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Inside the Author's Studio

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Nancy Rose w/ camera

At home with photographer Nancy Rose and her furry subjects

Nancy Rose may be well known for her photographs of squirrels, but stepping through the front door of her comfy suburban Halifax home is more like a trip down the rabbit hole.

Inside, the decor is skewed toward “tiny chic,” with miniatures in every room: a Barbie-sized wooden church sitting by a hall table that holds a tiny clay bowl of even tinier clay fruit; a bite-sized birthday cake surrounded by tea cups laid out on the floor of the formal living room; a little sign on the credenza warning, “Caution! Squirrel X-ing”.

“My husband is a saint,” says Rose with a chuckle as she gestures towards the dining room table covered with craft supplies and toy cars. She proceeds into the kitchen/family room space that doubles as her studio. The room opens onto a small deck where a camera is set up on a tripod. The camera is pointed at a fist-sized jack o’lantern suspended by copper wire above a table. “He thought I was crazy when I started this, but he’s totally on board now.”

The ‘this’ that Rose rMerry Christmas Squirrelsefers to is her passion for capturing images of wild squirrels using adorable props. It’s a passion that has resulted in the publication of The Secret Life of Squirrels and Merry Christmas, Squirrels with Penguin Canada.

It all started when Rose, a high school guidance counsellor, took an interest in photographing the wildlife that visits her back yard. Squirrels proved to be particularly photogenic, but Rose eventually found the shots repetitive.

Then, a light bulb went on. Why not use her considerable skills as a crafter to create sets and props for the squirrels to interact with? Rose constructed a little mailbox, added some tiny envelopes and hid peanuts inside. The resulting photo of a squirrel “mailing” letters was a huge hit on Flickr.

More photos meant more Flickr fame, and soon Rose was being contacted for interviews by media outlets from around the world. Eventually, Jackie Kaiser, an agent with Westwood Creative Artists, called Rose and said, “I think I see a book here. Would you be interested?”

All the while Rose is relaying this journey from amateur photographer to published author, she keeps one eye on the kitchen door. Blue jays are sparring over the peanuts she has spread on the table, but no squirrels have appeared.Nancy Rose on set

“The most difficult thing about taking photos from here is the light,” she explains. “There are places in the yard with better light. But I’m not willing to give up the comfort of being able to wait indoors to capture a shot.”

As if on cue, a bushy-tailed squirrel appears on the deck and chases the blue jays away. He sniffs the table tentatively and stretches up towards the pumpkin in which a peanut is hidden. Rose readies herself at the camera. Her subject sticks his head up through the bottom of the jack o’lantern and dances hilariously on his toes. Rose laughs out loud as she snaps several shots.

It’s clear that Rose is a woman who loves what she’s doing. She shakes her head and says, “How could anyone ever imagine this?

“I tell the students at my school who are desperately trying to figure out what they want to do, ‘Just make a start. The world changes fast and what you do now probably won’t be what you do later.’

“I mean, who ever thought I’d be a squirrel photographer?”

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donna

Donna Morrissey writes the story of her family in her new book

Donna Morrissey is enjoying a little time off. The Newfoundland-born, award-winning author of Kit’s Law, Downhill Chance and Sylvanus Now has just finished the final edit of her latest book, What They Wanted, which is scheduled for release this fall. Recently, ABT’s Stephen Clare spoke with Morrissey at her home in Halifax about the new work.

What They Wanted is set on the wild shores of a Newfoundland outport and the equally wild environment of an Alberta oil rig. After Sylvanus Now suffers a heart attack, family tensions come to a fore: a novel about guilt, responsibility, tragedy and the enduring ties of family.

SC: What inspired you to write What They Wanted?

DM: This is a book that I both wanted and needed to write, and it is based on the true story of me and my brother. I have always followed the dictum that an author should write what they know, and what I know best is my family. In that way, What They Wanted is a natural progression from Sylvanus Now in that it touches on my mother’s life, though it maybe became more about my life as the story unfolded.

SC: Did the work come together quickly or did you really need to plug away at it?

DM: This one was extremely intense and difficult for me because it was so personal and painful to dig up the tragedies and hurt from the past. But I was very determined to finish it both for myself and for my father as a way of healing those wounds that we both carry. The irony of it all was that my dad passed away the day after it was completed.

SC: How did he feel about you bringing this story to light?

DM: He knew in his heart that this was going to be a beautiful book. Though it has been somewhat fictionalized in the novel, it is a story that he knew well and that had a special significance and poignancy for him, even though he could never talk about. In fact, we never discussed it as a family.

SC: What was the most challenging part of putting the story together?

DM: Aside from digging up those hurts, it had to be learning about the oil rigs and then conveying those details in a way that could make sense to both a casual reader and a mechanical engineer.

SC: What was the most rewarding aspect?

DM: The process of elevating a story to a place of mythology is something that I have come to enjoy more with each new work. Death has been like a very dark stranger at our family’s door for many years, and writing has been one way by which I have come to terms with the mortality of those around me, as well as my own. And it is through this creative process that I have come to recognize that, despite the horrific tragedy of losing four of our siblings, the pain actually has actually made the rest of us stronger.

SC: Do you feel that the book brings some closure on this chapter of your life?

DM: Yes and no. On the one hand, it neatly wraps up some internal and external details that needed clarifying in my own mind. On the other hand I feel that it opens up some other doors for me that need to be walked through.

SC: How do you think that you have changed as an author since your earlier works?

DM: I think that I have grown as a writer—so much so that I hardly recognize my previous books. I certainly have become more merciless in my editing; What They Wanted was originally 120,000 words, but I kept cutting it back to eliminate the parts that I felt were not entirely necessary. Interestingly, at the same time, I feel that I have become more mindful of developing my characters now and of exploring their ideas and emotions, especially as they have matured into adulthood.

SC: What do you have planned now? Are you working on something new?

DM: Like any writer, I’ve always got a few things in the hopper and I feel that there are still plenty of stories left for me to tell, especially with regard to my family. The challenge now is that my work is catching up with my age, and that with each new book, the story comes closer to where I am today. For the immediate future however, aside from some upcoming promotional touring after the book is released, I am going to do my best to enjoy some long-overdue time off.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2008 issue of Atlantic Books Today

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Dawe-Squires

The book, Where Genesis Begins, was a project thirty years in the making

Where Genesis Begins is a collaboration of two of Newfoundland’s foremost artists; Tom Dawe, a profoundly visual poet, and Gerald Squires, a profoundly poetic painter. The book contains thirty-seven poems by Dawe, twenty-nine of which have not been published before, and seventy-one works of art by Squires. ABT’s Stephen Patrick Clare spoke with both men about the process of working together.

SC: Tell me about the genesis of Where Genesis Begins.

GS: Tom and I have known each other for at least thirty years and every time we would run into each other we would have a laugh and agree that we ought to do a book together. Finally, I put my foot down and asked him to send me some of his new poems. Over the course of about two years I would sit with his work and let it speak to me and then try to match those words with what I thought might visually capture their spirit.

TD: Gerry and I talked about a book for years, not sure exactly what that book might be—until about three years ago when he suggested the title, one of his major paintings inspired by lines from Patrick Kavanagh’s To The Man After The Harrow. Suddenly it made perfect sense. I had a dozen poems already completed and dozens more in my head, so I got to work. We planned a collaboration of art and poetry, though the paintings and drawings would not necessarily be exact illustrations of the poems.

SC: What were some of the difficulties you faced in putting a work of this scope and size together?

GS: Aside from finally getting down to actually doing it after talking about it for so long, there were really no major challenges working with Tom. The process was very smooth and natural right from the get-go. I have always admired him as a man and as a poet and I knew that we would likely be able to bring out the best in each other.

TD: For me, poetry is always challenging. Deep in my bones, I know what Auden meant when he said that, upon finishing a new poem, he felt like someone who might never write another. In the last year of the project, I worried even more, especially with a deadline from our publisher. I knew Gerry had an abundance of quality work collected from his prolific career, so I was determined not to disappoint anybody.

SC: What was the most rewarding part of the process?

GS: Watching it all unfold was certainly very exciting for both of us; to see that magic taking place. But I think that getting to know Tom better and seeing how well we work together was reward in itself for me.

TD: Aside from the satisfaction of creating a new body of poetry and watching a beautiful art book take shape, the most rewarding was a closer friendship with Gerry and his wife Gail.

SC: What did you learn during the process?

GS: I learned that even a couple of guys who have been around a while and are getting on in life can still contribute work that is good and important.

TD: I learned much, but the best of it resides in that way of knowing what St. Augustine was talking about when he said: “I know until you ask me.”

SC: What has the response to the work been like so far?

GS: Absolutely fantastic so far. In fact, it has been so good that I am just waiting for the other foot to drop.

TD: The critical response has been excellent—and those who know us, friends and community, are hailing it as a work long overdue.

SC: What happens now? Are you working on something new together?

GS: I have a few solo things on the go, but both Tom and I agree that this experience has been so positive that there is no reason not to have another go at it. So we have started that process already.

TD: We are always thinking about new projects. Right now Gerry is working on seven new drawings for a small, special limited edition of my light verse, Caligula’s Horse and Other Creatures.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2009 issue of Atlantic Books Today

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RielNason-small

Award-winning author Riel Nason sews up her love of words in the comfort of her family home in Quispamsis, New Brunswick

Riel Nason is equally happy to chat about her absorbing passion for quilt making and about once being an antiques dealer as she is about being a prize-winning novelist.

Sitting at the kitchen table, the heart of the house, we spend a fun, laughter-filled afternoon covering all these topics, finding we have many of these activities in common, including collecting beach stones in Maine, especially heart-shaped ones, and of course talking about writing.

Nason is still basking in the heady spotlight of being a regional winner of the Commonwealth Book Prize for her first novel The Town That Drowned. As the region included the large area of Canada and Europe she has reason to be overjoyed. Adding to her joy she also won the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award and was a finalist for the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award.

Riel Nason notesIt was not surprising to learn this busy, family-oriented, multi-faceted lady does not have a dedicated space where she writes. No quiet, dimly-lit attic, no locked shed at the bottom of the garden. Nason writes wherever she is comfortable, when time and inspiration are hers. Maybe curled up on a couch or a favourite chair with one of her quilts over the back. Another day her sunlit bedroom might be her choice. She writes her first outlines or drafts in longhand, in “any old notebook” she has to hand.

The first three or four pages Nason writes are usually a ‘stream of consciousness’, thoughts, ideas, basic plot. “There are no names for characters at this stage,” Nason explains. “Once I name someone, that’s it.” To begin with there is not a lot of description. “I make notes in the margin about details to be filled in later. Sometimes just ‘describe’ to remind me. I tend to like silly, funny details.”

In another notebook Nason writes down remarks about someone she sees on the street, notices on a walk or remembers from a previous meeting. She makes notes in the margin, marks off a corner of a page with a note to herself. For her next novel, set in the 1970s, she made a list of lots of seventies lifestyles we’ve probably forgotten. ‘Gauchos, Holly Hobbie dolls, men had perms’ are noted.

Once Nason has written three or four pages in a notebook, she sets up her computer on the kitchen table and begins transcribing, filling in background and details and editing.

The kitchen has a big bay window giving lots of light for writing and sewing. Children’s art covers the walls. Nason and her family, husband Shane, seven-year-old Eli—her biggest fan—and Tess, age five, live in a modern home in a wide-open subdivision in Quispamsis, near Saint John. It’s a few minutes walk away from the Kennebecasis River, but she says, despite the theme of The Town That Drowned, water does not play a significant part in her life. “Of course as a child I knew the story of the Mactaquac Dam and peoples homes and barns being destroyed, people being displaced when the town was deliberately flooded.” In fact her parents, both teachers, originally came to the area to teach at the school in Hawkshaw.

Nason’s writing life, beginning with non-fiction, stems from her earlier career as an antiques dealer with a shop in Fredericton. “I pitched the idea of a column to the Telegraph-Journal in Saint John, and I’ve been writing about antiques and collectibles for more than ten years.” Eventually, getting bored with slow sales in winter months, she gave up the shop, though not all her stock. We admire glassware and lamps displayed around her home.

Soon fiction entered her life and her short stories were published in literary journals such as The Antigonish Review, Grain, Room and The Dalhousie Review.

With an agent in Toronto, Nason focused on writing enough short stories to produce a collection. “I understood once you had a book of stories published you were more likely to get a novel accepted,” she says. But the stories didn’t find a publisher. Disappointed with the news, she made a resolve and said to her husband; “I’m going to write that novel that’s been in my mind.”

The Town That Drowned was that novel, taking about eight months to write. Though described as a young adult novel Nason says readers of all ages are complimentary, recognising the community feeling and sense of place she presented. “The approval for writing about such a horrific event is rewarding, it chokes me up.” Choosing a fourteen-year-old protagonist appealed to Nason. “I like that age, they have attitude but are not wrapped up in details when telling a story.”

This leads us to talk about her second novel, currently in its second draft, and still no names. A sneak preview reveals it is set in the same area, on the other side of the river. “It’s an adult novel, a more adult take, focusing on a specific family, though not so traumatic.” Nason admits she is attracted to themes of submersion, of things under the surface. But the new novel will also be ‘quiet’; “no vampires or wars. That’s not me. I write as I write.”

Relaxed, feet on her chair, hugging her knees, Nason uses expressive gestures as she talks. She says winning the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award felt right. “I’d done so much, written so much, I felt I deserved it. I wanted something.”

She is also now relaxed about literary festivals and signings. “The first one in Toronto I was very nervous, so many well-known authors and me.” The novelty has not worn off but now she is looking forward to enjoying the Vancouver International Writers Festival in Vancouver in October.

Not a big reader as a child or teen Nason now reads a lot of Canadian literature; listing all the Lucy Maud stories, Andrew Pyper and Miriam Toews among her favourites.

Riel Nason quiltWhen not writing, life revolves around family activities. “We enjoy nature. I like the New Brunswick countryside and the rivers. We don’t miss restaurants or big concerts.”

And then there are the quilts. Quilts into which she frequently stitches her love of words. From the runner on the kitchen table to quilts in her writing area and on her children’s beds, Nason creates colourful, appealing art from her stash of fabric and remnants. She particularly loves using the selvedge, the outer edge of yardage where you find the name of the pattern, the designer, if the fabric is cotton. More words stitched into art. More art to be read.

This article was originally published in the Fall 2012 issue of Atlantic Books Today

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Bridgette and Donna Morrissey

Bridgette and Donna Morrissey tell the tale of teaming up for their first children’s book

An author and a visual artist sit ’round the wood stove in their Halifax living room. This space is neither of their work studios, but oozes with their creativity nonetheless. Mother’s imaginative scribblings disguise a phone book cover and daughter’s paintings line rich red walls. A special box, just arrived, lies in the centre of the floor full of children’s books. For them, it has just set in: Cross Katie Kross (Penguin Random House), written by Donna Morrissey and illustrated by Bridgette Morrissey, has been released to the world.

Donna, the award-winning writer of Kit’s Law, and Bridgette, the painter of beloved dregs, both entered a new medium to create the highly anticipated picture book. “I was very shy of the process because I’m an established adult author and that can be very tricky when suddenly you’re doing a children’s book,” shares Donna. About 10 years ago, she dreamt she was a cross, old woman trying to find a utopian world called Love Valley. “It was me in the dream and it was all in animation. That’s what caught Bridgette’s fantasy.”Cross Katie Cross-mockBridgette proposed they turn the dream into a storybook. After sharing the idea with acclaimed children’s author Sheree Fitch, Donna got the peer support she needed. “I just went upstairs and I took the dream out and in three days I had it written”.

Next it was Bridgette’s turn to switch from oils on canvas to acrylics on paper. “The difficult task was when it became Bridgette’s turn”, shares Donna. “It was just an incredible process that went on forever…You talk! It was your nightmare,” she says, deferring to Bridgette.

“Everything was different,” Bridgette explains. “I paint from photos. I just blow them up to whatever scale and tweak them however I want. I’m very proficient at doing that. But, with illustration, there’s no photo. You have to just make it up.”

To deal with this challenge, Bridgette extended her studio into the outdoors and used her mother as a model for Katie Kross. Their escapades comprised of Ms. Donna Morrissey changing into costume in the bushes at Halifax’s Public Gardens, posing on one of the windy paths while pointing angrily at a stuffed bunny. In their backyard, she balanced on top of an overturned bucket while waving a broom. “Hmmm…What are they doing today? Oh…She’s dressed today. Oh…She’s waving a stick at her daughter. Oh, her daughter is still photographing her…That’s interesting,” Donna says reading her neighbours’ minds.

Bridgette's studio 3
Bridgette molded six clay heads to create three-dimensional versions of some of the book’s characters to use as reference. Today they’re displayed on the mantel in her studio.

Back inside, Bridgette set to work for nearly two years to complete the enchanting illustrations. Her studio is on the main floor of their shared home. Other than a thriving plant she rescued, most of the room’s contents manifest past, present and future projects. “I only have work things in my room,” shares Bridgette. “I guess I keep my room a place of seriousness.” There are two easels and three painter’s palettes.  Some of the original Katie illustrations hang on the wall, reflective of her initial vision for blueish-green, surreal scenes. Lining a wooden mantel are six clay heads Bridgette molded to create three-dimensional versions of some of the book’s characters.

Donna's studio
“My place is filled with everything,” says Donna. “I’ve got angels dangling over my head. I’ve got good luck charms. I’ve got pictures of my mom, my brother, my niece…”

Donna’s writing studio is under the same roof. “Mother’s upstairs and daughter’s downstairs. The kitchen is a mutual territory,” laughs Bridgette. Inside Donna’s room, framed covers of some of the translated versions of her novels hang amidst a golden yellow backdrop. Dried lilac blossoms are juxtaposed against a computer, printer and other writing supplies. “My place is filled with everything,” Donna describes. “I’ve got angels dangling over my head. I’ve got good luck charms. I’ve got pictures of my mom, my brother, my niece…”

Downstairs, as Bridgette worked painstakingly to create illustrations for each of the picture book’s scenes, Donna daily “forced herself onto the racks” to complete her new novel to be released this September. Both mother and daughter roughly keep the same work hours, starting their day around 8 a.m. “We sometimes don’t even see each other for hours and hours,” says Donna. “We try not to, actually,” adds Bridgette. “When we overlap in the kitchen we enforce on each other not to bog down the other with our thoughts.”

However, the lonely and highly disciplined lifestyle of being your own boss sometimes takes a toll. The need for a short bit of companionship may not always coincide, however, with the other’s creative flow. “When I’m writing and I’m engrossed in something, it’s like suddenly Bridgette is having a coffee break,” shares Donna. “So it’s okay for her to suddenly wander into my room sipping with her coffee. And I say ‘Ah! Ah! Ah! Metaphor! Ah! Ah!’”.

Bridgette's studio
Other than a thriving plant Bridgette rescued, most of the room’s contents manifest past, present and future projects. “I only have work things in my room,” shares Bridgette. “I guess I keep my room a place of seriousness.”

While Bridgette was painting Cross Katie Kross, Donna was constantly curious. “I guess the biggest challenge to Bridgette is when I drag my friends in and go ‘Look, look, look! Come see what she’s doing now!’” proud mother exclaims. “She says, ‘Get out mom! Get out! Stop bringing your friends through!’ I would just be so excited and every picture she painted was my favourite.” Bridgette explains that they managed to adapt and work as synchronous artists.

The creative flow for both women is enhanced when they periodically step away. “Even though it seems like you’re not thinking about it, somehow in the back of your brain it’s percolating,” reveals Bridgette. “If you try too hard, then you start cutting yourself off from other ideas—you become too focused. Whereas sometimes, you need to just leave it and let it wander and then it’ll come back with different solutions.” Bridgette allows her imagination to stew while making homemade soup or going for a nice walk.

Donna also finds walking the streets of Halifax helps engage her writer’s mind. “Walking is when I visualize. Rhythm is what it is. I can do the same thing when I’m rocking, but more so when I’m out,” she shares. “Walking somehow gets the right brain going and the whole creative process happens. But of course, then you come back home and you have to write it down, and that’s where you have to go into left brain.”

Clearly, Donna and Bridgette have successfully collaborated, working as one while still maintaining their own artistic identities; and they have plans to complete another project together. Perhaps their professional chemistry stems from the time when Bridgette was six or seven and Donna would take her to Atlantic Place on the St. John’s waterfront. “Every Saturday morning, it was our favourite time,” muses Donna. “We’d go down to this place and she’d have all her crayons and markers. I used to have the paper or I was creative writing. So that pattern was established a long time ago.”

Cross Katie Kross encourages children, young and old, that happiness is within oneself—the Garden of Eden is the place where one stands. In this mother-daughter home of melding studios and creative crossovers, ultimately happiness seems to seep from every nook and cranny.

This article was originally published in the Spring 2012 issue of Atlantic Books Today

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Kathleen Peacock

This writer finds a world filled with werewolves and ghosts amid the hustle of a bustling café

Kathleen Peacock knows how to be alone in a crowd. When she dons her white headphones she shuts out the clanging of the industrial-sized espresso machine at this downtown Fredericton, NB, coffee shop, the baristas calling out orders (“a large americano and a medium macchiato – is that to go or for here?”) and the jarring sounds of metal chairs rudely scraping the tiled floor. With Snow Patrol or Matthew Good playing in her ears, Peacock disappears into another world, one where teenage werewolves struggle to find acceptance in a world that wants them dead, or at the very least quarantined.

Peacock, 35, is the author of the Hemlock trilogy, a series of young adult novels about the deep and complicated bonds between four high school friends, one of whom is dead and the other a werewolf. The third novel in the series, Willowgrove, will be released in January 2015 by Katherine Tegan Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Publisher’s Weekly has said Hemlock is “loaded with werewolves both creepy and hot. Mac’s smart and believable voice will leave readers looking forward to more.”

Mac and her friends Amy, Kyle, and Jason were fleshed out in a busy coffee shop just like the one where Peacock sits today, sipping her smoothie (“I don’t actually like coffee”) and poring over her notes. She prefers to work in public spaces, at least when she’s getting started on a book.

Kathleen Peacock working

“I’m a big outliner. I used to try and write by winging it and I found that when I wrote by the seat of my pants I tended to forget that stories needed to have a beginning, a middle and an end,” she smiles. “And I found that when I started planning things out it was a lot easier. What I normally end up doing in coffee shops is just taking notebooks and jotting down plot points and ideas.”

Two notebooks are splayed open on the small round table in front of her. One is blue-striped and pocket-sized, for jotting things down on the go. The other is a hardcover spiral-bound notebook, about the size of journal. The pages are littered with colourful sticky notes.

She never knows when an idea will strike. “I’m kind of like a notebook addict,” she says. “I buy notebooks the way other women buy shoes.”

Peacock recently moved to Fredericton, NB, for a new job. She’s now publicity manager at Goose Lane Editions, which is where we met. Originally from Campbellton, NB, she spent about a decade in the IT industry, most of that time in Saint John, working in graphic design. She had always harboured a secret desire to be a writer, a desire fulfilled when her first book, Hemlock, was picked up by a prominent US publisher. She still remembers the day back in 2010 when she called her parents, now living in Bathurst, NB, to give them the news.

“I told my dad and he dropped the phone and I could hear him in the background running to get my mom! They are huge supporters of my writing and have always been.”

The third book in Kathleen Peacock’s young adult series Willowgrove will hit the shelves Jan. 6, 2015. Books one and two, Hemlock and Thornhill, are available in paperback.
The third book in Kathleen Peacock’s young adult series, Willowgrove, will hit the shelves Jan. 6, 2015. Books one and two, Hemlock and Thornhill, are available in paperback.

That first book turned into a series, now complete. She’s working on her next book, which contains an element of time travel, though has nothing to do with werewolves. Organization will be key to keeping the decades straight when she sits down to write. By then, she says she may have her new apartment unpacked, including the giant white boards, just like in Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment in the “Big Bang Theory,” which happens to be one of her favourite TV shows. “I come from an IT background and I’m a little bit of a geek. I like to see it big on the wall. I’m very visual.”

Once the organization is done Peacock will generally flip open her laptop to start laying down sentences and working through chapters. That work is done largely at home, which is fine with her. She says she doesn’t need a special place to write.

“I look at those pictures you see sometimes of writers’ studios, like Neil Gaiman has his writing gazebo. In theory it’s beautiful but I don’t know how often I would actually use something like that. If money were no object I would probably get some really nice floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and maybe a few more pieces of original artwork, but I can’t see myself building that writing gazebo.”

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Deanne Fitzpatrick Rug Hooking
Colourful skeins, tools and books cover every surface at Fitzpatrick’s rug hooking studio. Photo by Barry Norris

An long-standing Atlantic Canadian crafting tradition helped author and artist Deanne Fitzpatrick find her voice

It’s the colours that first attract you as you walk into Deanne Fitzpatrick’s Rug Hooking Studio at 33 Church Street in Amherst, Nova Scotia. Then comes the urge to run about, handling the wool and jersey swatches, silk ribbons, fleece bundles and Curlylocks yarns that overflow the baskets and painted tables. Whimsical hooked rugs crowd the walls. You’re charged with an overwhelming desire to be productive and engaged to “Create beauty everyday,” as the studio’s motto recommends.

Artist and writer Deanne Fitzpatrick works among this stimulation daily. The terracotta walls of her glassed-in office are visible to everyone who enters the studio. She likes being accessible to both clients and staff.

She started rug hooking 22 years ago, to decorate a newly purchased farmhouse. As a child in Newfoundland, she watched her mother and grandmother hooking rugs. For her mum it was only “a chore of poverty, a chore of necessity.” However, Fitzpatrick’s personal foray into rug hooking has revitalized it as an art form and led her to a successful writing and business career.

She first operated out of her home, and later set up shop in a space behind an upscale men’s clothing store managed by her husband, Robert Mansour. In 2007, the couple purchased the building, and she took over the adjoining storefront.

IMG_5884
Fitzpatrick crafts her latest rug on the hooking frame that dominates her office. Photo by Barry Norris

Fitzpatrick’s cozy office is filled with colour, books and inspiring quotes. A large rug-hooking frame occupies almost half of it. A pair of rugs, entitled Port Greville Poppies, hangs over a cluttered desk. She once shared her office with the communal tea corner, but she purchased a bike and needed more room. “It was time I had my own space. It’s not much but it’s all I need. I don’t need anything fancy.”

Her conversation is peppered with the concept to which she now dedicates her life: beauty. “I love the publishing process. The publisher comes back to me with this beautiful book, with my name on it and my images. We should take the time to make something beautiful every day, get some beauty in our lives. We all think we have to be intellectual or stronger, but beauty is enough. Life is supposed to be beautiful.”

Fitzpatrick writes with her office door closed, but still feels she’s in the middle of things. “I like to work with hubbub on the periphery. I got used to that when the kids were little.” And she finds concentration different for writing and rug hooking. “I can listen to music or a podcast when I’m hooking, but when writing, nothing,” she says while working away at Seven Trees, her latest rug. “It’s based on a tree on the way to Parrsboro, high on the top of a blueberry field. I have seven sisters, so I expanded it to seven trees.”

Create Beauty Everyday
Walking into Fitzpatrick’s studio, you’re charged with an overwhelming desire to be productive and engaged to “Create beauty everyday,” as the studio’s motto recommends. Photo by Barry Norris

She wrote her first book, Hook Me a Story: The History and Method of Rug Hooking in Atlantic Canada (Nimbus Publishing), because “I felt that there were no Atlantic Canadian books on the topic. They were all American and that really bothered me when there was such a strong Atlantic Canadian tradition.” In 2007, East Coast Rug Hooking Designs: New Patterns from an Old Tradition (Down East Books) was nominated for both an Atlantic Book Award and an Independent Publisher Book Award. In 2013, her first collaboration, Singily Skipping Along (Nimbus Publishing) with children’s author , netted her another ABA nomination.

Current projects include a knitting book, a second collaboration with Fitch and a new book, Simply Modern: Contemporary Design for Hooked Rugs (Nimbus Publishing), due out in October. “I dreamed of being a writer, but until I started hooking I never had much to write about. It gave me a voice.”

Fitzpatrick doesn’t keep a rigid writing schedule. “I’ll write in spurts, a week on, a week off. But I stick to deadlines.” As she finishes one book, inspiration for another one always comes to her.

A friend once told Fitzpatrick that she was “doing more than hooking rugs,” which got her thinking about the bigger picture, and gave birth to her motto: Create beauty everyday. “Tell them that I do know every day is two words,” she laughs, explaining that in rug format, everyday just looked best. Her concentration on beauty, in her rugs, home, books and studio, is testament to the value of immersing oneself in what you love and enjoy. Now her life and work have created a public space in which others are inspired to do the same.

Laurie Glenn Norris is a freelance reviewer and writer. Her book Haunted Girl was nominated for a 2013 Atlantic Book Award. She is currently working on her first novel.