By MARGARET DAY
The POINT GALLERY
Mark My Words — an exhibition of work by Salt Spring artist Ian Thomas — opens at the Point Gallery this weekend, consisting of work which was too extensive to show in the artist’s retrospective of last year.
This was work which he had in fact forgotten was still in storage at the Point. In bringing the paintings out to show Thomas it became clear that we had another exhibit, in effect an addendum to the Ian Thomas: Past and Present exhibit held at ArtSpring in May 2024.
All of the work in Mark My Words comes from the Swallows Meadow series and the title Mark My Words was suggested by the nine narrative works which document Thomas’ life from childhood to his separation from his parents in adulthood.
The work is centred on sayings which were the common parlance of an English upbringing. They almost acted as a form of punctuation, often a final pronouncement bringing conversation to an end. I associate them with my two grandfathers and my Welsh in-laws.
Born before or during the First World War, they experienced a great deal of hardship. Absent soldier fathers came home damaged by the war. The Great Depression robbed many of opportunity. The devastation of World War II and the scarcity and rationing that followed made for very simple lives with few opportunities. There was an overemphasis on keeping up appearances and a definite hierarchy of employment. The hope of almost every parent as things got better in the 1950s was that your clever child would make good, getting a safe job close to home. As I understand, Thomas’ story of wanting to be an artist, marrying an American and emigrating to Canada wasn’t quite what his parents had in mind.
We still know the meaning of these once familiar words, but their use is no longer part of our lives. Parents still give way to the temptation to admonish and steer our children; only the words and means are different.
Time passes and ways of communicating change. The other paintings in this exhibit record yet another passage of time. When phone calls were expensive and distances were great, letters sent back and forth across the Atlantic were the only way to share experiences. Their importance was huge and the sadness and frustration when old age made using a pen and finding the right words almost impossible must have been enormous. Going through my mother’s papers I found her last letter to me. Still after 50 years using the same leather stationery holder and blue Basildon Bond, she had managed just three words: “Dear dear dear.”
I believe we never lose our essential characters. We all bring to our art looking at our own lived experience. To me, Thomas’ father drawn in great old age still wants to dominate; his mother still wants to be seen as a lady. The images are unforgettable.
Mark My Words will be up at the Point Gallery in Fulford from Sunday, March 30 through Sunday April 13, open every day from 1 to 4 p.m., with an opening event on March 30.
The gallery’s walk-in entrance is on South Ridge Drive.