Margaret Ann and Rudy Fecteau (holding paintings by activist-artist Renee Sagebear)
JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us about one or more projects that you have been working on or have recently completed. Why exactly do they matter to you and why should they matter to us?
MARGARET ANN FECTEAU: Often we will draw or paint the same subject, but find that our treatments can be very different. At other times, we will do completely different topics.
Recently I have been working on various watercolours and botanical ink drawings. All of these are for my own satisfaction and/or for gifts. Rudy and I may have a show of our work in 2021, so, I need to work on items for this as well.
Since I had not done much drawing or painting for quite some time, partly because I doubted my ability and the value of my work, these successes have encouraged me to continue. I would hope that other people enjoy my work.
RUDY D FECTEAU: Over the last several months I have worked on several pieces that are related to my archaeology consultation work. I have done several drawings that can be incorporated into reports and visual presentations. I have also used these references for watercolours, one of which we had printed as our Christmas card.
I find drawing and painting very explorative. I often dream and use these images as a source for pieces of work. It encourages me to try different techniques and styles which I think that viewers might enjoy.
JS: How did doing these projects change you as a person and as a creator?
MAF: Managing to do a number of drawings and paintings successfully and having positive results and feedback about them has increased my self-confidence and encouraged me to try to do more.
RDF: Working on these recent projects along with current painting courses has allowed me to ‘see’ differently. This experience has encouraged me to work more spontaneously, which produces unexpected points of view that I incorporate into my art pieces.
JS: What might others not understand or appreciate about the work you produce or do?
MAF: Other people may not expect that I can produce drawings and paintings that have merit. They are often quite surprised when they see pieces that I have done.
RDF: People might not see that there is a relationship between doing archaeobotanical analyses and reports, publishing articles, preparing workshops and manuals and drawing and painting, but I see all of these things as part of the creative process.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work?
MAF: I find that I tend to see objects and situations somewhat differently because of my art background. I like to try to incorporate this into my work. I also have a lot of interests such as plants and animals which I try to use as subjects for drawings and paintings.
RDF: I feel that my sense of humour is important in my work. I often enjoy creating cartoons that express this. These have been appreciated in the past since they illustrated people and situations from events that I had been a part of. I have also used cartoons, drawing, and paintings in publications and presentations as a way of sharing ideas with others
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person?
MAF: Finding time to focus on drawing and painting, let alone complete work, is always a problem since we tend to be very busy with a wide variety of activities.
RDF: Since I have a consulting business and I am increasingly in demand for talks, workshops, mentorship, analysis and report writing, I find it difficult to set time aside specifically for drawing and painting.
JS: Image that you are meeting two or three people, living or dead, whom you admire because of their work in your form of artistic expression. What would you say to them and what would they say to you?
MAF: If I had my choice, I would prefer a living person because they’re not as scary.
Michael Warren: I would let him know that, even though I love his paintings, I really enjoy his rough coloured pencil sketches of birds. Doris McCarthy: I would like her to know that I thoroughly enjoy her use of a variety of media in her paintings, the wide diversity of locations and topics, but most of all, the fact that she could travel and paint even into her later years. I think that both of them would tell me to “get out there and get to work.”
RDF: I have not been trained in art history, but I am familiar with various cartoonists, editorial cartoonists and caricaturists.
Ding Darling: I would tell him that I appreciated his drawing and his interest in and work for environmental issues. Murray Ball: I’d let him know that I find his perspective of life on the farm in New Zealand through the eyes of a sheep dog to be different and amusing and I appreciate the detail in his drawings. Al Hirschfield: I’d tell him how much I have admired and been fascinated by his use of simple, contour lines to render figures and faces. I hear them saying to me “try to find more time to focus on your painting and drawing. You have talent!”
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that helped to make you who you are as a creative artist?
MAF: During my first year of teaching in elementary school, I took a Ministry of Education course in art for teachers. After a surprisingly successful completion of this course, I took three more in the following summers to get a certificate which qualified me to be an art resource teacher. Two years of training teachers and working with classes in a variety of schools led to teaching art full time in a large elementary school in Toronto.
RDF: I always liked to draw and sketch. When I got involved with the Ontario Archaeology Society in London, I did a lot of cartoons for their newsletter as well as artifact drawings. In the late 1990’s, Margaret Ann convinced me to take a watercolour course at Dundas Valley School of Art. It was a major disaster, but she persuaded me to sign up again. Mid-week I made a break through and was much more successful.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
MAF: People are generally quite surprised when they see my work…the “good” pieces. I think that they see me as being chatty and inattentive, so they don’t realize that I have the creative talent to complete pieces of work.
RDF: I think that people who know me find it hard to understand where I find the time to do all the things I like to do in the creative arts.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts? Why the delay so far?
MAF: In spite of an instructor at DVSA who used to hassle…uh, encourage…me to do more work and have a show, I have yet to do it. This is probably due to my insecurity and lack of self-confidence. My husband (RDF) and I are in negotiation to have a show of our work in 2021.
RDF: There are so many things that are constantly popping into my mind that I would not know where to start. I find when I take on some new art style, I delve into it almost immediately and start exploring my own style without thinking about it. Any delay would be caused by lack of time to do it.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
MAF: I could have taken better advantage of my years as a resource teacher doing teacher training workshops and demonstrating various techniques in their classrooms. And, during the twelve years that I taught art full time in an elementary school, I could have taken courses at university. I could have done at least an M.A. in curriculum design because I did that for all of the grades in the school.
RDF: If I had received positive feedback about my work when I was a child, I might have developed further. For the most part, I don’t feel that I would change much because my academic, archaeology career, cartooning for archaeology newsletters, writing, elementary school teaching, and drawing and painting are all interconnected.
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s society, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
MAF: Music, drama, visual arts, architecture and writing are all around us all the time. There is a great deal of variety in all of these disciplines, many of which are popular with some segments of society and not others. However, I enjoy the fact that there is a lot of diversity. What I find upsetting is that governments in many large countries seem to be focused on cutting funding to schools, public television, orchestras, libraries, etc., supposedly to reduce spending on “frills” to “balance the budget”. They don’t seem to realize that, when people look back on previous cultures, they look at the arts which those people produced, NOT at their ledger books.
RDF: {See above}.
I have noticed on social media that watercolour and acrylic painting are becoming more and more prominent in the visual arts domain. I admire the various ways that watercolourists use the medium, often with pen and ink added. I am currently exploring this technique.
I find the misplacement of “art” in inappropriate public venues (tags and graffiti) disconcerting.
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create and/or do?
MAF: I enjoy trying a variety of topics and techniques as well as various media.
RDF: I enjoy the journey from the dawn of an idea through the preliminary stages and subsequent developments which result in a finished product. It is pleasing to see the results of an idea bear fruit.
JS: In your creative life thus far, what have been the most helpful comments you have heard about your work?
MAF: “OMG, you guys are good!” This comment from a knowledgeable person was a major boost to my confidence.
RDF: In the second summer’s watercolour course at DVSA on the Wednesday afternoon, the instructor hollered at me to stop. Then he told me to hang my painting on the wall and asked the rest of the class if they could tell him why he was going to tell me to get it framed. At a later course, that instructor told MAF that he felt that I had made a quantum leap in controlling the medium.
JS: Finally, what do you yourself find to be the most intriguing and/or surprising things about you?
MAF: I surprise myself when I complete something that I feel is of value and when other people enjoy it.
RDF: I have found that during my entire life I have been pushed by other people and events to alter my life course. I have found that I became extremely adaptable to change because of this. I have done a variety of jobs, academic pursuits, planning (articles, presentations, mentoring students, workshops, public-speaking events), creative interests (drawing and painting, photography, developing PP presentations …) and I have enjoyed every one of them.