From Boston to Fogo Island (a short history)
My name is M’Liz Keefe. I am a painter based in
Boston. Two years ago I embarked on a painting expedition to Newfoundland and
Labrador. I was accepted by an artist
residency program in the small historic fishing community of Tilting, Fogo
Island, off the north-eastern tip of Newfoundland. Since 2013 I have spent close
to 18 months painting on the Island. I
have fallen in love with the land and the people and am profoundly inspired by
living and painting on the ocean in the raw, inhospitable world of the wild
North Atlantic. Working as a painter on the Island has been both a humbling
experience and an honor.
What I am doing and why I need your support
This summer will be my 5th trip to Fogo Island.
Beginning in July, I will begin an extensive project of 13 large-scale
paintings. Each oil painting will be 72 inches x 72 inches square (approx. 183 cm
x 183 cm), on stretched canvas. Each painting will represent one of the 11 historic
fishing communities on Fogo Island, a painting of nearby Change Islands and one
of Little Fogo Islands (abandoned through resettlement in the mid-20th
century). All of these communities (except for Little Fogo Islands) are still
thriving into the 21st century even after their 300-year-old
tradition of cod fishing was devastated by the Cod Moratorium of the 1990s.
Fogo Island is rich in cultural traditions, such as:
song, storytelling, music, poetry, quilting, knitting and utilitarian
woodworking. There has been little-known documentation of Fogo Island through
painting over the centuries, although there are now a few local artists—Winston
Osmond among others, whose dedication to depicting life on Fogo Island is
beginning to add to the storytelling traditions visually.
In the spirit of The
Group of Seven in Canada, and the Hudson River
School in the United States, my project is devoted to the
landscape and the living history of Fogo Island in the 21st century.
Through conversations and direction from the locals, I’ll choose what’s both
historically significant and thriving now into the 21st century. Fogo
Island is an exciting place to be as it channels its survivalist spirit into creating
a vital cultural and historic destination for travelers from around the globe.
From my research, this may very well be the only
comprehensive and large scale group of paintings ever done that is solely
dedicated to the historic fishing communities of Fogo Island and Change Islands, one
of oldest, historically vital and significant outport communities of Newfoundland and
Labrador.
Names
of the Fishing Communities I will be painting:
Stag Harbor, Seldom, Little Seldom, Tilting, Shoal
Bay, Joe Batt’s Arm, Town of Fogo, Deep Bay, Island Harbor, Barr’d Islands,
Fogo Central, Change Islands and Little Fogo Islands.
Atlantic Ocean Fogo Island, 2013 Jennifer Keefe House Artist Residency in Tilting oil/wax on canvas 42"x46" (sold)
My studio and living quarters
I’ll be living and painting in the Town of Fogo, the site of Brimstone Head—said to be one of the four corners of the earth by the Flat Earth Society. I’ve rented the old “Pharmacy Building” in the heart of the town, where I’ll have immense wall space and ceiling height. The building is located on Main St, right on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. The sun will shine through the front windows from the harbor side throughout the long summer days providing lots of natural light. I am planning a four-month stay on the Island July through October (fall being my favorite time of the year there) and aim to complete six of the thirteen paintings. I hope to have the group of thirteen paintings completed within 12-18 months, depending on my scheduled stays on Fogo Island throughout 2015-2016.
My doors will be open daily for locals and tourists to come in and experience the studio and appreciate the artwork, some conversation and a cup o’ tea in one of the most unique places on earth. I also plan to host gatherings for poetry readings, music, storytelling and art shows with other artists’ work. The people of the island are a very close-knit community, and evenings together warm one’s heart and soul with serious laughter, good times, and chatter about the business of life.
Gold Trail, Fogo Island, 42”x46”. Oil, wax, wood stove ashes, powdered asphaltum on canvas. Painted in the Slipway, Tilting in Fall, 2014 (sold)
THE IMPACT OF YOUR DONATIONS AND YOUR "PERKS"
This is the largest and most comprehensive
series of paintings I have ever done. Your donation, large or small will help realize their completion.
I am excited about the “perks” I am
offering in order to raise the money for this Painting Project. Every piece I
paint (including printed thank you notes) will be done by my hand and will be
made on Fogo Island this summer. Each of you who donate will have a beautiful
painting of a Fogo Island landscape or a painting of the Atlantic Ocean by
November/December of this year in your home. I do hope everyone who receives a
piece of my work will enjoy years of pleasure with it on your walls and in your
life. For more of my work/life/back round
please visit my website www.mlizkeefe.com
BUDGET
The money I raise in this campaign goes directly to
materials/art supplies for the 13 paintings in The Fogo Island Painting Project
and to the shipping costs of the work I complete for this fundraiser.
Each of the 13 paintings will cost conservatively $600.00
in materials. The total cost of materials
for all 13 paintings is $7,800.00. Shipping costs are estimated at $2,000.00 if
all the artwork/ “perks” I offer here are claimed.
All travel to and from Fogo Island, and living
expenses such as food/rent/utilities are covered by me. If I raise over the
amount of $10,000.00, every penny will be applied to living/travel expenses on
the Island.
Risks & Challenges
There are no risks or complications I can think of
except of course those unexpected “acts of God” that sometime get in the way
of best made plans.
Other Ways You Can Help
I
truly believe that contributions to each other’s wishes and needs are varied
and meaningful on myriad levels. Just
pass this around to friends and family…..talk about my project to others…think
good thoughts...fly a banner off the back of your car….Twitter me to the ends
of twitter earth….Indiegogo lets you SHARE from right here….
PERKS.....CHECK THEM OUT!
Here’s a peek at some of my PAINTINGS ON PAPER and PAINTINGS
ON CANVAS (all painted on Fogo Island 2013-2014) to let you get a feel for my work
and what you will be receiving for your generous donations.
I will be creating a new series of landscapes and
oceans this summer and fall on Fogo Island for everyone here who donates to my campaign!
5”x7” oil, wax, wood stove ashes, powdered asphaltum on paper
5”x7” oil, wax, wood stove ashes, powdered asphaltum on paper
4"x5" oil, wax, woodstove ashes, powdered asphaltum on paper
8"x9" oil, wax, wood stove ashes,powdered asphaltum on paper
Atlantic Ocean II, Fogo Island 2014, 42”x46” oil,
wax on canvas
Fogo Island Landscape IV 2014, 20”x20” oil, wax on
canvas
Atlantic Ocean VI, Fogo Island 2014, 42”x46” oil, wax on canvas
A
Short History of Fogo Island
Fogo Island is the largest, most north-easterly island
off Newfoundland. As far back as the 1500s, the island was used by French and
Portuguese fishermen during summers because of the great abundance of cod in
its waters. English and Irish fishers were the first to create permanent
settlements on the island, in the 18th century.
The Irish are said to have first wintered on the
Island in the community of Tilting, in 1752. Fogo Harbor and Tilting Harbor
were the first year-round settlements. Listening to many of the locals on the island
speak today, one can hear traces of Elizabethan English and Irish-speaking
dialects imparted to them across the generations. To this day, both Irish and
English descendants retain many of old customs, songs and dances from their
ancestral homelands.
In Tilting the Irish vernacular and Irish ways are
particularly distinctive. Tilting is a National Cultural Landscape District of
Canada and is Newfoundland and Labrador’s first Provincial Heritage District.
It is said to have the oldest Irish Cemetery in North America. By the 1780s it
became solely an Irish-Catholic community, and to this day is deeply rooted in
this tradition.
During the 1960s, the island, known as an outport, as
were all the old fishing communities of Newfoundland and Labrador, was
threatened with “resettlement” by the government because of economic
unsustainability. Resettlement meant
abandoning the island and resettling on the mainland. During that time the Fogo
Island Cooperative was born. The eleven fishing communities on the island joined
forces to save the fishing industry of the island.
In
1967, we had to make a life-altering decision on Fogo Island: Leave our beloved
island home and resettle on the mainland of Newfoundland and Labrador, or stay
and find a way to make it on our own. We stayed and we made it our own. To
ensure our survival, we turned to what we knew best for hundreds of years... the
sea.
Following
a process of community self-discovery, now known worldwide as the Fogo
Process,
our fishers formed the Fogo Island Co-operative Society, a community based
enterprise on which we built the economy of our island. We built more boats. We
built bigger boats. We took over processing facilities abandoned by private
enterprise. We built more plants. We sought new markets.
—The Co-op
By the 1990s, the cod stock in the Atlantic Ocean had
been over-fished and the North Atlantic cod fishing industry had collapsed. The
Cod Moratorium of 1992, which limited if not prevented commercial cod fishing
entirely, hit East Coast fishing communities hard—Newfoundland in particular.
Fogo Island was deeply impacted by the moratorium, as the islanders’ livelihood
and their 500-year connection to cod fishing disappeared overnight.
During the ensuing years the Island and the Co-op
turned to fishing for other types of seafood, including shrimp and the sea
cucumber, which they exported to Asian countries. By the 2000s the population
dropped to about 2,500 people from 6,000 in the 1960s. Fogo Island would once
again face “life-altering” decisions and need to reinvent itself for the 21st
century—this time through embracing eco-tourism and opening its arms to
travelers from across the globe.
Through the Shorefast Foundation, a not-for-profit
community-based organization founded by philanthropists and entrepreneur sister/brother
team Zita and Tony Cobb in the mid-2000s, the Fogo Island Inn was built. Fogo
Island has since become a destination for tourists from around the world.
Cottage industries are growing, including: small local farming, touring guides,
animal husbandry, gift shops, cafes and restaurants, even a coffee bean
roaster. Because of Artists residencies on the Island international artists,
musicians, and writers come year round to create their work and live among
their gracious hosts, the people of Fogo Island.