EASTEND SK

This is, at first blush, an unlikely place for an artist's residency.  It is at the east end of the Cypress Hills which straddle south-eastern Alberta and south-western Saskatchewan.  The surrounding area has a history of hardship, bloodshed, conflict between native populations and settlers from east of this area.  Less than a hundred and fifty years ago it was a land of buffalo, grizzly bears and cougars. Here is where the Northwest Mounted Police were established at Fort Walsh to squelch rum running and to protect the Medicine Line.

Eastend, now a picturesque, pleasant town has been immortalized in Wallace Stegner's book called Wolf Willow.  He peels back the layers of memory of his childhood spent here and reveals the essence of being a westerner and, as he puts it, a sticker.  Of course things have changed since Stegner was a youngster but believe me, the powerful pull of the land is still very much part of the psyche of the citizens.

I confess I am here at the Wallace Stegner House in part to explore the experience of being an artist in residence but more, I am exploring my own history through the lives of my paternal grand-parents who homesteaded in Aylesbury area, just a hundred or so kilometres north east of here.  Grandfather Ferguson left Ontario with a wanderlust that is a genetic trait I own.  He met his match in my adventurous Grandmother who came to the prairies, sight unseen to marry a man she would love for over fifty years, bearing him twelve children.

My task over the next three and a half weeks will be to create a book about these two relatives.  I am starting at the very beginning.  I will bind the book myself and illustrate the pages.  To honor my grandfather and my father who were both creative men, I will also write poetry to accompany the illustrations.

There.  Now I have made my committment and have shared it.