Completed just before her death in 1945, Growing Pains is the story of Emily Carr's girlhood in Victoria, B.C., of her training as an artist, of the initial rejection and eventual acceptance of her painting by the Canadian people. It is the record of the struggle of a sensitive woman to express the great thoughts within her to an uncomprehending world.

"I had been a year in England when my favorite sister came from Canada to visit me.

Wild with excitement I engaged rooms in the centre of the sightseeing London. Houses and landladies had to be approached through a rigorous reference system of Mrs. Radcliffe's. I pinned my best studies on the wall of the rooms, thinking my sister would want to see them.

She came in the evening. We talked all through that night. At five a.m. my senses shut off from sheer tiredness. My last thought was, 'She will want a pause between travel and sightseeing.'...

At the end of a week I remarked, 'Not interested in my work, are you?'

'Of course, but I have not seen any.'

'I suppose you thought these were wallpaper?' pointing to my studies on the wall. My voice was nasty. I felt bitter. My sister was peeved. She neither looked at nor asked about my work during the whole two months of her visit. It was then that I made myself into an envelope into which I could thrust my work deep, lick the flap, seal it from everybody."

--Growing Pains, p. 139

"Having so few pupils, I had much time for study. When I got out my Northern sketches and worked on them I found that I had grown. Many of these old Indian sketches I made into large canvases. Nobody bought my pictures; I had no pupils; therefore I could not afford to keep on the studio. I decided to give it up and to go back to Victoria. My sisters disliked my new work intensely. One was noisy in her condemnation, one sulkily silent, one indifferent to every kind of Art.

The noisy sister said, 'It is crazy to persist in this way, --no pupils, no sales, you'll starve! Go back to the old painting.'

'I'd rather starve! I could not paint in the old way--it is dead--meaningless--empty.'

One sister painted china. Beyond mention of that, Art was taboo in the family. My kind was considered a family disgrace."

--Growing Pains, p. 230

It was with the Group of Seven and those associated with them that Emily Carr found her work not only accepted, but praised. She and Lawren Harris corresponded until her death; he often encouraging her to continue her work, in spite of the poor support she received on the West Coast. It is to her credit and our benefit that she did continue to paint; to struggle and grow into the mature artist that we now recognize her to be.

• Return to books by Emily.
• Go to books about Emily.
• Go to articles about Emily.
• Purchase books.
• Writings main page.