood
describes?

Regards, -- Junichi

***************************************
 Junichi Miyazawa, Tokyo
 walkingtune@bigfoot.com / junichi@poetic.com
  (aliases for:  farnorth@mbc.infosphere.or.jp )
***************************************
  http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/3739