excerpt
Slowly and deliberately, the tension designed to raise
the blood pressure of the waiting artist, he would take a fresh cigarette from
one of the packages and light it from the stub held in his yellowed fingers
before crushing the remains in the ashtray. Then, and only then, would the
interview proceed.
He taught Ken an immense amount about salesmanship and the art of
marketing over the years that he presented Kirkby’s paintings to Royalty
and the elite of Great Britain, and the important collectors in Canada. But
persuasive as Ken might be, Fraser adamantly refused to consider hanging
any of the Arctic works.
I was determined to get the story of the Inuit out somehow, and after a
number of years of Fraser’s rejection, I insisted that I wanted to put on
a show specifically of my Arctic work: ice, snow, Inuksuit—the whole
picture, and I didn’t care if it made a dime.
Through his habitual haze of smoke, Alex Fraser growled another
brusque refusal, although he did relent enough to admit the paintings
were excellent work, highly developed and there was nothing about
them he disliked.
Perhaps Ken’s rendering of the paintings had improved to a point
where Fraser could admit to their merit or perhaps Ken’s persistence had
worn his mentor down. In any case, there had been an important breakthrough;
Fraser rarely gave praise. But the gallery owner’s stubborn refusal
to show the work first stunned, and then made Ken very angry. He demanded
reasons and Fraser launched into his favourite style of teaching: Question
& Answer.
Alex turned those glacial eyes on me and barked. “Listen closely.
I’m going to open a doorway into understanding. Tell me—what do
Canadians talk about? What is the number one topic of conversation
at the grocery store—at the bank—at the water cooler?
I replied, “Hockey.”
“Not by a long shot. It’s the weather. And why are people talking
about the weather? In Vancouver people complain it rains all the time.
Well, it doesn’t—it rains some of the time. People think everything was
all perfectly wonderful where they came from—but if it was so bloody…
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