#3 in the Unheralded Artists of BC series

MONA FERTIG

Introduction by: Peter Such

An important Canadian artist that time and city forgot.

George Fertig was a Jungian, a socialist, a symbolist and an outsider. For 40 years he struggled to survive as as artist in Vancouver, British Columbia. Part biography and part memoir, as told by his eldest daughter, this book includes fourteen years of research, interviews, letters and over one hundred and fifty rare photographs.

Born in Alberta in 1915 George Fertig's creative passion began at age twenty with photography during the Depression and World War II. He was a member of the infamous Trail Mine Mill Union in the ’30s, travelled to Mexico in the ’40s; and in the ‘50s American artist Carl G. Jung and Morris Graves became important influences. He married Evelyn Luxa in 1953.

Known as the “Moon Man,” George Fertig's unique oil paintings have found no duplication in Canada. They range from early landscapes, to large powerful archetypal images and small numinous meditations on eternity. His paintings were rarely exhibited in galleries and today are coveted in private collections. He gave up his art only a few days before his death in 1983, when he cleaned his palette and put away his paint and brushes.

Author: Mona Fertig is a poet, publisher, and book artist. Her books include: Invoking the Moon, Mouth For Music, Releasing the Spirit, Sex Death & Travel, and Rocksalt ( co-editor), and A Labour of Love (editor). She runs Mother Tongue Publishing on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

Introduction Author: Peter Such, well-known mainly as a TV screenwriter and novelist, has had a long-standing involvement in the arts. He was the founder and original editor of Impulse magazine and has written reviews for Canadian Forum, Canadian Art, Artword, Books in Canada and other publications. He introduced the first courses in Canadian art at Atkinson College and York University and has lectured on contemporary Canadian art at Helsinki, Tartu and La Laguna universities and others in Canada and abroad. He is currently president of the Victoria College of Art in Victoria, B.C., and is married to Joyce Kline, an artist and art writer.

Published: June 2010

ISBN: 978-1-896949-06-2

8 x 9.5 | 192 pages | CDN $36.95

Trade paperback with French flaps

150 colour and b&w plates

Category: Biography / Memoir / Canadian Art

Price: CDN Prices vary depending on shipping. See below to order.