Last night I was invited out for supper at my artist friend's house and joined a group of lively individuals with good discussion, great food, candle light and a warm wood fire. I felt very grateful and happy.
Being Remembrance day tomorrow, I've been thinking a great deal about war, veterans, soldiers and peace, over the past few weeks leading up to this time.
After supper we were talking about Alex Colville, and the effect his war experience had on him personally, and on his art work and practice.
I had mentioned to my friend how Alex Colville had donated the gift of his silk screened renderings to the Owens Gallery at Mount Allison University, not long before he'd died, where he had once been an art student and a teacher.
We talked at length, and then she brought out a printed excerpt from the book, " Testaments of Honour ". This book by Blake Heathcote is a compilation of personal histories of Canadian war veterans.
In this print out, was Alex Colville's personal testament, which my friend lent me to read. He had served in the Royal Canadian Engineers Regiment in North Western Europe, as a war artist, during the Second World War.
I had more of an in depth perception of who Alex Colville was, upon reading about his own insightful thoughts, and experience of the war, how this shaped who he was as a person, and an artist.
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