Recently I went to see the movie Maudie which I loved. I loved it for one reason mainly. They captured the heart of being an artist. When I went bible study the next day, Cynthia, a former artist told me that she had read Lance Woolaver's book, A Heart at the Door and that there was a lot of artistic licence in the movie. Her life was much tougher than was portrayed in the movie. As Cynthia said, "Everett was no Ethan Hawke."
I had left the movie wondering what was accurate and what was not. I had known very little about her. So I ordered Woolaver's book from the library and am waiting for it to come. The movie Maudie is a story, and is told sweetly and sensitively.
After watching it I was inspired to come home and make work straight from my heart. When a movie can do that to someone who has been making art for twenty five years I think it did a lot right.
The next night I stayed home and made a simple little house rug with a few flowers.
I just wanted to hook pretty. You can see a detail from it below.
It was not important to me that the movie be accurate in every detail. I was disappointed to hear that it was not but really I learned from the movie that I wanted to know more about her. I also felt that they really showed the most important thing about her, her artistic spirit, delicately and beautifully. It is an excellent movie and if you get the chance to see it I hope you are as inspired by Maude Lewis and her creative spirit as I was. we very rarely get to see art so pure, even if it was at times drive by commercial sales. I love the spirit that comes through in her work. I love it even more having seen the movie,
If you are interested in knowing more you can see her house at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia which now is the home to house as shown above.
Notice the hooked rugs on the floor. How sweet is that connection.You can also find out more factual information about her life in the links below. Lance Woolaver has researchedMaude's life intensively and recently wrote a biography. The links are below.
Maude Lewis AGNS
Lance Woolaver, Heart at the Door
