英語世界文摘:Home Is Where the Art Is: The Unlikely Story of Folk Artist Maud Lewis

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Home Is Where the Art Is: The Unlikely Story of Folk Artist Maud Lewis

藝術為家：民間畫家劉易斯的非凡故事

By Susan Stamberg & Alexxa Gotthardt

文/蘇珊·斯坦伯格、亞利克斯薩·戈特哈特

There’s no rain in her clouds, no gray in her shadows; Maud Lewis’ small paintings are bright with sunshine, and filled with blue skies, crystal snow and calm waters.

所畫非愁云，筆下無暗影。莫娣·劉易斯的小幅畫作里總有著明媚的陽光、蔚藍的天空、晶瑩的白雪和平靜的水面。

Lewis was born in 1903 in the small, seaside town of Yarmouth[1], Nova Scotia. She had no formal training, but got her start painting Christmas cards with her mother, which they sold for 25 cents. As an adult, she used leftover house paint to brighten walls, bread boxes, cookie sheets – even the stove – with butterflies, tulips and swans. Canvas[2] was expensive and hard to come by, so Lewis painted on beaver boards[3] and Masonite[4] – and she did it all from her own imagination.

1903年，劉易斯出生于新斯科舍省的海濱小鎮(zhèn)雅茅斯。她并未受過正統(tǒng)的繪畫訓練，第一次接觸繪畫，還是和母親一起繪制25加分一張的圣誕賀卡時。成年后的她，喜歡用家里剩余的涂料來裝點房間，把墻面、面包盒子、烤盤，甚至灶臺都畫上蝴蝶、郁金香和天鵝。帆布價格高，也不易買到，劉易斯就在纖維板和復合板上作畫——而怎么畫則全憑想象。

[1] 加拿大新斯科舍省西南部海港。

[2] canvas 帆布，可用作畫布。

[3] beaver board 一種纖維板，用作建筑材料。

[4] Masonite 美森耐復合板，用作建筑材料。

“I’ve never seen any paintings from other artists,” said Lewis.

“我從來沒看過別的畫家的作品?！眲⒁姿拐f。

Lewis had rheumatoid arthritis[5], which made it difficult for her to work, even as a young woman. To support herself, she took a job cooking and cleaning for a fish peddler – Everett Lewis, a man she would later marry.

劉易斯年紀輕輕就患有類風濕性關節(jié)炎，工作起來有諸多不便。為了生計，她找到一個工作，幫一個魚販做飯、打掃衛(wèi)生。魚販名叫埃弗里特·劉易斯，也就是她后來的丈夫。

[5] rheumatoid arthritis 類風濕性關節(jié)炎。

After she moved into Everett’s home, she began painting on its wooden surfaces. She’d travel into town with Everett and sell unique handpainted Christmas cards, and then moved on to larger surfaces: boards cut by her husband. Her paintings show scenes she glimpsed through her little home’s window, and memories from childhood or her infrequent trips to town. There are oxen decorated with bells and flanked[6] by trees exploding with pink blossoms; carriages filled with brightly outfitted people, trailed by bounding dogs; seagulls soaring[7] over placid seaside landscapes. And then there are the fan favorites: wide-eyed cats lounging[8] in tulip fields.

搬到埃弗里特家之后，劉易斯開始在家里各種木質表面上作畫。她也會和埃弗里特一起到鎮(zhèn)上去，兜售她手繪的那些別具風格的圣誕卡。后來，她繪畫的陣地逐漸由小卡片轉移到了大一些的表面：由丈夫切割的木板。而畫的內容，或是她從小小的家中瞥見的窗外景象，或是童年時候的回憶，或是偶爾去鎮(zhèn)上時的一些所見。有公牛戴著鈴鐺，兩旁樹木開滿了粉色的花；有馬車載著衣著光鮮的人，后面的狗蹦蹦跳跳地跟著；有海鷗飛翔在寧靜的海邊。還有畫迷們所鐘愛的貓咪，瞪著圓鼓鼓的眼，慵懶地站在郁金香的花田里。

[6] flank 在……的側面。

[7] soar 翱翔；高飛。

[8] lounge 懶洋洋地站（或坐、躺）著。

Claire Stenning, an art dealer and early supporter, describes her sense of Lewis’s compositions in the 1965 documentary[9]. They have a “childlike, tremendous[10] feeling,” she said. “No shadows at all. Everything is happy and gay and quick and lively.”

藝術商人克萊爾·斯代寧是劉易斯的早期支持者，在1965年的那部紀錄片中她曾這樣談及對劉易斯作品的感受：她的畫給人一種“天真爛漫的美妙感覺。沒有一點兒陰郁。一切都充滿了歡樂，輕快活潑?！?

[9] 指1965年加拿大廣播公司（Canadian Broadcasting Corporation，簡稱 CBC）《望遠鏡》（Telescope）欄目制作的紀錄片The Once-Upon-a-Time World of Maud Lewis，講述劉易斯的作品和生平。

[10] tremendous極好的。

The joyousness of Lewis’s paintings may be surprising given the difficulties she faced. As a child, she was made fun of for her arthritis, which worsened over the course of her life, gnarling[11] her body and hands.

考慮到劉易斯生活中面臨的種種艱辛，她作品中洋溢的那種歡樂或許令人感到訝異。小時候，因為關節(jié)炎，她常遭人取笑，在后來的日子里，病痛日益加重，更使她體態(tài)佝僂、雙手畸形。

[11] gnarl 使扭曲。

Lewis painted what she saw – cows, horses, cats, oxen – “often with a very cheeky[12] sense of humor,” says Shannon Parker, Curator of Collections at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia[13], Halifax. The gallery has 55 of Lewis’ paintings in their permanent collection.

劉易斯筆觸下的一事一物——牛啊，馬啊，貓啊——“常帶有一種肆無忌憚的幽默感”， 哈利法克斯市新斯科舍美術館策展人香農·帕克如是說。迄今，該館永久收藏著55幅劉易斯的畫作。

[12] cheeky 魯莽的；放肆的。

[13] 該美術館位于加拿大新斯科舍省的哈利法克斯市。

Lewis became known in the late 1960s, as passing tourists saw her sign: “Paintings for Sale.” These were landscapes, painted on boards. She charged $2.00, later, $5.00.

1960年代末，劉易斯開始漸為人知，來來往往的游客看見了她寫有“出售畫作”的標示牌。都是一些畫在木板上的風景畫。一幅2加元，后來，5加元。

“She was very hesitant to ask for more money,” Parker says.

“她不愿意多要價?！迸量苏f道。

A writer learned about her, there was a magazine article, then the CBC interviewed her, and eventually she couldn’t keep up with the demand. She began selling her pictures while they were still wet. Now her paintings sell for $8,500 to $20,000.

有位作家聽了她的故事，寫了篇文章登在雜志上，后來加拿大廣播公司采訪了她，再后來，她的畫供不應求了，有時還沒晾干就被人收入囊中。如今，她的畫作一幅售價8500到20000加元。

After Lewis and her husband died, their entire house – a work of art in and of itself – was moved from its original location in the 1980s as part of an effort by a group of concerned citizens to save this valued landmark. The final, fully restored house is on permanent display in the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In the years before she died, Lewis told the CBC she rarely left home. “Contented right here in this chair,” she said. “Ain’t much for travel anyway. As long as I’ve got a brush in front of me, I’m all right.”

劉易斯和丈夫居住的屋舍，本身就是一件為世人所珍視的藝術品。二人過世后，為保護這座頗具紀念意義的故居，1980年代，一些熱心市民協(xié)助相關機構將其由原址遷出并作修繕。最終修繕完畢的房屋已永久展覽于新斯科舍美術館。晚年接受CBC采訪時，劉易斯曾說，她鮮少出門。“有這把椅子就夠了，”她說，“我也不太愛出遠門。只要跟前有支畫筆，就挺好。”

Parker thinks Maud’s popularity and her story is a work of slow magic. “They didn’t have a lot of money,” Parker says. “They had no running water, they had no electricity. [She] was very limited in what she was able to do with her life. And yet her artwork was what she wanted to do and it’s something she was able to do. And touched so many other people. That’s pretty amazing.”

在帕克看來，莫娣的名氣與她的故事，就像是生活不急不躁地施了一個魔法?！八麄儧]多少錢，”帕克說，“沒有自來水用，也沒有電。她的人生中能做的事情非常有限。但繪畫是她想做的事，也是她能做的事。感動了那么多人，真是了不起。”

（譯者單位：天津鐵道職業(yè)技術學院）