Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Jamie Munro
Article 50 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the March 22, 2006 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Art as the Foundation of Life
John Ruskin, the English art critic, once said that "a work of beauty is created not by the art of an hour nor of a lifetime nor even of a century but by uncounted souls in mutual endeavour.” Jamie Munro - artist, sculptor, drummer, theatre set creator, landscape designer, home builder, and owner of Galerie Cachée in Wakefield - made a commitment early on that art would be the foundation of his life.
“In looking as far back as grade 8, I knew that I had to do what I loved in order to be happy. I wanted to be an artist and to live in the country. I deliberately chose not to pursue a career in order that I could do art. Even now, if I get away from it for too long, it pulls me back. Art is home. In making my living I pour my creative energy into everything that I do.”
Born in Ottawa in 1957, Jamie grew up in an artistic family. His mother was an artist and two of his three older brothers pursued artistic careers, so it was natural for him not to be afraid to leap in and experiment with whatever caught his eye. His motto became - ‘Go in and make it happen’.
After studying art throughout school, Jamie went on to Ottawa University in Fine Arts. But he soon realized that it was more important to him at the time to find place where he could put down roots with his young wife, Lynn, and to raise a family. After an exploratory trip out to Vancouver Island in the early 80s, they returned to settle in the Gatineau Hills.
Here their two daughters grew up. Lynn established a successful business, La Tulipe Noire, and Jamie, amid his many projects, designed and built their own home. The perennial challenge is always to find time for art while making a living.
"No matter what I am doing I can visualize things in my mind. If I am working on a film like Decoys or on a theatrical set for Winterlude or GCTC or the NAC, where I might be called upon to make a Greek façade or pyramids or Viking ships, I can creatre imaginary words for practical purposes. It's a kind of majic that helps to keep the creative flame alive until I can return to my own work".
Jamie's paintings are studies in seeing. There is a pulse cadence, a vibration of energy lines in the stylized patterns that he reveals. These forms are alive in nature - waves, islands. the hark of trees, a flight of starlings in the mist. In trying to capture reality as a pattern of visual language, his images become metaphors of sound, a kind of visual drumming. Painting on wood or canvas, using pen and ink, graphite or acrylic, he has caught perception on the wing with a stopaction quality that arrests the eye.
So too in all that he attempts - Jamie Munro pours his creative energy into every new endeavour. He makes things happen. "I have come to realize that my life is my art, my way of being alive."