A celebrated Labrador artist shares his story of losing everything because of alcohol and drug addictions ?–  finding his way back to sobriety by creating art

Scott Pynn,  born and raised in Labrador City, began painting and drawing at a young age under the guidance of his grandfather, Henry Pynn, also an artist. In school, Pynn studied engineering and psychology, neither of which he felt were the right professions for him. 

  “I said, I have to learn how to do something within the arts if I want to be happy in my life,” Pynn tells The Herald. 

It wasn’t long after that realization that he quit his job in construction to become a professional artist.

Success soon followed. Pynn, a talented visual painter, has sold his work and prints all over the world. His other business, a tattoo shop – the first of its kind to open in Labrador City – was also thriving. The business owner was living what remembers as “a great life.”

It was 15-years-ago when that life began to spiral. His struggles with addiction began as a teenager when he started drinking, leading to an alcohol addiction, and then to an addiction to cocaine. 

Says Pynn, “Addiction doesn’t take control of your life overnight,. It’s not like you drink once, and you’re an alcoholic, or you try cocaine once, and you’re addicted to coke. It’s a slow process.”

For Pynn, it came to the point where he was drinking hard liquor and using cocaine every single day. 

“I felt like I couldn’t even live without it. It spiraled to where I had no will to do anything else but drink and use.”

He lost everything that was dear to him? – ?his family, his money, his business and his health. He knew if he didn’t seek treatment for his addictions that he would die. “I always thought I was just one more night away from that fate.”

Pynn checked himself into the Humber Wood Rehabilitation Centre, in Corner Brook, in November 2021. The three weeks he spent there for treatment reconnected him to something he had replaced by drugs: ?his art. 

Pynn painted every day, realizing it was something that had gotten away from him over the years. “I painted maybe five pictures over two or three years. So when I went to Humber Wood, I promised myself that I was going to get back to my artwork.”

Today, he credits his passion for creating art, which kept his mind occupied, helping him towards his early recovery. 

At the end of his three-week stay, Pynn had painted between 20 and 25 pieces. Upon his release, he started a Facebook group, Scott Pynn Canadian Artist, which, in just one month, gained 25,000 members.

Life as an Artist

Pynn, who’s nearly 200 days sober, says his days now are rather routine. He wakes up early in the morning to practice yoga or meditate, listens to music, and paints all day long. It’s a routine that’s working out extremely well for him. 

“My relationships with my family are much better. The most important thing for any recovering addict to remember is people can’t help you if you don’t tell them what’s going on with you.”

He believes this is why he continues to receive such an outpouring of support from others? – ?it’s because he laid all his cards on the table. “I said, look, this is who I am, this is what happened to me, take me or leave me. But the support for me has just been unbelievable.”

It’s that level of support that gets Pynn through each day when, on any morning, he’ll see 500 Facebook messages from people all over the country, letting the artist know they are pulling for him. 

It’s that support that not only touches him, but gives him the accountability to stay committed to the path he’s on. “I’m not about to disappoint the 25,000 people in my Facebook group and go use or drink. That’s not an option for me anymore.”

Of the hundreds of messages left on Pynn’s group wall each day, he remembers one in particular from a young girl that particularly moved him. 

“She said my group is the most positive and addictive thing she’s seen on social media and my paintings look like they were done by someone who has crossed over to the other side and brought back the visions. I thought that was beautiful.”

Pynn says that everything he lost to his addiction? – ?his business, family, daughter, girlfriend and his health, he now has back. “Every day gets better than the last. I found it very easy to stay away from the drugs and alcohol once I had the knowledge of how to do it.”

Art of Recovery Program

For Pynn, it was important to him that addicts who have been suffering in silence have a place to turn. He recently launched an NFT project of 1111 different pieces and will be using a substantial portion of the revenues raised for his “Art of Recovery Program”, which helps pay for people to attend treatment centers and provides recovering addicts and people struggling with mental illness access to free art supply’s.

Since sharing his story, others have reached out to him to tell him he’s been an inspiration. “They’ll say I’ve been watching you, and you inspired me to decide to get clean. I know my story has made a difference in some people’s lives, for sure. Now that I’m helping other people, I feel amazing. Every day is better than the last.”

Find Scott Pynn at www.facebook.com/scottpynncanadianartist/ and www.spynnergy.com

At long last, the sixth annual St. John’s Tattoo Convention returns amidst multiple pandemic delays this July 1-3 at the RE/MAX Centre in St. John’s.

Rising out of North America’s oldest city and hosted by renowned local tattoo authority Trouble Bound Studio, the convention will host 75 brilliant tattooists from across the globe over three days that celebrate a mutual love of art that literally goes skin deep.

For convention founder and Trouble Bound Studio owner and long-time tattooist Dave Munro, the ebb and flow of the tattoo industry, and indeed the gradual growth not only worldwide but here on the island, has been something to behold. 

“My industry has changed dramatically in the time period in the life-cycle of me being here,” shared Munro in a sit-down at Trouble Bound in downtown St. John’s. “I started visiting in ‘99 and I moved here in 2000.”

Munro, an Ontario born and bred student of the game who opened Trouble Bound in the summer of 2003, was long-aware of the opportunity to grow the market for tattooing on an island where the medium has often been appreciated far more readily than abroad.

“If you take Newfoundland versus the rest of Canada, where tattooing was linked to many of the trade bases of small communities or just the communities in general here, there’s always been a higher rate of people with tattoos in Newfoundland than there has been throughout the rest of Canada,” Munro shared. 

Changing the stigma

“As it has become far more acceptable you’re sort of seeing that number being one in four or dropping to one or two people between certain age gaps that have tattoos and then accessibility is a huge thing as well, and comfort to it. Television and shows and social media provides a certain comfort level. You have elements of tattooing that will still be sort of a renegade version of these things, but they’re going to be things that cross the line … So a lot of it comes down to, not just necessarily how socially acceptable it becomes, but understandable. If someone doesn’t feel threatened by a visual, they’re not likely to react in the same sort of way.”

A far cry from what Munro described as a “homespun backyard industry,” tattooing has emerged as a global phenomena, no longer reserved for punk musicians or sailors. No, everyone from your grandma to businessman is ‘tatted up.’ 

The now annual and much in-demand St. John’s Tattoo Convention capitalizing on that very fact, began modestly and by near word of mouth.

“When I started coming out here, part of the reason that I was approached on it was a large volume of, say, more custom based tattooing which I was doing, didn’t exist here. It was a very traditional shop,” Munro explained. 

“As I would travel to other conventions, which I used to do two or three Canadian and one international a year for years, it would be ‘I’ve always wanted to see this place’ (Newfoundland). And in particular with the first one, almost everybody that was coming to Newfoundland had family ties, whether they were one generation removed or six. 

“They needed to come home or see the place that their family generated from that had really no frame of reference other than nostalgic stories from their folks. So there was a really big sort of aspect of that for the first convention with the tattooists wanting to be here, wanting to sort of experience Newfoundland to a certain extent, get in touch with family.”

Morphing today into a well-attended event with over seven dozen tattooists from Canada, the U.S. and U.K., Munro describes the convention as having “a festival atmosphere,” and that, when you head through those doors, the odds of acquiring new ink rise exponentially.

‘Festival atmosphere’

“It has a sort of festival atmosphere to it like, ‘There’s a bunch of stuff all in one room and I need to see it all.’ I would say most of the people that come through the door get tattooed. A very, very large amount of people who come through the door get tattooed. Just by our average weekend numbers, one in three get tattooed. It could be something big, it could be something small. A very large amount of people coming in, that’s their intent from the get go.”

What can the inexperienced convention layperson expect? Munro smiles.

“The first encounter will be walking into a room with probably 75 tattoo machines going. So there’s a buzz. It’s in between like a swarm of bees and a small propeller going on a boat. It’s quite dramatic,” he laughs. 

“Coming into that room, there’s already this tension that you can almost feel because of the noise. As you sort of move through it, if you’re unfamiliar with, I guess, tattooists, you’re slowly getting embraced into that reality. 

“There’s a fever pitch that hits,” he adds. “There’s a number of people who come to the convention that I’ve literally watched get seven or eight tattoos over a weekend, just happily bouncing from booth to booth … it’s just not unusual. It happens a lot. So the room in itself becomes a generation point. A lot of the genesis to the process is built out of that particular environment and ambiance.”

Weekend passes are available online only for $30 at brownpapertickets.com/event/5412985. Day passes will be sold at the door daily for $15. For more info call 709-754-5590 or visit www.stjohnstattooconvention.com or troubleboundtattoos.com

What is place? And how do we find belonging in that place? 

Multi-talented artist Heather Nolan searches for meaning in Land of The Rock: Talamh and Carraig, a poetic exploration of place and belonging that took the dexterous author, musician and photographer (among other skills) across Newfoundland and Labrador and Ireland. 

This is Agatha Falling

“It was an intense project,” Nolan shared of her collection. “Especially taking this on before I really had any kind of validation. I wrote this around the same time as I was writing Agatha (This is Agatha Falling, her now celebrated and award-winning novel). Agatha hadn’t been accepted or published yet. So it was kind of like I had no idea if I’m writing publishable work, or if I’m just going to invest like five years of my life and all of my spare income into traveling through these places and writing this book with no external validation happening.”

With the critical adoration of This is Agatha Falling, which was long-listed for the BMO Winterset Award and ReLit Award, Nolan now had the clout to tackle her ambitious, globe-trotting collection of poetry, though the method and scope did not begin to form until her maiden voyage to the Emerald Isle. 

“The first time I went to Ireland was when I started writing this. I didn’t intend to. Fun fact; at the time I was like I’m probably never going to write anything of any value to anyone. So maybe I’ll just write a kid’s book or something. At least then I can say I’ve written something. So I was going to go to Ireland and write a kid’s book about Irish myths, just because I wanted to write something. Then I at least would get the impulse out of my system and I could move on with my life. 

‘Tick of Validation’

“When I was there I wrote two or three poems, kind of with no real purpose or intention. It just kind of happened as I was walking around looking at stuff. I got home and a lot of the ideas I’ve been thinking about and wrote in those poems about just kept circulating. And it was largely like the broad ideas of what does it mean to be connected to a place that you’re not really from? A place you don’t actually have any connection to? And what do you expect when you go to somewhere like this versus what you actually find? Those kinds of ideas. Probably like three poems in I sat down and mapped out the whole project and exactly what I wanted it to be. 

“When Agatha was accepted, it was just kind of like that was all I needed. That one little tick of validation, I’m just never going to shut up now (laughs). Like, I have so many things to say. Just let me roam free.”

A celebrated photographer and musician, the pandemic allowed Nolan time, real time for perhaps the first time, to dive head on into her literary ambitions.

“I kind of made this decision where I was like if this year is the year that I go bankrupt or something, so be it. There’s nothing I can do about that right now. But what I do have right now is time and I’m going to pretend to be a full time writer. I’m just going to pretend. I’m going to put myself in there as hard as I can and work hard, see what I can make happen,” she shared, explaining that she wrote her first novel when she was 15, one she joked was “ridiculous” and “terrible,” but not without merit. 

“It made no sense. It was a bad book, but that’s something I set out to do when I was 15-years-old. And that need to do that has never not been with me,” she shared. 

‘Dabble in all the arts’

“I was 15. I had no taste. I had no idea what the f**k I was at. It took a really long time to kind of develop those skills. And I’m also not the world’s most patient person. So sometime around the age of like 20 I was like, ‘well, I’m 20- years-old and I still haven’t published a book so it’s not for me, I guess,’ which is ridiculous. In the back of my mind that was always the actual dream, but I just didn’t think I was capable of it for a long time. And so I continued to dabble in all the arts because that’s just fun for me.”

With This is Agatha Falling a celebrated hit, and her ambitious collection of poetry published, Nolan sets to work on multiple projects that yet again stretch her abilities and creativity. 

There’s the upcoming How to Be Alone on Boulevard Saint-Laurent, a fictional  combination of two novellas tentatively due next year, and yet another book already on deck. Her creative drive, needless to say, is kicked into high gear.

“From that one tick of validation of ‘this has been accepted for publication,’ (This is Agatha Falling), that was like a gateway for me of what I needed in order to feel confident in going forward with this work and I’m going to keep creating these things,” Nolan shared proudly. 

“I think the most satisfaction I can get out of a piece of work is when I feel like I’ve done the best thing that I could do, or I feel like I made some kind of breakthrough in my own methods of communication or creating … I’m currently at the point where I just get to dig in and see what happens. And that’s the most exciting thing in the world. It’s very daunting, but so exciting.”

For more on the works of Heather Nolan visit heathernolan.ca 

Darrin Martin’s creative life as a painter began about  20 years ago. Diagnosed with conversion syndrome, a rare condition where the brain converts mental stress into physical symptoms, Martin offered that as a performer, he had to learn to express himself in a new way.

“I lost my voice so I couldn’t audition for music school. I was always an artistic person – always drawing, always sketching. I decided instead of just waiting to feel better, I’d go to art school first, so I did.”

The show must go on

Then, the theatre came calling, he shared. One music director even said, ‘you cannot let that boy paint. He has to be on stage singing.’ “Male lead roles were available in this production, and I was kind of thrust into professional theatre at 19 years-old and so I let the paint brush go for awhile,” Martin offered.

With many Spirit of Newfoundland productions under his belt, just to name a few, Martin became a well established performer. There was Jesus Christ Superstar in 2006 and many performances alongside one his favourite sidekicks,  Sheila Williams. Martin had a healthy career in the performing arts. 

“Whatever anyone needed me to do, I was there. It got to the point where I could probably count on my hands the amount of stuff I painted and drew.”

‘Get back to your art’

Then, three summers ago, his wife Georgina encouraged him to pick up the paintbrush again. “She said, ‘You really need to get back to your art. I think you’re missing that.’ And I said, ‘You know what? That part of my life, the door is closed. I’m done with it.’”

His wife encouraged him to “just paint one.”

“She said, ‘See how it feels. If you really feel that that’s it, then let it go. But try it.’ And sure enough, I painted one painting, which became two and three and the light switch came back on and I was like, ‘OK, I really was missing this.’”

Back to painting

Now, 500 or so pieces in, he’s glad  he didn’t let that part of himself go.

“My anxieties were making my performing more and more difficult. People would say to me, ‘You don’t look nervous.’ When people get used to you at a certain caliber, you can’t let that go. You can’t have people say it wasn’t a good performance but I could just feel that I was drifting and then COVID really put the final nail in the coffin.”

Martin told himself he couldn’t “just sit around doing nothing” so he went back to painting as a way to stay focused and creative.

His painting has been helpful in many ways, he shared. “It helps with depression. I use a lot of bold colours because I always tell people that the real world has got enough dullness so I want to paint it with as much life and colour as I can, because that’s what I want to see.”

The feedback has been really good for the most part, he shared, though it can be ‘a tough crowd.’ “We are spoiled in Newfoundland in the arts because there’s talent everywhere. Art here is cultural. If you go to a Sheila Williams show, you’re not going to get any better entertainment if you go to Las Vegas or if you go to New York and it’s the same in the art world. The talented visual artists are as incredible here as anywhere.”

Martin has been lucky, he added, and his works are selling “all over the world.”

We ask about the journey from performer to painter. “I always drew and I always painted and sketched. Art was a huge part of my life. It’s just because of circumstance that it got pushed to the back burner but getting back into it was very serendipitous.”

Martin likes to say he’s “making art” not creating it. “I believe that I’m a channel so I don’t usually say I created a piece. I just don’t feel that it’s me and me alone because inspiration and talent comes from somewhere, so I say I made a piece of art.”

If a day goes by and he hasn’t painted, something feels wrong, he added.  “I could have cleaned the house and bought groceries and still feel like I accomplished nothing if I didn’t paint,” he shared.

Nostalgic pieces

With all the isolation that came with COVID, Martin shared that painting has been his escape.

“I don’t know how I would have figured it out. I really don’t. There’s a painting I did of a vase of flowers that’s cracked. It’s sitting on a shelf and it’s the idea that we often give things too many purposes until it topples over, until it’s useless. And for me, that was kind of my own story. I had spent years of my life running from show to show or from gig to gig. I was meeting amazing people and working with great people but I burned myself out. That’s how I kind of felt. I had too many purposes and I couldn’t fulfill them.”

And now? He feels so much better, he shared. “I find that art is so much more than what the face value is, more than what you see,” he said.

“A piece of art can be beautiful. You can just look at a painting by anybody and say it’s beautiful. But the comments that I enjoy the most are the ones where people tell me how one of my paintings brought out a memory for them. Maybe a nostalgic pieces like a lamp brought someone back.”

‘Storytellers’

It’s then you know your art is reaching people, he added. “Artists are storytellers. I want my art to tell stories.” 

The creative process has allowed him to do just that, he said. So what story is he trying to tell? 

“I’ve been a creative type all my life. I can give you a really long list of things that I’m not good at and I always try to put that into perspective because we all have gifts and abilities,” he said. It hasn’t always been easy, he admitted.

Creating and painting just makes things a little easier and he’d love to see others try it as well.

 “If someone is struggling from a mental health situation, whether it’s depression or anxiety, I think trying something creative would be a great avenue, not only to voice how you feel, but to help you get to a place where you feel a little bit more confident and happy with where you are.”

 Fore more visit: northsidestudiosnl.com

reflective feature, MacDonald shared the incredibly personal reasons behind why his 

professional and creative endeavours have blossomed the way they have

Meeting Newfoundland’s preeminent sculptor Morgan MacDonald in person is quite a treat, especially when it’s at the unveiling of one of his brilliant and touching creations.

On the grounds of Government House is where The Newfoundland Outport Nursing and Industrial Association (NONIA) held their 100th Anniversary Ceremony. Her Honour Judy M. Foote, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador, as Patron, unveiled MacDonald’s latest statue and planted a commemorative tree on the grounds of Government House. 

The statue, depicting a child holding a ball of wool while Nan knits in a rocking chair passing down a long-held Newfoundland and Labrador tradition, is captivating. But then MacDonald is well known for his large monumental bronze works and sculptural interpretations of history and culture. 

Fine Arts achievement

An award winning artist – the recipient of the Memorial University 2016 Horizon Awards for outstanding achievement under the age of 35 –  MacDonald works alongside his artistic team creating from a foundry and studio in Logy Bay. As is on display at Government House, his works are highly realistic and technical in nature with an emphasis on expressive human qualities and captivating realism.

As a student enrolled in the Fine Arts Program at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, MacDonald was first introduced to the ancient practice of lost wax casting. It was while studying Business at Memorial University that he began developing the idea of his first major work titled “The Rower” which has become a local icon for the City of St. John’s.

MacDonald’s works can be found in collections as far away as Europe and throughout North America and have been unveiled by notable dignitaries including The Prince of Wales, The Princess Royal Anne, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other heads of state. Other prominent works of his include The Memorial to the three fallen RCMP officers in Moncton, the Sealers Memorial in Elliston, “A Time” located on George Street in St. John’s, Corner Brook’s Remembrance Square and The Conception Bay South Monument of Honour.

NONIA’s founding

When we spoke to MacDonald we ask where his motivation comes from. 

“It’s amazing how much you learn about history with every project that you do. Like with NONIA, I had always thought it was a knitting outlet and a place for traditional Newfoundland goods, but it’s so much more than that. It had its founding over 100 years ago and the whole idea was to provide extra income for nursing and health care services in the outports,” he began.

Being involved with something with so much history, and knowing the statue would be located on the grounds of Government House, also enticed him, he added truthfully. 

“We ultimately decided what a wonderful image would be – a grandmother passing on the traditions and the knowledge of knitting to her granddaughter. And it’s one of these iconic scenes that most Newfoundlanders of a certain age would be familiar with – the grandmother sitting in a chair, passing time knitting.” 

It’s a huge honour to have something on the Government House grounds, he added, and it’s the first bronze statue located there.

The caribou

MacDonald reflected on the pieces he’s done that commemorate this province’s sacrifice during war times. 

“We’re past the time when we were commemorating the 100th anniversary of Newfoundland and the First World War, but I came to that subject matter in my artwork because of my great grandfather, Joseph Babstock, who fought with the Regiment (Royal Newfoundland Regiment). He was captured as a POW at Masnieres in France at the battle of Cambrai. I never really had a chance to meet him and I only really knew him through my great grandmother, who lived to be 102.”

MacDonald felt a powerful need to know more, he added. 

“It was just this generational thing, this need to discover your family history and like a lot of Newfoundlanders, the amount of respect and reverence that we hold for that generation and the history and the terrible tragedy of it all and how it just became a pertinent subject matter to commemorate.”

The caribou was something that stayed with him, a very powerful image of what so many fought for.

“The Caribou is one of these iconic pieces that most Newfoundlanders are familiar with and they know what it stands for. And we try to create something in memory of these men who gave so much.”

MacDonald said he hopes to commemorate all those in uniform through his works.

‘Incredible honour’

“The one in CBS, it’s a focal point for the community. It was a huge undertaking, but I’ve just been really fortunate to be able to work with veterans to do the things I do. It’s an amazing honor to be part of something that will stand as a monument and a testament to those that served.”

There’s so much emotion. “I have to pinch myself sometimes because it’s an incredible honour to do these tributes for veterans and to have these statues around the province. It’s almost surreal when you think about it,  that there’s these places that people can go and really connect with our past, and our present.” 

Of course, the work that goes into these pieces is unbelievable. 

“Unless you visit the Foundry, you don’t really have a concept of how these things are made. You get the odd person that thinks these are dipped in bronze or they’re hammered out of metal,” he said. 

It’s actually quite a process, he explained. 

“It’s quite an involved process. It’s a practice that’s literally centuries old. A statue can take 12 to 14 months of work and when you put it out, it’s almost impossible to explain this verbally. It’s more of a visual explanation because there’s so many steps involved in melting and pouring the thousands of pounds of bronze, and that’s dangerous and dirty work. I mean, you’re talking 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.”

‘Thousands of hours’

It’s also an expensive endeavour, he added. Materials alone make the process costly, but it’s the time and the labour that really add up.

“You’re talking thousands upon thousands of hours just to create these pieces. And then when people see the finished work, it’s hard to conceptualize the amount of time that has gone into these things. Every square inch of a piece has been hours and hours of work just to create each aspect of it. There’s nothing by accident on any piece. There’s skill and dedication that goes into making these pieces.” 

How did this passion begin, we ask?

“I’m often asked that and I struggle with it because it’s one of these things that kind of gets to the core of who you are. It’s like, ‘why? Why is it that you do the things that you do? And how did you find your path in life?’ And I guess it’s probably a bit of fate, and maybe determinism.”

‘serendipitous’

There’s so much involved in what got him to where he is today, he added.

“There’s also an aspect of choice and discovering that you have an ability to do these things and … it was just a serendipitous thing, a class that I took many years ago. Then encouragement from my parents to learn about this. And it was just one of these things that I thought, it’s just not a hobby or an extracurricular activity that you’ve participated in.”

His determination certainly helped, he added. “Maybe I’m a bit naive, too, and stubborn. I just thought I could go and make a career path with this and I’ve been very fortunate. Upon reflection, it’s probably more just stubbornness and being incredibly naive that led me on this path so I can make a living at this.”

There’s a running joke at the Foundry, he added, and it comes up every time he begins a new project.

“It’s so much work and so much time and effort and dirt and dust and power tools and heavy lifting. And I go, ‘I should have been a painter.’”

‘The holy grail’

Making a living from the arts isn’t for the faint of heart. 

“It’s kind of the holy grail of trying to become a professional artist and it’s just incredibly difficult. And most people end up in a different career path because it’s almost impossible to make ends meet in this kind of career.”  

But, something keeps MacDonald creating. What is that something?

“It’s a little bit of everything, but knowing there’s things that I have created out there that provides some history or some context or preserves a bit of our culture, or offers comfort and peace and reflection? I guess that’s why.”

For more on the Newfoundland Bronze Foundry and the process of creating sculptures can visit www.newfoundlandbronze.ca or TheArtOfMorganMacDonald.com 

You can take the woman away from The Rock, but you can’t take The Rock away from the woman. 

Derina Harvey, and her bring-the-house down band of merry travellers – drummer Steve Pinsent, guitarist Scott Greene, bassist Ed Smith and fiddler Jessica Blenis – are the embodiment of that philosophy. 

Made up largely of expats of Newfoundland and Labrador, and harnessing a sound reminiscent of a young Great Big Sea with extra bite, the raucously entertaining Alberta-based outfit has blown the roof off of venues across North America, promoting a tried and true brand of trad music with a modern kick overflowing with pride.

Newfoundland into song

“We totally look up to the original writers, the folks who really brought the culture of Newfoundland into song,” shared Harvey in a one-on-one with The Herald. 

“Great Big Sea, The Punters, The Fables, The Navigators, Shanneyganock, they are gatekeepers of that traditional music and also married in the music of the time. So what we feel is appropriate for us is to have the song be represented well. If that means that I need to growl a bit because that’s what the emotion is in the song then I’m going to growl a little bit. If it needs a big dirty guitar solo, then that’s what’s going to happen next. Big loud boom and drums? Perfect. And I still want to have those beautiful harmonies coming through.”

The Derina Harvey Band made a much-welcomed return to Newfoundland and Labrador this past summer with a series of engagements across the Avalon, a long-awaited home-coming only made sweeter due in no small part to the restrictions of the global pandemic.

“To have a couple of years in between seeing our friends and family, it was difficult, as many other folks I’m sure can relate to. Having the opportunity to get home and reconnect with family, that’s first and foremost, of course. And then the icing on the cake, to be able to share a bit of music down on George Street and out in Harbour Grace and see friends through music that we haven’t seen in a long time and even make a few new friends is delightful. It’s absolutely wicked.”

The band hasn’t exactly taken the COVID-19 pandemic lying down, engaging with their fan base through social media, performing various digital performances, and setting to work on new material, including the emotional and serene single Grow. 

‘Back in the Studio’

“The Grow video was something that we were delighted to be able to put forth. New music? Absolutely. Getting back in the studio for that brief period where we were able to do that was just so energizing for us. After kind of being a little bit removed from each other, being able to be in a space and share that music together, it was a change, and you know what they say – a change is as good as a rest. So we’ve had our rest and now we need to get back into that creative mode,” Harvey shared, diving into the eye-popping video created by her acclaimed artist mother, Sheilagh Harvey.

Describing the single and accompanying video as a family effort, Grow aims to shed light on the beauty and tranquility of Newfoundland and Labrador’s wildlife, while also serving as a beacon for positive conversation surrounding mental health. 

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“We wanted to make sure that we were able to not only highlight the beautiful landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador, the wildlife, but we wanted to also kind of nod our head to the fact that we have been through hard times before. With the song Grow, I know that being from Labrador, being outdoors was part of my self-care as a young person growing up in Labrador. When the mines would shut down and things would get difficult, you’d spend some time to yourself, just down under the trees and try and figure out a few things, try and just contemplate the world and what’s happening next. And so that’s where I find my peace. I have to go outdoors and get under a tree,” Harvey recalls.

“But I spent a lot of time in the summers visiting the island of Newfoundland, where I have a lot of family and friends. I would watch these little boats going out and little boats coming back in. And I made up a little story in my head about what these boats represented and how they would interact with the water and the land. And then when I was about 14 there were no more little boats in the water. They were all on the beaches and they were overturned. And I didn’t understand exactly the full ramifications of the moratorium, but I could see over time that the strength of the people was building and our abilities to broaden our opportunities, looking for ways to overcome this difficult period,” she added reflectively.

“We were able to use our strength to find light in those dark and troubled times. So that’s what I kind of wanted to bring forward with this song, is that, yes, we can find a way to navigate this together. And at the end of the song we have a crisis number for those who are looking for maybe a little bit of advice or maybe find a new program to help them through whatever might be causing them some mental anguish at this point. We really wanted to reduce the stigma associated with mental health issues and just point a little light towards the helpful programs that are in place for folks.”

Explaining that the band is well into the process of a new studio album – with past successes The Fallen Man’s Daughter, Up All Night, Rove and Go serving as steps in the road to a more introspective, yet decidedly confident future for the Derina Harvey Band. 

“We’ve been writing bits in dribs and drabs and then going full bore with things. And then, of course, the pandemic kind of slowed things down a little bit. And I think my songwriting style changed a little bit. I think through the pandemic it became a little bit more introspective, I suppose,” Harvey shared candidly.

Fallen Man’s Daughter

“The Fallen Man’s Daughter was written about a tragedy and one that was perhaps too sadly something that is familiar to very many folks out there. And then Up All Night is more of a party song for sure. Rove and Go was definitely something that was trying to capture a moment of the past through resettlement, which is still happening today. But with the last few songs that we’ve been working on, there’s definitely a leaning towards mental wellness, I think is kind of the underlying theme. So we were just trying to make sure that what we’re going to be putting forward has a theme throughout the album. We’re kind of looking at the songs that are written and trying to choose which ones through a demoing process will be on the next album. But we’ve got some fun songs coming out.”

For more on the Derina Harvey Band visit their social medias and derinaharvey.com

“I love variety,” shared Kelly McMichael, a multi-year, seasoned pro in the music business who is on the cusp of dropping her long-awaited solo record, Waves.

Variety is, you’ll find, aptly fitting for The Herald’s conversation with McMichael, an artist who has called Newfoundland and Labrador home since 2013. 

But that’s not the only intangibles that will come to define one of 2021’s early contenders for album of the year.

THE BONES OF WAVES

It was love, of person and then place, that brought and inevitably tied McMichael to our own private corner of the world. It’s the same passion for the Atlantic, and its power to help heal broken hearts, that connects the narrative threads of a record years in the making. 

“It’s like coming up from a rough patch into some good stuff. And then it’s a cycle, that there can’t really be good without bad,” McMichael explains. “I guess that’s where I got the title Waves, and it’s kind of like solidifying my love for Newfoundland. Waves is also a bit of a tribute to that.”

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A veteran of numerous projects across Canada with roots in conducting and producing – including the electronic-infused RENDERS – McMichael began forming, in earnest, the bones of Waves in 2019. 

An offer to tour and perform alongside internationally regarded artist Sarah Harmer, followed by the enduring COVID-19 pandemic, put a cog in those best-laid plans for solo album number one. 

“We recorded all of it in 2019, and then I got asked to play in Sarah Harmer’s band. So I was supposed to be on tour with her all through 2020, basically. We sort of whipped off my album finished all the tracking and then I was going to do some touring and then come back and finish it with Jake (Nicoll, producer, instrumentalist). I only did a little bit of touring with Sarah and then the pandemic happened.

THE MULTI-TIERS OF MUSIC

“It was really hard for me to not have anything to do and to go from touring the US and instead I was stuck back in with my mom (laughs). I was also sitting on this record that I was so excited about, but I couldn’t just finish it. I was really anxious to get to finish it.”

Despite being grounded and displaced, and with the benefit of some ingenuity and maneuvering, Waves was mixed and mastered across Kitchener, Toronto, and Peterborough throughout 2020 and 2021. Featuring McMichael alongside Nicoll, Sarah Harris, Maria Peddle, and Jose Contreras, the record finds the versatile singer-songwriter tackling multi-tiers of her own personal musical tastes. 

“I’ve always liked variety and I wanted to make an album and have a project that was built to last,” McMichael shares.

“I didn’t want to be just doing whatever trend I was super into at the moment. I was like, I’m going to make this album of my best songs, what I want to play and what I can imagine touring for. I want new songs that I just think would make a great live show that I could tour for years.”

ESCAPE FROM LIFE

Thematically, Waves runs the emotional gamut one comes to expect from an artist of McMichael’s caliber, though there is no disputing that the entire experience proved cathartic, particularly given the closeness to home of the subject matter.

“It was definitely really hard to record because my relationship had just ended while I was recording this album,” McMichael explains. 

“So there were certain associations. I was really into the recording process as an escape from my life that was falling apart. Some of it was a little bit difficult and I did change some of it because of some of the feelings that I was feeling while doing that. But it was also interesting to use some of the tunes from years ago. I feel like I kind of learned some things about myself by doing these songs that were from different parts of my life. To sing them all together, it kind of felt like I was able to, I don’t know, give some messaging to myself from the past.”

One look at the eye-popping album art for Waves (photographed by Jill Willcott, with designs by Krista Power), serves as a telling backdrop for McMichael’s journey to complete this album, one book-ended by evolving musical tastes and a resilience and perseverance that many have had to befriend during this global pandemic. 

“I wanted to be almost like a superhero, to represent resilience,” she explains. “I think resilience is a big theme on the album, especially after the pandemic it was sort of like I just wanted to look like I was prevailing, had been through some s**t and was prevailing. I wanted it to be striking and mysterious, like who is that?! 

“Not only did it take me so long to finally record my full-length album, but then my long-term relationship had to fall apart during the recording process and then this pandemic happened and we were displaced. It’s just like bam, everything was just obstacle after obstacle, but we made an awesome record in the end.”

Click here to check out McMichael’s debut LP, Waves, or follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

For more by entertainment writer Dillon Collins, click here!

Clifford George has the soul of a poet. A true artist, he sees beauty in all things, including this very writer.

When we arranged to meet to chat about his Solace in the Canvas show at the Christina Parker Gallery, George mentioned how he wanted to wear his red shoes, his fancy bow tie, and his special cap. I couldn’t be outdone!

DRESSED TO IMPRESS

I hit up the divine diva herself, Shelly Neville, and borrowed one of the most glorious gowns she had and showed up ready for the occasion. Playing dress-up made both George’s and my day a little brighter. Pandemic times have been challenging, and a gallery showing — even at the prestigious Christina Parker Gallery — isn’t the rubbing elbows that it used to be.

George grows reflective as we explore each and every piece in his collection. “Time stood still,” George told me. “It’s like a COVID play that has no ending yet. Our younger generation will remember when they grow older, the days when time stood still”.

“The communities gave me a new offering, alone in the silence I found solace in the canvas.”

— Clifford George

LONELINESS IN THE ART

As he embraced “the new normal,” George began to paint. “I found myself, at the beginning of the epidemic, painting in the stillness of my studio to the new normal. I looked back at my sketches or I visited a new place, and I just felt what I wanted to express. It’s all happiness. All my paintings are happy, but it’s also a reminder of how alone we have all been,” he continued.

“This silence is hard to explain,’ he added, “but there is a peace in the silence.” As George reaches out to touch one painting he shared, “I added bits of rock to this from where I painted. It gives texture. Over here I have sand added to the paint from that very beach in the painting. It’s part of my style. It’s a reminder,” he shared.

“A MAGICAL KIND OF WAY”

He paused. “I am overwhelmed with the sounds in my head. Sounds of rivers flowing to the sea, fishermen on the stage head in the morning mist, sun dancing on the rocks. It touches my soul in a magical kind of way. And then, I put it on canvass.” Beautiful words. Stunning artwork. Inspirational man. George loves to share his craft with others, saying that he loves nothing better than a “suffering artist.” “During this period I posted several videos of me painting to inspire others to carry on in this lock downtime.

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I communicated with friends on Facebook; writers, musicians, other artists, and the feedback was tremendous,” he shared. Yes, we were alone, but we could also be together too, he explained. “When spring came in 2020, out I went doing Plein Air painting. I traveled around the Avalon and down to Twillingate where Art at the Gate organized a Plein Air painting video with myself and J.C. Roy for educational purposes.” The sights and sounds captivated him, he added. While he has a favourite place to paint (Salvage), there’s beauty to be found everywhere, he said with a smile. Every little community has a story to tell. And every place, no matter how big or small, is worthy of being captured on canvass.

SOUNDS OF THE TOWNS

“While I was painting, I could hear the sounds of each community. There were dogs barking, cars driving by, people calling out to me to say hello, crows were cawing and the wind was blowing through the coves. I captured it all. I stayed and traveled around the area and did some more painting in Little Harbour, Purcell’s Harbour, etc. In the evenings, J. C. and myself would have a few drinks and talk about days gone by, it was great to laugh and get reacquainted again.” There was more travel. Gander Bay, Musgrave Harbour, Lumsden, Cape Frees, Green’s Pond, New West Valley, all placed George considered “a painters dream.”

“TIME WAS IN A TRANCE”

“Travelling for miles, the shoreline seemed to go on forever. Communities were in silence, signs on the road said restaurant ahead and signs listed a special, but the sign on their doors said closed due to Covid. The only thing moving was the clothes on the lines and they were all flapping in the wind. “Time was in a trance, waiting for the curtains to open and for life to start up again. I painted life in these communities. I learned the stories and I listened to the sounds.”

“…the loneliness I saw out in the world was telling me that other people might want to see these paintings.”

— Clifford George

As we sashayed around exploring the paintings, as we poured through his glorious sketches and read his poetic ponderings, as we happily posed for picture after picture, as we laughed at one another’s jokes, there was still a sense of the magnitude of this pandemic that George had painted his way through. “The communities gave me a new offering, alone in the silence I found solace in the canvas, thus the show’s name. It gave me peace and it gave me joy,” he said. Something else that gave him joy? Playing dress up for The Herald as we helped kick off his show in fine style, in spite of the realities of the pandemic.

THE FEELING OF STILLNESS

“This has made all this painting worth it. It was like the loneliness I saw out in the world was telling me that other people might want to see these paintings.” When COVID came into the world it changed so much, he added. “Our way to create changed and most of my paintings were done during a time when everyone stayed away. All along the coast clothes swayed in the wind, but even the clothes lines looked lonely and not a soul could be seen. Stores stood, but all the doors were locked.” His Solace in the Canvass collection captures that. “The feeling of stillness is there. It’s hard to explain, but I did find solace in the canvas, and I hope others find that too.”

For more on Clifford George and the Christina Parker Gallery, visit christinaparkergallery.com. For more stories by Pam Pardy, click here, or visit our new Instagram page for story updates as they happen.

Correction: A previous version of this story misattributed authorship.

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Musician Darcy Scott, a grade 12 student at Queen Elizabeth High School in Foxtrap, is filled with gratitude. 

“It’s great to have so much support,” Scott opened as we chatted about his latest song, 1,000 Words. 

Created at the Bell Media Songwriting Challenge in 2020, Scott, along with Virginia Fudge, Chelsea Anne Woolridge, Andrew Marsh and Chris Kirby, wrote and recorded the tune that makes its debut on April 23.

The song, Scott explained, represents “bad moments and the good that can come from them,” he continued. “The song is talking about a bad moment caught on camera and the bad things that could come from that. It’s representative of everything that is being said about that bad moment, but it goes on to say, don’t worry about it because it’s going to be somebody else next week.”

Inside the digital age

The songwriting team started there, he explained, and  then “just went with it.”  

“We started on the topic of one bad photo and we just came up with the song. It’s just awesome as a writer to work with the team I had. We were kind of throwing out ideas right away.”

Everyone had their own idea of how these days are tough to grow up in, he added.

“We were talking about the digital age we live in and how everything in some way, shape or form can end up online and the negative effects of social media.”

The end result is something he’s proud of, he said. 

“I’m really happy with it. I am the artist for the song and everyone else has their credits because it was really a group effort.” Scott shared that being an artist requires more than talent and dedication, it requires support, too. He has that in his father, Jerry Scott.

“Dad is a big support for me right now. He puts me on to a lot of new music and I have a lot of respect for him, too. He’s showed me how to be respectful for all the professionals in the industry and the people that do this for a living every day. 

“But he definitely pushes me a bit to expand out of my comfort zone and meet new people. And he’s always looking out for opportunities, just trying to find the best places to be and the best people to know. He’d be the big person right now that I’m looking up to for helping me push the music.”

The dream team 

The song, when released later this month, will be available on streaming platforms. 

“I use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, so I’ll start giving people the chance to preorder and I’ll throw up a couple little teasers so if people want to, they can check me out on those social media sites.”

While he’s a fan of Ron Hynes and Bob Dylan personally, Scott also admires the “dream team” he worked with on 1,000 Words. “I really, really like everyone’s sound that I’ve worked with in this group, seeing their musical tastes demonstrated through their genres. Chris Kirby’s brilliant, he leans more to  the pop stuff. And then Virginia kind of has this like psychedelic pop sound. But we all got together and we worked well together,” he said. 

At the end of the day, it’s all about the music, he said. “We’re just a bunch of people that want to create a good tune and good music. So everyone kind of put their own little spin on certain things. I think that was great and what we came up with, I think people will really enjoy.”

For more, follow Darcy Scott Music on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

by J.M. Sullivan

“Now, it is a documented fact that over the years people have had dreams and visions of things happening far away. Ninety-nine per cent of the time these prophecies turned out to be nothing more than bouts of fantasy brought on by worry and anxiety. Ninety-nine per cent of alleged supernatural visions have proven to be nothing more than delusions. But sometimes they came true…”
— from The Ghost of Ellen Dower

Writers (it is often assumed) are sedentary creatures. They cultivate the quiet, value the solitary, and get nervous if they stray outside a fixed radius from their computers. They may occasionally run wild, but few are found in the wild, charting rivers, say, or tracking caribou herds.
But Earl Pilgrim, an author who has just released his sixth book, has done these things, and much more. The St. Anthony native studied forestry, served with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and became their heavyweight boxing champion. Then he joined the forest rangers in Labrador and on the Northern Peninsula, eventually being promoted to wildlife protection officer with the Newfoundland wildlife service.
Instead of crafting paragraphs and culling the pages of a thesaurus, he was nabbing poachers and lobbying for big game conservation. In a telephone interview from his home in Roddickton, Pilgrim says his unusual background is actually what led him to writing his first book.
One night, while he was still working with the wildlife division, he was “caught out” in the same area where a Newfoundland Ranger named Danny Cochrane had been lost years before. Cochrane’s misadventure was a local legend.
“When I got back, some old fellas in Harbour Deep told me the story of Danny and his ordeal.” Pilgrim was so impressed with their narrative he sought to rename a local river in memory of Cochrane. “I wrote a three or four thousand word report and sent it in to the department. They said they couldn’t change the name for historical reasons, but what I’d reported was important and should be written in a book.”
Smallwood called in
Given this feedback, Pilgrim naturally phoned former premier Joey Smallwood, “because I wanted him to write it. He said he couldn’t, and I said who could, and he said, ‘You.’ I said I knew nothing about writing, so he said, ‘I’ll tell you the name of somebody who’ll set you straight, Cassie Brown.’”
So Pilgrim (who, from this anecdote, appears to have adopted Think Big as his manta) got in touch with the acclaimed editor of Death on the Ice and Standing Into Danger. “She told me what to do. I did the research, and sent her the manuscript, and she read it and said, ‘Get a publisher.’”
And what was the gist of Cassie Brown’s Writing 101? “She told me to take the story and research it (Pilgrim interviewed former rangers and delved thoroughly through their archives). And she said when I was writing the story to make sure I kept the reader in mind, I should make sure not to disappoint the reader.”
This simple advice has now fueled Pilgrim through half a dozen publications. His latest is The Ghost of Ellen Dower.
“I first heard the story when I was in Vancouver in the late ’50s. I was visiting a woman who was originally from Conche, and the story of Ellen Dower came up. It fascinated me.” For decades the tale stayed with him, a haunting mix of eerie quirks of nature, missing legal papers and mysterious family bloodlines that run back to ship-jumping pirates.
Ellen a beauty
Set over Christmas and the early spring of 1871-72, the book follows the busy and prosperous Dower family. Edward Dower was a fish captain and merchant; his wife Ellen a beauty and one of Conche’s most prominent community organizers. On Christmas Eve, as the family exchanges presents (Ellen receives a lambskin coat) and the children prepare for a square dance, all seems well. The village is thriving and the price for whitecoats is so good Edward and his brother have just bought a new vessel, The Elsie, to crew for the hunt. But some bad luck, bad weather and a bad memory are about to intervene.
The story of Ellen Dower’s ghost is well known, even, Pilgrim says, documented at the time. As a writer he blends supernatural elements — waking dreams, omens in frosted windows — with historical details that the Dowers, for example, rolled a hundred barrels of flour into storage every winter, half for them and half for any neighbours in need. It took him eight months to research; he estimates he interviewed 60 people. The writing took him six weeks.
“My wife and I go to our cabin for two weeks, and I write in the mornings, and I write in the afternoons,” Pilgrim says, explaining his usual work routine. “When I have 10 pages I read them to my wife. She passes her comments on it, and between us we decide which way to go.”
The pages come quickly. Pilgrim, who has also produced The Curse of the Red Cross Ring, The Captain and the Girl, and The Price Paid for Charley, says he aims for two books a year. And they most often germinate from a story someone tells him. The same goes for his upcoming book, The Day Grenfell Cried.
Although concerned with the genesis of fishing co-operatives, landmark judicial inquires and a former minister of fisheries being tossed in the slammer, the book started when Pilgrim chatted with a Mr. Boyd of Main Brook, who knew of Grenfell’s interest in the fishing industry.
Pilgrim is also hoping to write about a recent west coast murder, and the mishap of a Newfoundland Ranger who spent 53 days lost in the wilderness after parachuting out over Hawkes Bay.
“There’s always lots of material,” Pilgrim says.
For his own pleasure, Pilgrim likes to read non-fiction books about the Arctic, Arctic voyages, and history, especially war history of the first and second wars and the Falklands.
“And I’m definitely looking forward to Wayne Johnston’s The Navigator of New York, I think he’s a fascinating writer.
“And someone like Bernice Morgan is tremendous, I admire her. I read everything, almost, from Newfoundland authors.”
A cache Pilgrim is a prolific addition to The Ghost of Ellen Dower is published by Flanker Press.
J.M. Sullivan is a St. John’s-based freelance writer.