Why I like Maud.

The first time I saw a Maud..well, ok..it was not a real Maud, was in my Grandmother's basement apartment in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia. Just as you went in the door..boom!..colour. She had a couple of prints.. and I think a Maud mug. And if they had the magnets, socks and key chains available at that time, she would have had them too. When Christmas or birthdays came around,  'What do you buy Gram? Answer.. something about the Royal Family or something Maud. I wish  I had asked her why she liked Maud...maybe she could relate to her. My Dad said they were so poor at one point he had to steal a chicken from the neighbour so they could eat. Maybe she liked that Maud could make cheerful paintings even though her life was tough.

Why do I like Maud?

Because she had balls.

Maud was a powerhouse. She would paint a crow and outline it with bright yellow or blue. She put beautiful fall coloured leaves on trees in the winter and painted the hills green..she didn't fuss with what things were suppose to look like. She fell in love with a fellow named Emery and had a baby out of wedlock.  She smoked Cameos, she lied about her age and said she had no living family when really her brother was alive and well. She knew that you can have a cranky spouse, health issues and tourists wanting the same oxen and three cats,  but when you sit down and make.. all that goes away. 

She was an underdog. In the world of Folk Art in Nova Scotia, it seems the male carver reigns. Chris Huntington, who was the decision maker of who was in and who was out in the Folk Art world, was before Maud's time. But if he had visited her little house in Marshalltown, I am sure he would have dismissed her as a "housewife painter". It makes me happy to think that Maud is the most well-known Folk Artist in Nova Scotia, maybe Canada. The NS Folk Art Festival continues to this day in lovely Lunenburg... and my hope is the powers that be will widen their view and let some female painters in on the limelight, not just because they are female, but because they are that good and deserve it.

  
It seems everyone has a take on Maud. Politicians, writers, directors .. a hooker, a painter.. a bank..we all have an angle. Just say her name and it gets people talking. All I know is she is ours, she was loved and she found happiness in this world. She wasn't a saint, she wasn't a victim, she, as corny as it sounds, is an inspiration and I am in awe of her everyday.

Flowers for Maud