Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 19/01) - Janet Ripley Armstrong's watercolours are seen in almost every gallery and gift store from Inuvik to Iqaluit. Now, her work "purple saxifrage" has a wider exposure, on the cover of NorthwesTel's new telephone book.
News/North: What do you think of having your work on the new phone book?
Janet Ripley Armstrong: I think it is really great. I really like the thought, as an artist, of being in every single home in Nunavut.
NN: When did you begin and how did it evolve?
JRA: I have always done arts-related things but when I was growing up my brother was the painter. I always thought I couldn't draw until 1982 or 1983. We went south for the winter while my husband went to school and I took a painting course ... and I have been painting ever since.
I love watercolour, I love the way it feels, I love the way it goes on the paper, the magic it makes because it sometimes does its own work and you are just kind of there.
NN: How does it make you feel when your work means enough to people that they want to be able to see it every day?
JRA: It pleases me. I feel really good when people look at the work and it says something to them. I hope that some of my paintings inspire people to say they have to have that. That "uh huh" feeling is what I really want people to feel. When they look at something they know and get the feeling of the painting. It is not necessarily the object they are looking at but the feeling.
NN: What are the most important things in life to you?
JRA: My family comes first; my family is really important.
I like to work with other artists. A lot of the work that I do is not showing just my artwork but getting other artists to show their artwork and particularly I like working with women artists. I think there is a really strong group of women artists throughout the North.
NN: Do you have any mentors?
JRA: I don't know that I have a mentor but I have some very good artist friends with whom I exchange ideas in the North and we regularly, on the phone or on the Internet, talk to each other. They are people who live in the North ... and we just keep in touch with each other.
NN: Describe your favourite painting.
JRA: Well, now this is a difficult question but I recently sold one that was one of my very favourites and I was torn.
Actually when it comes to mine, each new one that I do is a favourite and as time goes on and I create something new then that becomes the favourite. I have some that I have held on to because I have decided to start keeping some of my work and they have become favourites.
One of them is the Mountain Ravens card. It's just mountain ravens, the flower and a very close-up shot.
I did a series of drummers and dancers and I have to say those were among my favourites.
NN: Whose work do you like?
JRA: I very much like the impressionists; Monet and Degas who did the pastels of ballet dancers, very nice painting.
NN: Describe the first painting you ever did.
JRA: The first painting was absolute frustration. Of course it was during a course and I still have it because I think it is important to keep a whole range of paintings. It actually wasn't bad, a little heavy, a little dark. My understanding of how to put the paint and where to put the paint ... it was quite frustrating.
I took those first few lessons and then just started to kind of branch out naturally and it was exciting.
NN: Where is most of your work, do you think, in the North or in southern Canada?
JRA: Most of it is in the North. I find I have a very strong following in the North because people understand my paintings. If I paint a qamutiq or a tent scene people understand that, or matchbox houses, whereas people in the south don't understand what it is and don't recognize the light in the painting or don't recognize that it is a matchbox house and think it's an old shack. I have sold quite a few in southern Canada as well.
NN: How many do you think you have sold?
JRA: Hmm. I don't know that. I think I may have painted 200. Good ones I have kept is about five, that's all.
NN: Do you know how far away some of your paintings are now?
JRA: Well I showed at Stratford Art in the Park in the summer and people from New York and Massachusetts both purchased paintings. One fellow purchased a painting (and) they were then going to redecorate the entire room to match; they were redecorating.
NN: What is it about the North that you love?
JRA: I've always loved the sense of community and knowing everyone but I also love the light.
The light here is wonderful and love how I can just walk out my door and go skiing or boating.
NN: Where do you paint?
JRA: When the weather's okay sometimes I paint outside. Here it is difficult with the paint and the bugs and otherwise I paint in my studio.
NN: What inspires you?
JRA: It is difficult to say. Sometimes it's a colour, sometimes it's a shape and sometimes it's a story. There is a story that I want to paint and I'm not sure exactly how to do it. There is a blue bicycle that has been stolen all around town. Somebody picks it up and rides it and drops it off at the next spot and then somebody picks it up and rides it again. So, it's always moving and if you watch there's a story here right? I noticed today it has been moved again so I really want to do a series of paintings on that bicycle and where it has been going.
NN: What else is important to you besides art?
JRA: I'm involved in quite a few community things like the local orchestra. I am co-ordinating the costumes for the annual theatre musical production. I teach at the college part-time, upgrading English and I do a lot of art-related contracts and consulting.
NN: What is the most you have ever sold a painting for?
JRA: Oh, I'd have to say not enough.
