BOOKS

 

“The Morrisseau Papers – An Inside Story” by Hazel Fulford and Robert Lavack

Almost Sold Out!

This is a delightful read, when I first read it I could not put it down, except to refill my coffee cup several times, until I completed the book. Utterly delightful and entertaining. I started selling the book thereafter, and when Hazel sold through the first printing, I made a deal with her to have it republished. I am nearing the end of those copies, and neither Hazel nor I have plans to republish it again.

HAZEL’S NOTE (from the book)

In April, 2004, I received a package from
Robert Lavack, an email correspondent living
in Sweden. The package contained ninety-nine
letters and other papers pertaining to his former
association with the native Canadian artist, Norval
Morrisseau.
Robert suggested that he and I collaborate
on a book based on these letters. I agreed to give
it a try, and then the fun began. In order to illustrate
the book with copies of his paintings, we had to
contact Morrisseau for permission.
We finally located him in Nanaimo, British
Columbia. He was delighted to hear from his old
friend Robby; however, permission to use any of
his work would have to come from his business
manager, Gabor Vadas, who held Norval’s power
of attorney. After long and frustrating attempts to
obtain the necessary permission, Robert and I felt
we could not meet conditions imposed and gave
up the project.
In this year of 2006, we have taken an
alternate route in recording unrevealed episodes in
the life of Canada’s first aboriginal artist to achieve
national and international fame.
As the story begins, Norval is relatively
x.
unknown and working in a gold mine in Cochenour,
Ontario, near Red Lake. By the mid 1960s, Robert
Lavack has become Norval’s unpaid agent. Sales
improve in Northern Ontario, and within a few years
Norval’s art has appeared in galleries in Winnipeg,
Vancouver, New York, and then in Paris, France.
In 1970, Robert Lavack, an employee of the
Ontario Department of Education, began to make
arrangements for Norval and his Cree friend, Carl
Ray, to visit white secondary schools in various
communities in the hope that they would not only
teach art but foster knowledge of aboriginal culture.
Robert monitored these expeditions from his office
in North Bay, intervening only when a situation
arose that could not be handled locally. However,
he was personally involved in flying Norval and Carl
to remote native communities like Big Trout Lake,
where Robert’s mandate was to meet with chiefs
and councilors and apprise them of the secondary
school and adult education services available
to them through the Provincial Department of
Education.
The antics of Norval and Carl kept Robert
on an emotional seesaw, as revealed in his letters
to Norval’s wife Harriet, to the Department of
Education, and to court officials. The chapters
that refer to these episodes are true accounts of
xi.
adventures Robert shared with Norval and Carl.
Letters written by Norval Morrisseau and his
wife Harriet have been paraphrased. As for the
bulk of the letters, some have been retyped and
others have been reproduced in their original form
in order to preserve letterheads and signatures. A
number of these letters carry blots, smudges and
even the odd hand correction. Warts and all, they
tell an authentic story.
Hazel Fulford
Thunder Bay, Ontario
2006

Ships first call mail from Canada within 48 hours. First class mail by US Post Office available, may take up to a week to send off.

 

 

 

 

 

Lines of Transformation by Norval Morrisseau/Copper ThunderBird (The Drawing Center’s Drawing Papers 19).

 

From the New York show about the 50+ pencil drawings made by Morrisseau while in prison in 1972-73, that were given to the Canadian government official who later donated to, and sat in a storage box in the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa,
Facinating stuff, well written and illustrated, a must for the Morrisseau collector. Sells for $40 plus shipping elsewhere on the web, our price is $30. Sold out at publisher, we have only a few copies left. Shipping available in North America for an extra $10.
These are rare on the market.
SOLD OUT

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Superior – Journeys On An Inland Sea by Gary & Joanie McGuffin. $50

Superior: Journeys On An Inland Sea is the inspiring story of Gary and Joanie McGuffin’s 2,000 mile circumnavigation of Lake Superior, the largest expanse of fresh water in the world.

Through a richly personal narrative and 140 spectacular colour photographs, taken  during their self-propelled journeys – by canoe and kayak, hikiing, skiing and   snowshoeing – the McGuffins relate their fascinating tale of adventure and reveal  the astonishing beauty of the Lake Superior wilderness in all four seasons.

The McGuffins have a unique sense of the natural world. They lead us to an understanding of this Great Lake not only as a powerful part of the Earth’s freshwater system, but also as a fragile place of mystery and spirit.

It is Joanie and Gary’s hope that this book will inspire us to embark on our own journeys into wild places and that through appreciating the wonders of nature firsthand, we will become a less consumptive species and respect the Earth as the home we share with all other living things.

 

Quetico – Into the Wild by Gary & Joanie McGuffin $28.00

 

Quetico’s magnificent landscape of over 600 lakes in the heart of North America is linked by an intricate web of rivers and trails, forming one of the greatest paddling paradises on Earth. In 130 stunning color images, adventure photo-journalists Gary and Joanie McGuffin guide us by canoe and snowshoe through the four seasons of Quetico’s wilderness. Discover the timeless beauty of sunsets and waterfalls, succulent blueberries, lofty pine, and wild animals.  2009 marks the Centennial anniversary of Quetico Provincial Park. This magnificent landscape lies west of Lake Superior and north of Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area. It forms one of the greatest paddling paradises on Earth.

Quetico: Into the Wild ©2009 by Gary and Joanie McGuffin. Published by Chrismar Publishing. 8.5″ X 11″ Hardcover 144 pages with 130 colour photographs. 1 map ISBN 0-929140-99-0

 

 

 

 

 

Great Lakes Journey: Exploring the Heritage Coast by Gary & Joanie McGuffin  $30

The Great Lakes Heritage Coast is a wild and majestic landscape that includes 1.46 million hectares of coastline and islands of the north shore of Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Georgian Bay. It has been recognized by the Ontario Government as a natural resource to be preserved, with the first priority being the protection and restoration of its coastal ecosystems. As champions of Canada’s wilderness, Gary and Joanie McGuffin vowed to support this project by paddling the coast and reporting on their adventure.

For three months in the summer of 2002, they travelled the entire length of the coast, with their three year old daughter, Sila, and their Alaskan Malamute, Kalija, from the Pigeon River near Thunder Bay to Port Severn on Georgian Bay in a twentyone foot cedar-strip canoe. They carried the communications equipment necessary to share the adventure through weekly radio broadcasts, newspaper stories, and a Web site.

Their journey took them along the most magnificent freshwater coastline in the world. Through Joanie’s passionate narrative and Gary’s evocative images, the McGuffins share with readers the experience of paddling with Woodland caribou, gliding beneath towering cliffs, discovering ancient red-ochre pictographs, camping where people have camped for thousands of years, finding fossils of the earth’s earliest life forms, and exploring geological wonders laid bare by retreating glaciers ten millennia ago.