The Famous Amongst Us
~ by Beverly Koski
Let's not wait until one of them dies before we grant them recognition. We have
lost E.J. Hughes to the onward movement of time, but we still have Pat Martin-Bates.
I was reminded of this recently, when attending an outstanding exhibition of prints
at the Winchester Gallery in Oak Bay. Pat was showing one of hers, light shining
through from behind. What was particularly noteworthy was that she displayed in
company with Picasso and Matisse. It was extraordinary to have the opportunity in
Victoria to view such world famous artists, most of whom have long since passed
onto that spacious art studio in the sky. But consider: a local artist, who has reached
the pinnacle – sharing the wall with Picasso!
Who is Pat Martin-Bates? Born in St. John, New Brunswick in 1927,
she suffered the loss of her Father during that difficult decade of the 1930s.
Nevertheless, by the age of thirty, she had graduated from the Royal Academie des
Beaux Arts in Antwerp Belgium and gone on to further studies in Paris and New
York. As the years passed, she became internationally renowned and won awards
in numerous countries. Retired Emeritus Professor of Arts from the University of
Victoria, she is presently a director of the Victoria College of Arts and lives quietly in
Oak Bay.
And what of her art? An acclaimed printmaker, she
moved inevitably up, out and beyond prints to a new form.
Images that weave light through ink, paint and textured
paper and attempt to interpret the spinning places of inner
space where Bates feels all things worth making are made.
She calls them Inscapes. What happens in these scapes,
subtitled Circles, Domes and Stars by Number, is a neverending
exploration of the invisible shoreline where spirit
laps over matter to create infinite ranks of new forms.
And how does a woman extend her reach to find that
place where her spirit can articulate itself from mind to
heart to hand? Let Pat tell us:
"To accept what life or fate seemingly has in store for you as a woman is
to be softly hit by the sky in cloud pieces and not look up like Chicken Little at all
– the difference, I suppose, in being a woman artist is that it's the chicken, not the
sky that is falling – the chicken is heavy, and so is truth – and women artists are hit
with it every day, and even have to cook it!
I did receive encouragement along the way. School teachers in grade school
arranged that I take oil painting lessons free. I helped my brother with his magazine
route to raise paint money. At art school on the continent my professors were
dedicated and encouraging. And there were reverses: a collector deciding not to
buy when he discovered I was a woman – painting all night without sleep, taking
children to school, and working day and night at an office job to make ends meet...
It is possible to combine the role of wife and mother with being a top artist, but
not too probable. The woman in art has an enemy – TIME. Unless she is wealthy,
she has to do everything herself, and always the urge to create comes unbidden, at 3
AM or in the middle of a measles epidemic or frying pork chops."
No, Bates does not resent the fact that the male artist does not have to make
the same emotional and physical sacrifices because there is often a wife or mistress
to fulfil the functions of business manager, secretary, social co-ordinator, and
general clutter-cleaner to smooth the week. It is just the way things are.
Had Kahlil Gibran the chance to add one more chapter to his masterpiece,
The Prophet, it may have started thus:
Speak to us of art, Pat Martin-Bates.
"I suppose I'm thinking of the shorthand of the universe: it's about white,
black, silence, moonraking and flowers; joy, love, hearts and snow; birth and death.
I believe in Sinbad the Sailor, in she-type me and gardens under the sea. I'm not
certain where I want to get "to" in my work but I seek a Clavicle; a formula for
dreaming, loving, living, sailing, flying. I am trying to smell the rose in r-o-s-e.”
~ Beverly J. Koski, Duncan, B.C. February, 2008
