Here is a self-portrait of Emily. The painting is oil on paper, 86.36 x 58.42 cm, and is in private ownership.
"Victoria had boomed, now she slumped. We had not sold during the boom, now were compelled to because of increased taxation. My father's acreage was divided into city lots and sold at a loss--each sister kept one lot for herself. Borrowing money, I built a four-suite apartment on mine. One suite had a fine studio. Here I intended to paint, subsisting on the rentals of the other three suites. No sooner was the house finished than the First World War came. Rentals sank, living rose. I could not afford help.
I must be owner, agent, landlady and janitor. I loathed landladying. Ne'er-do-wells swarmed into cities to grab jobs vacated by those gone to war. They took advantage of "green" landladies. No matter how I pinched, the rentals would not stretch over mortgage, taxes and living.
I tried in every way to augment my income. Small fruit, hens, rabbits, dogs--pottery.
...I never painted now--had neither time nor wanting. For about fifteen years I did not paint.
Before I struck bottom it seemed there was one lower sink into which I must plunge. Taking over the entire upper storey of my house I turned it into a Ladies' Boarding House. Womanhood at its worst is the idle woman of small means, too lazy to housekeep, demanding the maximum, paying the minimum, quarrelling with other guests and demanding entertainment as well as keep and all for the smallest possible price.
Under the calm north light of the big studio window ten women satisfied their greed for all the things of which they had been deprived during the war. Limitation was over, but price still high. They were greedy over those foods which had been scarce. It was hard to satisfy them. I hated sitting at the head of my table forcing a smile--these creatures were my bread-and-butter, so I had to.
...I established a kennel of Old English Bobtail Sheep-dogs in the yards behind my garden...I raised some three hundred and fifty Bobtail puppies. A large percentage of the pups went to soldiers. Clay and Bobtails paid my taxes--Clay and Bobtails freed me from the torture of landladying."
--Growing Pains, pp. 230-233
