By: Heidi Ulrichsen - Sudbury Northern Life
Cartoonist Lynn Johnston and the Art Gallery of Sudbury team up to create her first travelling exhibit.
For Better or For Worse cartoonist Lynn Johnston said she hopes an upcoming Art Gallery of Sudbury exhibit featuring her lifetime work allows people to get to know her a bit better — “take away that M&M candy coating,” as she puts it.
The exhibit For Better or For Worse: The Comic Art of Lynn Johnston, running from July 11 to November 1, features artwork created by Johnston at all stages of her life.
It includes everything from childhood artwork to drawings created as a medical artist working at McMaster University, to original For Better or For Worse artwork, to the paintings and fabric design she's creating these days.
Visitors to the gallery can even see the scratched and pitted drafting table where Johnston worked for so many years.
A biography of Johnston — written by her daughter, Kate — has been created to accompany the exhibit. An opening gala will be held July 16. Johnston also plans to give a talk and hold workshops, although dates haven't been set.
Oftentimes Johnston's celebrity leads fans to become flustered. The For Better or For Worse creator wants people to know she's a northerner, just like them.
“That's what has been really healthy for me is to live in a small community, either in Northern Manitoba as far north as you could go, pretty well, and here,” said Johnston, a long-time resident of Corbeil.
She also hopes the exhibit removes the mystique of what it takes to survive as an artist.
“It's like any other job, and you shouldn't be ashamed to make a living as an artist,” she said. “A lot of people are put off by somebody whose work is commercial.
“You can paint marshmallows and stick 'em on a wall and do some exhibit that's not going to generate anything except grant money, but why be embarrassed at making a living?”
Indeed, Johnston knows a thing or two about success. For Better or for Worse still runs in newspapers around the world.
It follows the lives of the Pattersons — a family originally based on Johnston's own. The strip, which began in 1979, is now in “re-runs."
For her work, she received a Reuben Award for Cartoonist of the Year and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Johnston worked with the Art Gallery of Sudbury for two years on the exhibit, which will travel to other galleries throughout Canada once its Art Gallery of Sudbury run ends.
“It's been quite a journey,” she said. “I've learned quite a bit about exhibits and the work that goes into it. There's huge teamwork and lots of long hours. I'm surprised by that.”
In looking at the final product, the now-retired 68-year-old, who plans to move back to her birthplace of North Vancouver in a few months, said it's interesting to see how her work has morphed over the years.
“It's gone from the rough drawings I did as a kid to a more finished work as an adult, and then now, it's different altogether,” she said.
“Part of the problem I have now is my eyesight is really bad, and so I can't do the fine little drawings I used to do. So my artwork is much bigger. I can paint on a canvas. It's exciting for me to think now I'm going to have to move to a different medium altogether.”
Brooke Yeates, chair of the Art Gallery of Sudbury's board of directors, said it's been “phenomenal” working with Johnston.
“She's very down to earth,” she said. “She's just been really excited by the whole process, too.”
The exhibit of Johnston's work marks a change in direction for the gallery, Yeates said.
“We've had exhibits that have travelled in the past, but this is really on a whole other level in terms of blockbuster because of the international recognition that Lynn's name and her work brings.”
Learn more about the exhibit at thecomicartoflynnjohnston.com.
@heidi_ulrichsen
