221_BrendaGuild-created-2018.MP3

otter.ai

28.01.2024

no

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Okay

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so I've got it on and put it on so that it doesn't get lost should be recording now

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we'll just leave it for all these long minutes is there a button I can push to get it started nope it's fine okay okay and the volume was good

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well you

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for that free choice

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have the wherewithal to do this with all what's going on is this a brand new or is this just the

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car so yeah it's a bit of an error between this child production

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testing system is provided

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know whether

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we have to leave the lights on

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very good

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night like I don't

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play games right now

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wheel things to get

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back on my channel

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right so

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good target market

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is Jane

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wells in

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German

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years

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versus last time

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up Alright guys we're gonna

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get

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right here

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sure

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to say and then

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right Right so that was

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really awesome to be

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here so I know I help out

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most everyone has something

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to drink and

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we're gonna get going pretty

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far target audience oh

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yeah bye

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other days

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no

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no you guys

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thanks so

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much

Unknown Speaker 09:10
so I'm going to speak this way I hope you can all hear I don't have a mic, but it's a pretty good room I've given a number of talks in here and I haven't used a mic so and salt, salt springs, people were also good at shouting out if you can hear right. Do that please. Thank you so much for coming. Some of you may have seen this as the same talk that I gave to the Historical Society in mid October. And I had intended to do a somewhat different talk. But just as a slight background, or maybe you need to know maybe you don't. I was in the Supreme Court in Vancouver all this last week. I'm one of the Kinder Morgan arrestees. And I had a five day trial and we're not over yet. So while I was preparing all of this, I was also preparing as I acted as my own lawyer lawyer I was self represented. So I had a lot of work. So you are facing an absolutely newly minted for one week criminal defense lawyer. And the trial has been adjourned to march 12. So my career as a criminal defense lawyer will continue in the spring almost spring So with apologies I for those who have seen the talk before but it is an absolute pleasure to do it. To do it again and for you you folks. So it's not known to many people with with record park that for many long decades, it was quite it seriously. I would even say maybe art Salt Springs, earliest artshub Extremely talented people, not only the records, and but but a number of their neighbors that I expect were encouraged by by all of it. It wasn't just art, by Rocco people or by their neighbors in most of the rock was for sure, in a little small, contained world. But they were worldly people and they their art reached out to the world and the world came back to their art, as you will see. I would really with the most heartfelt of sentiments one can This is a great thank you to Helen Rocco. And with sadness for the whole community. It's a sadness that is really too big to express. She was the last of four ruckle signatories to the agreement that created Rocco Park. And I was just getting to know her I maybe had half a dozen visits. It was sort of halfway through the second visit that I just fell in love with her. She had been a math and physics teacher for years. She was straight shooting, right wonderful sense of humor. And she kind of had me on the teacher podium at one point where I had to explain myself and I went, Oh dear, and I kept talking and getting myself in deeper. And as I was finished, she she said, well get on with what you're doing because I'd like to write a check. And that I just adored her. And so many I have had the tiniest of toehold into insights of who she was but but just regret so much. She is on the right with her sister Nan on the left. Her sister she was about 16 and Nan was about 19 Nam was actually named Ella Anna and Helen Agnes and this is the photo by Harry Burton. She passed away in June and a great surprise she was 93 but very robust. So it came as not only a surprise to everyone but actually quite shocking. And we're still anyway and I really want to give a special thanks to her nieces we have Dale oaks here. They have been absolutely vital in this presentation and this artwork and have been wonderfully supportive. It's just been incredible and Gladys Patterson Campbell and you'll recognize the Patterson name her Patterson kin married into the royal family and had Patterson to Fulford before that the Patterson's around the general store and post office at Beaver point wharf. So this was Helens grandmother. So Helen Rocco, who just passed she was six years old when her grandmother died. So she knew the original Mrs. ruckle as grandma and she was Ella Anna Kristen's daughter. So you can guess from that name Scandinavian. She was Norwegian and quite Northern Norwegian. By chant I husband and I lived in Norway for a year and by chance my best friend that I made in Norway, and continue of contact comes from exactly that area. So it's been great to tap into her knowledge of this northern Norway. When Ella Anna came, I was able to learn a lot about her through the Norwegian archives. They're fantastic and they're getting better. When Ella Anna came to North America 1867 on her trunk with this grows modeling it's called rosemaling is painting on wood and it's very classic Norwegian and the tight. They've been kind of poor cousins to the Danes that occupied them for hundreds of years and the Swedes for a long, long time. But they still manage in their in their small homes and hard lives to beautify them. And I think that, that Ella Anna Christiansen as she spelled her name in the new world. She was instrumental to this. This is a box that is out in the for a display case and particular huge thanks to Dale and glottis for lending it as soon as this was in when Ruggles art room. And as I was touring it with BC parks, I looked in the corner and saw that and went, Oh my gosh, a classic Norwegian box, a desk box may be a Bible box, we don't know, the thing I missed what you can see out there and I missed even from this photograph, which wrong lots took of it is it says 1785 and the front of it. So I've highlighted that out in the case. This isn't lovely old box. And this is the sort of classic Norwegian rosemaling that you see everywhere. And here's the front now there actually you can see the 1785 but only when you photoshopped it and bring it up. So I have to track down the story of that. I thought it was perhaps Ella Anna's mother's or father's No, it's made probably grandfathers that direction. So we're still on Ella Anna Christensen. This is a photo that we all know of Rocco Park, and we have Mr. ruckle on the left Henry Rockall. He preempted that land in 1872. And we have Ella Anna on the right. And when I saw dear Helen, the last time we were discussing this photo and she said what was going on that he is standing there and she is sitting there. I can't see from there if she's pregnant. She could have been with they had she came she she married him as she had been widowed and had a four year old son and the agreement of the marriage was that her son Alfred Norwegian father would be adopted and become a rocker, which he did. Then they had two daughters together, which we'll discuss and then a son Daniel. So the vintage of that photo we recognize in the background. That's as close to blow up as I could get as her. And this is their house, which we all know. The original house was Henry had it built by Fred Raines in 1876 and the kitchen edition on the left. No, it was built Pardon me 1876 It was built by Victoria firm. We don't we don't know who we can guess who the lumber supplier was in the kitchen was 1876. Fred Raines owned and his brother on the land that all leads down to Fulford harbor now, and they, Fred rains built a number of churches on island. Alfred, son, so this is the growing family. The the daughter on the left is Ella. And this is Alfred grown up. This is the house that he built, which we all know so well. He was an artist through and through the artistry that we'll get into that he did this is just a banister going up the stairs. It's it's cherry, and it's eye catching and exquisite. And somehow they managed to fix the bark. So it's last his wood artistry. This is a cherry top table. He was the furniture builder. This is a Margaret de was explaining to me that it's called Morris chair. And actually, I must say Margaret, where you are there you are. This is the time to stop and say Margaret de ran the point gallery at Fulford for 17 years. And that was a second career because she had been an artist before then. And she has co curated this this show. And Margaret, would you stand up please?

Unknown Speaker 19:12
This this marvelous woman is a dream to work with. Yes, you may sit down.

Unknown Speaker 19:18
It just went smoothly and happily and perfectly and I can't thank Margaret enough. You've identified it as a Morris chair. So this was furniture that that Alfred made but he was using a template obviously, he collected guns as some people know and his living room apparently was filled with more than 100 of them and they were truly collector's items. And even Bruce Patterson was remembering them on the ceiling and of course for Dale that's what you grew up with right when you had seen it look at what he also built There's a photo of this that's out in the in the case there. And that of course is a treasure for family to keep the gun. People always ask what happened to all these amazing guns after BC parks took over the park, part of the property in with the radicals running the heritage, their farm 200 acres of the farm. They weren't comfortable having hundreds of guns on on the property. So apparently they were sold to a Texas collector for you know, who appreciated fully the value of that. So it was a it was a brilliant choices of guns. Everything I think that Alfred did was brilliant. This is a gun cabinet and the provenance of it, did he actually build it? We don't know. And this isn't any anything that's out in the in the case. So even the knob to pull open the door we got a pretty large calibers, shell. And on the top, you got some stocks that you can barely see in the left hand photo on two of these old gunpowder are carved into the side of the cabinet. And each each different each exquisite. It That's an assumption that Alfred did them. And the reason for that is he was a luthier and a musician. And he built some number over 100 stringed instruments. And this one violin remains in the house. And with the family, I should say more correctly. This jig for a guitar is out in the display case. And also this image of and I don't know what year this was in. Alfred died in 1953. So prior to Van that's not a driftwood photo. It was something before then I would think and that's his wife Helen, who was on the right there. So now we're moving on to his wife Helen Marginson. married into the records this photo was out there. sweet, lovely woman they had no children of their own. We always have to carefully say when people have no children, they have none of their own because we all have children of course we do. She hooked rugs. And this she came from the Marginson family out of Victoria, who printers they started a print shop so Helen and Alfred married in 1905. And her to knowledge she had three brothers who started Marginson printers in Victoria and 1907. And that company continues today is still called margins, printing not brothers. So she she made these. Well we'll finish with the margin brothers historic view. And the nice thing about that was that the ruckle artists who did visual arts, there's evidence in the houses in the oldest house that the sketchpads they had sketchpads they had paper they had supplies they could likely get ink. So when you're an artist who's living on a in those days remote farm, what a pleasure to have have a source of supplies and a family reason for visiting to go get them. So Helen's fine craft. There's rugs on various chairs. The houses are chilly, so her rugs were beautiful and very functional. And she favorite floral motifs of every sort in kind but the brilliance of her handwork and her fine craft where it becomes art is apparently that she experimented with various dyes. So the lovely subtle variation of colors in here were a result of her dye work and and her artistry in how to how to hook them into the rugs. There are so many hot rugs many many rugs and mostly floral motifs. However this is quite a pink one it doesn't show here. So great array of colors and leaves as well as floral. But then a little bit of the Yeah, geometrics, not too much of this. The one on the left is quite large most of them are throw rug size. And here we have their living room and area of Alfred and Helens house, and she was a fine musician as well. She was a pianist and she was known throughout the island through many celebrations and get togethers and events as the pianist who played with her husband and other musicians wanted The King brothers was a he was a violin player, I think as well as mandolin. Anyway, they had a lot of music, we may think when we're going around ruckle farm and being maybe somewhat concerned that their lives were isolated and lonely. And I used to think that not in the least the richness of the culture that they had and made was really that the warp and weft of of their community was was really well tied. And although they were a distance apart from each other, they really knew how to live and live well and I believe have a good time. And Helen's music was very important to that. Alfred had died in 1953. She died in 1967. Now we go to to the daughter, number one, Ella. We saw her as the baby with mom and dad and big brother, and this is her in another taken out of a family photograph. This is another one of her she's in her teens here. late teens, we can guess right? And there was a note that there Helen left on a table in one of the houses. And part of this note said the door with handpainted dogwood was done by Ella ruckle. It leads into what was originally the parlor. So what house are we talking Here's the door again, as soon as this is in the Henry rucklehaus built in the mid 1870s. And the second I saw it I can use Yes, you can see it from looking in the windows. I went Norwegian because husband and I lived for a year in Norway. Classic rosemaling except that it's BC Donwood. So what a lovely combination. And this is we've all peaked in this house. Right? So this is the dining living area. And it's actually this door, which was used as a parlor, apparently, and then used as a bedroom. This is a classic modern rosemaling Dora from Norway. So you know, it's just all variations on a theme. And this is a close up of the of the dogwood flowers which keep in mind because there's a painting technique that we're looking at there. That is important to try to identify some of Ella's work. Ella elsewhere. Ella was a traveler. So the first instance that I've been able to find online of her travels, is that in this was 1906. She was a passenger coming up from Seattle. Ella Anna, her mother had some Norwegian kin who lived in Seattle so we can surmise that she was visiting staying with them the Hansen's and she had spent three months in the US. So Ella and Seattle, in 1910, she was staying with her hands and kin as a rumor. She was born in 1879. So you know she's she's still not married, she was doing other things and we would think her artwork, she's remains a bit of a mystery. So we have some puzzles to solve. And this is just a highlighted line of her in the US 1910 census. There's not much more information about her there. Sometimes there's a bigger, more complete census form that gives you all kinds of things at least she's listed as a rumor most women are listed as under occupation is none. And there's photographs in the archives, which you have Frank Yes, of, of LC as a as an older, older girl and these people. Then Ella was in Chicago, what a city Hey, she went to the Chicago Institute of Art or art institute. It's changed its names along the way.

Unknown Speaker 29:07
And it's right. That Boulevard, Michigan Boulevard to the right of it. You've got Michigan Lake, Michigan, so you've got the big city behind it. That was a major rail gathering of you know, Hogtown it was it it was anyway, who was the E Cummings wrote a famous story that poem pardon me that just embodies in a few lines, big noisy Chicago and then there was this art institute that was looking out over the lake and it's on a strip of green so this is what it looked like. This is a 1912 postcard it was it was quite grand inside it continues to be and this is the year that Ella was attending so you can see in total will just count day school because we can assume she was in day school. They Have I've tried to get records from them, but they don't have them older than 50 years old, but 425 Man 500, nearly 600 Women for you know, there's the total so big bustling place for our little Salt Spring Farm Girl. You know. And I want to say with regard to Alfred, Rachael. I've also learned with regard to the trees that are around his glorious queen and house, trees and shrubs and whatnot. I've just learned and thank you Dale, for that he and Gladys that he and Helen got plants from around the world and their artistry extended to their landscaping. And it brought the world in. So Ella's Grand Tour, we learn. Oh, this is just the most amazing part of the story. I'll explain. First, Helen told me that there were kin by the name of schmo Ella had one daughter who who survived to have children and LS grandchildren were in the States. So I had the name and I took a flyer through the internet on a phone call, and began to meet the small family. And it's to the small family that I learned that they had a diary of Ella's that she kept when she toured Europe from 1912. And Margaret has set out just brilliantly over there excerpts of her diary during her her her tour that went from June to September. So in knowing that she had gone to the Chicago Institute of Art, I spent a good part of a sleepless night going through there are many bulletins for all their years and here we go. In the 1912 when Ella was heading off to Europe, we have Dudley Watson, one of our teachers has conducted a party of about 30 students and teachers on a European tour this summer, the party returns about October 1. At and she went on a Hamburg built an operated steamship called the Moltke. So, Ellis diary, we don't have her actual diary here. Her great granddaughter, Ella, owns the diary now. And she very kindly photographed or did PDFs of nearly all of it, it's a 71 spot, maybe 90 pages total that would need to be copied. And she was able to do 71 of them. And then I made a weekend trip down there to meet this lovely family. They've been so great. And I held this diary in my hand, and I was able to photograph the final pages that Ella, great granddaughter was not able to do. She had just given birth to a new little boy named Henry. And I started to cry when I heard that. It's just, you know, other people who remember and although schmoe is an unusual name, if you find out about the, it would be the grand children's generation. Ella's daughter, Agnes married, Floyd small, and he has a Wikipedia entry. He was building homes for Japanese people after Hiroshima. And he built more than a couple dozen. He was the early Habitat for Humanity before Jimmy Carter got on board. So he's very well recognize Quaker family roots that just truly lived his values. So I got to meet these lovely people. I got to hold this diary. This diary in my hand. There is a photograph of it over there and it's only about six inches long. And it's very hard to hold open I can see why the granddaughter took she took a while to photograph it because it's very difficult to hold open and deal with but anyway, here we are Ella raka we have her name and there's very little she's written on except for this. So this is what the photocopied or the, you know, the printed version that I received looks like and Margaret and Johanna Hoskins and glottis Patterson Campbell have an I have done a bit of transcription as well. So I think we've got it almost done all transcribed. And you get bits and pieces of it over there. So this is their handwriting. This is what we get into just an example. And on the SS malt K, I pulled this from offline there's a video of what it was like to be on there put together from these stills A piano on board which is very nice. We don't know if Ella played the piano but she was certainly in a family where we you would love it and gather around it. And the first stop was Tangiers. So this is a market in Tangiers, hot busy as Margaret pointed out, you can see one woman there, you know, quite a male dominated. At that time, Ella went from Gibraltar over to Tangier, the city of Tangier, and in Tangiers had been divided up three different ways quite recently at that time between was it Spain? Oh, I forget Fraps and maybe they let them have a little bit of it for themselves. So part of Morocco, Tangiers was the place to go in 1912. And Margaret has pulled out a better example over there. What was is it in the cabinet or no room for that one? Oh, there was no room. Anyway, all the Matisse was there, which was lovely. So this is Sir John Lowry. And when you read the Chicago Art Institute bulletin, there was a huge discussion discussions then about how Turner's work was transitioning into expressionism and expressionism was transitioning into the era that would become castles and Matisse is kind of a kind of a bridge there. So this is the very classic nature of painting that would not turn a risk so much as constable with the big guy then and getting a little more abstract from that. But then you get more Turner esque and Sir John lavatories work but but still rooted back nearly 100 years before. But then we get to this fellow and I'm afraid I don't know his artwork, but you can see it's becoming much more expressionist and, and then this is Matisse. And Margaret was explaining and I had read further that it was raining when he was there a lot. And the crowds were also making it difficult for him to do his artwork. So we have quite a bit of work out of out of out of windows. And some. And we've got Yeah, but he said himself that he was working from Windows, but thank you, Ella, elsewhere and home again. She came home on the SS Sicilian. And this is the kind of gems that you find on line. This is when she was in transit from the back into the states. She wasn't going home. She was going back to Chicago. And this was her a number of years later, but obviously elegant in a woman in the world in the in. She did travel back to Europe again in she returned home and late summer of 1914. World War One had broken out and she was starting to get the idea that she should get the heck out of there. And she did she took one of the last passenger steamships to leave before all hell broke loose. She married Stanley George Harris, she was 36 then and So to what extent was she devoted her life to her art? We'll get to the mystery we're it's gonna take a while to figure this out yet. Stanley Harris was working a farm over on Moresby Island didn't own it. Apparently it had been developed by a very eccentric Englishman who came via China named Robertson. And then it was in a Harris name. They were with

Unknown Speaker 38:42
Daniel's house is the house where I visited HANYAN Helen Daniel was her father. And when you're going down the hill into Rucker Park, you see the glorious queen and one that's Alfred consummate artists you can tell. And then across the valley on the left, there's a little brown one, and it sits back into the landscape, truly a farmhouse, but inside built in the same era. I actually find it more charming in ways and more livable. So they were wet in that house. And they had a son Tom and a daughter Agnes. I'm still tracking what happened to son Tom, but they did not. There's a whole other story there and I don't think the Schmoll family not yet so we'll leave it at that. They'll we'll we'll figure it all out. Daughter Agnes was her only only child and she died young. She was 43 years old. She had breast cancer and I went to the Mayo Clinic to have it treated but didn't make it so she left young Agnes at a quite a young age now now we get into her artwork. What do we know about her artwork? For sure. We know this one painting we only know this one painting because In the I photoshopped it up so you can see more clearly in the right Iraq. That's the only thing we have for sure. But then there's this painting, same size, it's quite, quite small, maybe 10 inches. Another still life of oranges. So you look at the brushstrokes you look at the hand, you look at the technique and you think, same. You can't say, I squinted, you know, at this image at every part of it. There's no signature hidden in there. There's nothing on the back of it. So this is the big question. There's this painting. So was she transitioning and still life she's getting into flowers and bars and stuff. So you look at the dog wood door, you look at these flowers, it'd be nice to get a few art experts that specialize in the handwork and how to identify that way. This is quite a this is this is needs cleaning seriously needs cleaning. But But again, and I've shopped it up so you can see the image a bit better. Because this is the bigger question. There are these floral panels that are in the houses and absolutely exquisite. Her work? It'd be nice to know. We'll we'll see what we can do about that. So the music plays on this is a photo of Ella. And clearly. She paid attention. She really looked when she was on her art tour, which you will read over here. They were sketching painting all the time. She was she was clearly developing her art. This is the piano that was in the her father and mother's house. And I believe that this is the one that's in Beaver point Hall. I believe it was moved to there Dale would you know that? Okay, when you're in Beaver point Hall, take a look at the carving the work that's on each side of it. And here we have her standing in front of the piano. So again, the artistry of that household and entertainments that all spoke to that. So son Tom, this is when he died. This is Agnes her daughter died. Not that not that long ago. A great granddaughter has the diary. And we have the great grandson Henry. They're very fond the name Henry and thank goodness it carries on. So this is Ella's to a little over two years younger sister just the most angelic baby I don't know she's ethereal, even from from a baby. So this is Agnes on the right with her mum and dad and her little brother, younger brother. Between two and three years younger Daniel, who's Helens mum. And they're in Brantford, Ontario, because that's where Henry Rocco had come from. He was born in Ireland, came of German stock born in Ireland, and then came to the Brantford area to farm. And he they were back visiting family where the two older kids were, how do we know we have this, this photograph. And this is a great spot to say that Frank and the archives every place I was able to and remember it and there's a lot of parts and pieces to this show. But but the greatest of things for the courtesy of of the use of the archives photographs, it's well, it's beyond value to the to the all of the Rocco and now neighbors and other neighbors work that I've been doing. We are so lucky on this island to have it and frankly, we're beyond counting the 10s of 1000s of hours you've put into it. So bless you for that. Here we have Agnes I mean, still kind of a dreamer, right? I mean, it's just so beautiful. Agnes became a teacher. She was a substitute teacher at the report School, which is now a little read, but she became a teacher for four years in cascade. And you go well, why would she go there? Just so Christina like, there were some she had some ruckle first cousins that were there, and there's still records there. And in the news this last summer there was a forest fire in record BC. So there they are. As an art student, Agnes did correspondence. So she was a teacher in cascade for, I believe, something like four years, but then she came back to devote herself to her art. So about 1900 1901 She was back at her family farm, and she was taking this international correspondence school. It was an ornamental design course not what you think a painter would do. But it's gave her that that all the fundamentals that she needed for her painting, and bless the Rachael so many ways. As Gladys and Dale have been sorting through the vast treasures of these places for the for the family they found that they all have agonises correspondence work had been kept all of the exercises. And anyways, just glorious. And these are the type of comments that she got on this. So these this these documents that are about yay big, have in pencil very lightly written, not quite enough comment. I mean, just, they not only got these written comments, but then there were handwritten notes that went with them. And there were some typewritten notes that were there as well. It was very thorough. These international correspondence schools which started in Scranton, Pennsylvania, started in 1867. They continued today, they started for miners to learn the safety and structural information that they needed to stay safe in mines, mines were immensely unsafe, they're in the school started to try to save lives. And to this day, they offer very practical courses. So Agnes wasn't going to be taking, you know, artistic, interpretive sort of thing there. But it certainly gave her what she needed. She got 97% on everything on the back of all of her pieces is the top most sticker that she put on, and she said her occupation teaching age 23. And then for each exercise completed, she would get a percentage certificate on some of them. Some of them they were an ungraded certificate, and then this is more brushwork. Her hand is so fine, and so beautiful than the dragon that's down here. Oh, I just love it. I've zoomed in and look to God. It's just so beautiful. So if you look at the the frond motif that she's got going here, and then you look at the hand of her teacher. Now that is a deft hand. She had a really good teacher in this course. shapes all its whatever surfaces all of these comments, very neat work. And just so many comments certainly don't need to read them. But good feedback, good value for the money. There's a number of these totally exquisite color pieces. And I just chose one and it was really hard. So here's her fish up close. Wow. Yeah. So spring artists supreme. And we know her work. This is the painting that is at the dock, where are where the beaver point wharf dock was and there's one of wins there. This is one of her works. It's signed in the bottom left corner. This is coal harbour in Vancouver. And that was the First Nations connected Chinese Japanese, unfortunately, marginalized people had a very lively community. And there was a woman from there, who was living in the South. And in the book, I've written records world, there's

Unknown Speaker 48:10
a bit about her and this, this amazing collection of homes and families and communities. And I was able to do a run yesterday in the morning around here and with just steeped in all of what that that was the sadness of all of what we've lost. This is another Agnes painting that Helen very kindly allowed me to photograph in her house when we were visiting and one that's not been seen yet. And this is the one that is also part of the family estate, but it was in a glass frame. So it was a little trickier to to get an image of it. So you can see with Agnes that she lived only 24 years, what happened. This also is a photograph that we know really well because when you go to visit ruckle farm and you see it's out on the sign that's in front of the Henry buckle house. And most of well, some of the people identified in it or correctly I did, but a number of them aren't. So Ella is in the white dress on the left sitting and Agnes is on the white dress. Also sitting in the front, big brother Alfred behind Agnes and then Daniel is the boy on the left too. So young man on the left who's standing on the other are handsome kin who were visiting and I know and now there's another anyway family we're visiting. And I'm going to redo this I'm going to help with BC parks to redo the signs out there so that this gets all correctly identified without weighing you down on details. So we have a report from the Nicola Herald, a sad drowning the Phoenix pioneer to drowned in Christina like the sun to girls drown. So the little bit about her that I've pulled out from these very touching newspaper pieces she taught school and cascade four years ago at the time of her death was visiting the last type of the last four years of her life she devoted to landscape painting which she had attained considerable success. She was cousin of the Rocco brothers, the city, both young ladies were popular and highly accomplished. It is said that some of the wealthiest people on the coast treasure very highly some of miracles landscape gems. She was selling her artwork apparently in Victoria. And we know that how far some of it traveled because of the Bittencourt for the Saltspring Museum. One of her just came home from New Zealand last year. It's a small painting, but it was likely bought in Victoria and traveled the world. And so Agnes rest. This is a from the Saltspring church monthly that Reverend Wilson wrote from 1896 to 1905. I think that's right. He was the Reverend in who did the the funeral for her. And if you want to pay your respects, she's in the St. Mary's Church, Fulford graveyard, and she's fairly, fairly close to the front, she's on the right hand side. I've done another photograph, which is here recently of her grave, and her parents are nearby. When you know a little bit about these people, it's really so tenderly sweet to go and pay one's respects. In the cemetery. This is another painting of hers of a ship. This is unusual, as far as we know. And this is a or at one of the Orient vessels. Something of Empress of Japan. Why that one? I don't know. But there it is. Oh, and this is the one that's in the in the Saltspring or Bittencourt, House Museum, Rocco knitters, so this will get into fine craft. So when I was visiting Helen, she would be sitting in this chair. And on the wall. I didn't get a photograph of this on the wall. But she had an vest her dad knit this. And she said all the record men were knitters, and they didn't just knit, they grew the sheep. They shared the sheep. They, you know, did everything right up to the yarn spinning, and then their own vests or whatever else they knit, which is awesome. And it's out here and bless you, Dale and Gladys for for lending this. I just hold this. The last time I visited Helen, she was wearing it and she just made me cry. Can you imagine in the house you were born in that your dad built, sitting beside the stove that your mom cooked? So many all your meals on wearing the vest that your dad knit? And you're 93 years old? I mean. So this is this is Daniel as a young man, perhaps a wedding photo, but he married Mary Patterson known as Paulie and that's where the Patterson family came in because her brother and his wife ran the general store and post office and then the Fulford store. And this is Daniel 1950. And he died in 1972. He was the Farmer of the lot and he had no other art, but the agricultural arts are an art as well. And he not only kept the family fed, but for the most part it was a profitable farm. And that wasn't always easy. Now we get into the to the more continual knitters. And many of you are a number of you would know lotus and Gwen and Gwen had married Daniel son, a lotus Lotus married Daniel son Gordon, and then when the daughter so this is all the obviously the work getting your wool from the sheep to you're going to wear it and stay warm. And here we have Gordon in one of the vests and they I should have gone back they apparently knitted they were knitting all the time. And they must have I mean an uncounted number of these woolen garments that and many of them they gave away so treasured gifts for any of you who have them. Now, Mary Gwendolyn Rocco was the fourth generation Rachael then and this is her as a baby 1931 This is in the garden. Now another bit of artistry that went on that Francis Havelaar was able to work with with Nance garden and Lotus garden and a flower garden and so they grew food but then the flower garden and you've said the roses and whatnot. There was an artist trip to that So that's, that's another aspect of their work. Here we have Gwen in the garden. This is her and her early 20s with the family photograph family reunion. Here we are. And this is all of the fine proud family at that time. And they Ella Anna grew up in Norway, she was deeply socialist. Apparently, she loved to get into these Norwegian accented quite vociferous discussions of her socialism. And the fact that ruckle farm through her good values being passed on to her descendants became the park that we have today, I would say came because of Ella Anna's roots and her husband. Henry's also the belief in this, this way of giving back to the community, they were well known at the time to be great community supporters. And look, they're still giving to us, they're still helping us be better and stronger and richer. Through mother lotuses family, when had a great grandfather Fraser, who was very well known as a water colorist, obviously blank couldn't have known her. This is some of his earlier work. He came from England, and that's likely England. He became a painter for the Canadian Pacific Railway. And quite a number of his works were put on posters, and we still see them around when they get into vintage work of his so this was a book that was done about him. When also took correspondence courses. This was to Victoria. And, you know, bless the rock was again, they kept the herb stack of exercises, where when was and there's a her pieces, a number of her pieces are back over there. So I'm going to go through these these quickly in every form of exercise with lots of feedback. So more and more, and I've chosen the ones that give you views of Saltspring and Ovako farm, she did quite a few images that were were kind of Saltspring but not quite, she didn't put everything right. Realistically where it is because she was learning composition and various other aspects. But this one, which we have over here is they were people camping at what I call Picnic Point, it's past where the beaver point worth was. Wouldn't it be fun to camp out there but we get to have picnics, so lucky. So working in the gardens. Again, lots of comments put on those and more and more and more. I mean, it was just this is one of her self portraits.

Unknown Speaker 57:46
She had a wonderful unsparing look a way of looking at the world and including of herself. And I love her self portraits. This is one I believe would be of her grandfather, which would be Daniel and that also is over here. And you know tattered, but sending them off to Victoria and waiting for feedback to come. She took more correspondence a decade later, guess where, where her great aunt hat. She's back Scranton, Pennsylvania. Fabulous. And this is just a little bit of what her work encompassed. truly lovely pieces she'd done this 10 years before she read it did it in another way working at advancing her art. This is clearly the farm the buildings aren't sitting exactly. I don't know where you'd quite take that photo. But anyway, clearly, clearly ruckle all just all kinds of work there the barn for sure. And then there were overlays with feedback. And this is the inside of the Henry rucklehaus She was doing perspective. She didn't put the dog wood flowers on the door. But what did they have to do with perspective? She did put paintings on the wall. So here's she painted it up. We've gone to the door. There's our Saltspring she was learning cartooning, all kinds of pen and ink work whatever, more feedback. This was the bit of cartooning and more caricature whatnot. And always good marks lots of good marks. This portrait of her is over there. And same, same, just eyes that looked and saw and like she got some correction on the eyes, but I just love the way she did the eyes. That's how she looked. She really looked she really took it in. She received a diploma in that on the wall of the art room upstairs of her the home that she spent from what 1967 to nearly 2016 That's a Harry Burton photograph, gwynn's cards we have, this is St. Mary Lake she made had cards printed that she sold on island. One can guess that her goal was to make a living as an artist. But as many artists find out through decades of struggle, it can be difficult. So she had cards that were sold and this set of cards came from the store, etc. that Don lucre, I wasn't sure how you say it, she has lent me these cards very kindly, and there's, they're out there. So this is a proof she or this is a sheet of work to go to the printer. And this is a Christmas card that she made. But it was actually the way it signed on the bottom. It was a school exercise. Her oil painting. So this is how we know her better. This is the oil painting that was donated to the library. And it's now just in there. And they can you know, there's a vast difference between being a person who draws and a person who paints I'm more of a drawer than a painter in my artistic work. And here we're starting to see the transition of her work from being someone who drew and then colored in and shaded to someone who's a painter and it's the trees on the left, you can start to see the painterly aspects and moving the oils like butter and you know, getting some dance into them. And that progression continues. And we have her her whole progression as an artist until she found her stride. And Rachael things Patterson house that we know the Patterson house was prior to 1961 it was taken down. But her mastery, I mean, she just started to flow and gel and just exquisite just this painting is a copy of it is over there. So she found her hand she found her voice she found, you know, fabulous artwork by neighbors. This

Unknown Speaker 1:01:58
goes quickly. This

Unknown Speaker 1:01:59
is the preemption map that I pulled together in the book that I wrote Rocco's world. So this is just to show you, we're going to the property that the Hawaiian fellow William Howe May I had preempted to lots over from Henry Rocco. And it was the King family that No, got to get this straight. This is the monk family that had bought the James hectare monk bought this in 1904 and raised his family there. And we have and then the kings were next door to that, and that was an 1870s preemption. And the he was a Greek fellow from the island of Smyrna, which is now Turkey, but it was Griezmann. And he took the name King, and we don't quite know why. So we're going to cover these two. So Fern Hill Farm was the name of Jim monk's place, and this is a 19 808 photograph. On the right is the the house that he built and he built it at the same time in 1906 1907, as the record boys did, built their two houses, so they were good friends, very good friends. We have his notes where the Rockefellers were dropping in and you know, they were so there's this house. There he is proudly standing in front of it, his wife made bomb. And this is the house not long before it was bulldozed. February of a year and a half ago. I did my utmost over well over a year to try to save it, but apparently it had to become a memory but no matter. We have the historical record, and that's worth a lot. So James Hector monk, his grandson, David O'Flynn has given me two pieces of his artwork and one is this Flickr that he carved from one of how many years old that apple trees so and this is a turned bowl that he made and he has a he's made a bureau in which he's carved the finest of rosettes and roses in the in the front of it. I've not seen it I have no pictures. After he was widowed, he unfortunately took up with a beaver point school teacher who was very hard on his heart. And there's all the letters available for what, what a miserable relationship that was. It just hurts my heart because she was actually married and she just wouldn't leave him alone. Anyway, whatever. So his daughter, pigs monk, married and O'Flynn. And this is not in the showing here. And this is a piece of poetry by Jim monk's daughter pigs that I showed to Charles Kahn, and he quite rightly identified his dog girl, but it's some poetry that came out of South Salt Spring and it's from the 1930s. And in this we're not going to read all through this, but I love the last line. She's talking about her farm, this heaven half up in incline Part of it was is and forevermore. Mine. The she she possessed the place and it possessed her and she moved in the family sold and moved 1945 The monks were gone from the neighborhood 46 About there but anyway, we all have that feeling about this island, right? It possesses us and in some way we possess it in spirit. Sophie Purser King in February, there was a showing of three Vantage, Saltspring women artists, and she was one of them. And she was the king property next door in about her 50s She started taking up carving, doing this fabulous folk art stuff. And there's three of her pieces out there. This is her self portrait. We have to put one more little label out there. But the Aikman family has 115 of her pieces. We're seeking a home. We'll see how this all works out. And then this is a painting that Lynn Weston gave to me it was a gift to Lotus. I think about the time Lotus moved to town, she left Rocco farm she was in ill health, she needed to move to town. And Lincoln had done this because lotus and Gordon moved into this house in 1931. And they moved out of it in 1967 to go over to Uncle Alfred's house. But Lotus just love this house. She She was her best years. In terms of the just rightness of memories and racing family. We're here. And if you zoom me in on the left, we've we've got Ella Anna, and on the right we've got the turkey. So we've come full circle, we'll bet we're back to Ella Anna and the beginnings of all this.

Unknown Speaker 1:06:44
So thank you

Unknown Speaker 1:06:53
quick q&a Because Margaret very kindly has made treats for us to eat and some of you have some already they want some more you want to see this is going to be here all month coming down November 29. So do come when you're in the library, it's a lot to absorb at once but you can just do little by little and take it in the where's this is the old Henry Russell House. It's when you go into Rocco farm, and you go past the barn, it's the one in the center what people call the little red and white one, you go inside it's not little, just brilliantly designed. That one is being restored now by BC heritage branch on behalf of four BC parks and the friends of Rocco Park Heritage Group that I've started is also has received a grant to help with the work of restoration and conservation work out there. So I'm really hopeful that maybe as soon as next summer you'll be able to take a little tour of the place it'll be open for interpretive work and there's the possibility that it could be used for art art displays and various interpretive tours that would rotate so that you could see at least copies of the various work that these various ARS have done and enough to keep you coming back to see what next because it's it's a treasure it's you first look at it and go yeah there's quite a bit and the more you look you go oh it's

Unknown Speaker 1:08:17
just so rich there's so much

Unknown Speaker 1:08:21
before any any other comments or you can all buttonhole me when we're around and about yes

Unknown Speaker 1:08:27
the carpets that you're showing the display somewhere

Unknown Speaker 1:08:31
or they are not no Isn't that a wonderful thought and here's the amazing thing about the houses out of Morocco we don't have any mods those carpets couldn't last for six months in my house I mean we all have these little things that just get into the everywhere and anything bullet so yes it would be lovely to have some restoration work with them and to show absolutely all the fine Farber fiber artists on Saltspring Yeah, here's the early very talented one. We have calendars that this is the third year I believe Christine that the Christine Marshall here for the archive six what together that third year of calendar so it's historic places structures, whatnot on salt spring that are for sale $20 Each to support the and the first two were done by Gillian Watson and I keep a photograph of her memorial card right beside me I just can't quite put it away and she's been gone now. Nearly almost a year and we still all just miss her so much. So she is very much in spirit here and thank you so much for carrying on. Her

Unknown Speaker 1:09:42
work role is Toronto health Alfred will possibly write Yes, the writer of the book The friends of our characters. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 1:09:53
thank you and I do have copies of the book that I wrote that are back there if you'd like to buy them I'm down to kind of the last box and a half I printed 200 They're all signed I have no notions whatever of reprinting that book I really believe that books value add to paper significantly and I believe that they should hold their value. So if they stay as something of a special edition in buying them you'll have something that will be continued to hold its value and maybe even increase Okay, so there's there's tea and goodies. Thank you so much

Unknown Speaker 1:10:49
Hang on, I'm just just okay

Unknown Speaker 1:10:55
I just have to save some I don't want to save that. Stop this

Unknown Speaker 1:11:01
I don't know how to stop this.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:02
I don't need to

Unknown Speaker 1:11:06
okay

Unknown Speaker 1:11:12
Okay, we're good. Shut down.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:14
Aren't we always happy when we're on a computer and we say shut down?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:17
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:20
I wish I'd asked the question before we kind of dispersed because I'm really interested in how you got interested in the records. When did this begin?

Unknown Speaker 1:11:33
When I heard this old monk

Unknown Speaker 1:11:35
farmhouse didn't My neighborhood was going

Unknown Speaker 1:11:37
to be a practice burn

Unknown Speaker 1:11:39
or the fire department. Yeah, I

Unknown Speaker 1:11:42
heard word from the neighbors about this.

Unknown Speaker 1:11:46
It was quite concerned it was owned by a scrap

Unknown Speaker 1:11:48
knife house when I talked to one of the strata members Wendy Rozier. And she said they would be interested in discussing that they

Unknown Speaker 1:11:59
would be interested in moving pushing.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:03
I'm on that so I got all the BC parks

Unknown Speaker 1:12:05
and said can we move it out to rock and because it was built at the same time as the rock of the rose,

Unknown Speaker 1:12:10
it was a match step right.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:12
So they were minimal almost from the beginning. They said the proposal and they accepted

Unknown Speaker 1:12:20
it immediately and then I launched it to nearly a year of getting an arrange to have the house moving company I did

Unknown Speaker 1:12:31
because of to use as a fundraiser because this strapping was going the wrong way.

Unknown Speaker 1:12:40
Because one of the reasons one twist all strung together

Unknown Speaker 1:12:47
but I knew that there would be people who could make like $1,000 right and I wanted to I wanted to have something to give them you know any donation that the doctor should get so I wrote it

Unknown Speaker 1:13:00
started when I was a year.

Unknown Speaker 1:13:21
Chair

Unknown Speaker 1:13:23
and I saw that the table

Unknown Speaker 1:13:36
was up I've seen it

Unknown Speaker 1:13:55
before

Unknown Speaker 1:14:04
don't need a video for this many

Unknown Speaker 1:14:17
I know you have to travel