Karon Update, It's Happening, History As It Was

AN UPDATE ON RICHARD KARON BIOGRAPHY - THE WEEKENDER GOT US SOME ACTION

LAST FRIDAY THE WEEKENDER, OUR WIDELY CIRCULATED NEWSPAPER, HERE IN MUSKOKA, PUBLISHED A "LETTER TO THE EDITOR," I'D WRITTEN, SEEKING THE PUBLIC'S ASSISTANCE, ON OUR RESEARCH OF CANADIAN ARTIST, RICHARD KARON, FORMERLY OF BAYSVILLE, IN THE TOWNSHIP OF LAKE OF BAYS. ADMITTEDLY THE ARTIST'S SON, RICHARD AND I WERE ONLY SLOWLY PLODDING ALONG, BUT NOTHING MAJOR WAS HAPPENING …….AT LEAST AS QUICKLY AS WE HAD HOPED. WITHIN TWO HOURS OF "THE WEEKENDER" HITTING THE DRIVEWAYS OF MUSKOKA, WE BEGAN GETTING EMAILS AND A FEW PHONE CALLS, FROM PEOPLE WHO EITHER KNEW MR. KARON PERSONALLY, OR OWNED ONE OR MORE OF HIS ORIGINAL PAINTINGS. WHEN I CONTACTED RICHARD LATER FRIDAY NIGHT, HE WAS QUITE IMPRESSED. WHEN I EMAILED HIM THE NEXT DAY, THE DAY AFTER THAT, RIGHT UP TO THE PRESENT, BELIEVE ME, WE'VE PASSED BEING "TOTALLY ECSTATIC" WITH THE GENEROSITY OF PAINTING OWNERS, AND OLD FRIENDS OF THE ARTIST.

FROM HAVING ABOUT TWENTY KNOWN PAINTINGS, MOST IN RICHARD'S PERSONAL COLLECTION, WE ARE NOW HOVERING AROUND THE FIFTY PAINTING MARK, AND EVERY DAY IT INCREASES BY TWO TO FOUR ORIGINAL OILS. NOT JUST THAT, BUT WE ALSO GOT AN EMAIL FROM A PRESENT LAKE OF BAYS ARTIST, WHO ASKED IF WE MIGHT ALSO LIKE A PHOTOGRAPH OF KARON'S ORIGINAL EASEL, THAT HE GAVE HER WHEN HIS BAYSVILLE STUDIO WAS CLOSED. ONE OF THE FIRST QUESTIONS YOUNG MR. KARON ASKED ME, WHEN WE STARTED THIS PROJECT EARLY IN THE NEW YEAR, WAS IF I KNEW WHERE HIS FATHER'S EASEL HAD GONE…..SEEING AS I WAS AT THE AUCTION WHEN HIS PAINTINGS AND EQUIPMENT WAS SOLD OFF. THE ARTIST IS WILLING TO SHARE AN IMAGE OF THIS SENTIMENTAL PIECE, AND ALLOW RICHARD TO VISIT HER STUDIO FOR A CLOSER LOOK-SEE. THE GENEROSITY BEING SHOWN US IS WELL BEYOND WHAT RICHARD OR I HAD EXPECTED, WHEN WE SHOOK HANDS BACK IN JANUARY…..COMMITTED TO SEEING THIS TRIBUTE TO HIS FATHER COMPLETED. WELL, WE'RE GETTING HELP……AND I'VE GOT TO TELL YOU, THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BE A WRITER / HISTORIAN, BECAUSE EVERY DAY HAS A HEAPING HELPING OF ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY.

As far as the biography itself, I have four days to hammer out the rest of the copy and proofread the material, before it is shipped off to Richard for some "fine tooth combing." Son Robert, and the talented singer, friend, Dani O'Connor, now famous for this past winter's "Skokie Song," in support of the Gravenhurst Winter Carnival, have composed and performed the companion music to the upcoming YouTube video, which will be an exhibit of some of Richard Karon's paintings, that have been kindly loaned to us, for use in this project. Robert played the theme music for Suzanne the other night and she started crying…….she think's Dani has the voice of an angel, and I heartily agree. The video of course, will be a companion itself to the written biography on this blog-site, which will also included many images of Karon's landscapes, dating back to the late 1960's. The video itself is meant to be a celebration of his art work, not a memorial, so we hope it won't make everyone get bleary eyed, because it certainly isn't the intent. This project has been fun from the beginning, and I haven't felt so invigorated as a writer in the past ten years. Gives me a chance to get away from politics for awhile. It has been a wild couple of weeks at the computer, I'll tell you, and I'm not used to staring at this infernal white screen for hours on end. Surprisingly after all these years, I'm a pretty quick typist thanks to the instruction of Norma Ferrier, back at Bracebridge High School. "Fingers on the home row. Eyes on what your are typing and not on the keys. Now type." She may have been the best ever teacher, as I've needed my typing skills ever since. Of course, I'm supposed to say that Suzanne was my best ever teacher…..but that's due to marriage, not the fact she actually taught me back then. She had Mrs. Ferrier as well, and she can type faster than me. Point is, thank God l'm not a typical one-finger journalist…..and they still they exist, believe it or not.

Please join Richard Karon Jr. and I, for our first biographical blog, which will be published on this Gravenhurst site, on Monday, April 16th, at approx. 8:30 p.m. Later in the spring, we will be putting all the Karon material on a separate blog, that will be easier to use than archiving through my stuff…..to get to the good stuff. Hope you'll like it. Tell you what…..it's one of the best "Muskoka" stories I've ever worked on…….and for me that tops out several hundred regional features I've penned since the late 1970's. The other interesting aspect of this biography, is that it has no conclusion, as it will be open to additions and corrections to infinity, so that we can have a very thorough and up-to-date look at this fascinating artist. As much work as we have put into this, we're still a long way from having a complete biography….especially his years in Poland, Germany and France.

MANY FASCINATING STORIES ALL AROUND US - THAT WE SHOULD KNOW

Like the Karon biography, there are hundreds of interesting stories to be told in our region…..compelling, unique, adventure-filled tales of local, national and international adventures, that would curl your hair. Exciting stuff that has never been passed from the family…..tales locked away in journals and diaries, that should one day make the light of day. There have been lives led here, that we have never known about publicly, that would seem the rank and file of fiction. But they are true. I've been told so many of these stories, but not for publication. I'm almost at the "ready to burst" level, with the kind of believe it or not stories, that would mesmerize an audience. Ghost stories. There are thousands of amazing ghost stories, accounts of encounters with UFO's, and other really neat paranormal occurrences, but they're held back out of that lingering sense of fear……that they will be laughed at, for their admissions. It happened many years ago, in Muskoka, that someone who had claimed to have seen a UFO, was publicly humiliated by disbelievers and bad press. There were a lot of folks who saw almost the same event at the same time, but were frightened to say anything.

As an old book collector / seller, an historian, and a writer, always eager for a good story to publicize, I know a lot of things you don't. I'm not bragging. But what you read about the history of Muskoka is in many ways the sanitized version. I've been going after old paper, documents, records, journals, personal letters, diaries, obscure histories that were published in small quantities…..some that were written but never actually printed for public consumption. I've seen honest personal accounts of life and times in the region, that doesn't jive with the history you will read in the local accounts of the way it was.

It was, with some coincidence, William Dawson LeSueur's complaint against Stephen Leacock, after the celebrated author published an overview, an "oh so friendly" and non-controversial history of Canada. LeSueur, who you might remember named both Gravenhurst and Bracebridge, in 1862 and 1864 respectively, believed in the critical approach to the analysis of history. He felt that Leacock was guilty of writing a "popular" non-aggressive history, that served no real purpose other than to smooth the edges of the harsh realities of our past. LeSueur, himself, was famous for duking it out with the big shots, including the Prime Minister of Canada, Mackenzie King. LeSueur had ripped apart the myth of King's grandfather, Sir William Lyon Mackenzie, who was said to have been the brains behind the Rebellion in Upper Canada. Authors for years, recalling the event of the Rebellion, called MacKenzie a "Firebrand," and the "Great Scot," for his fearless leadership. LeSueur knew differently, and challenged the historians of the day to stop being politically correct, and call Mackenzie what he actually had been……an over-reacting, quick tempered ass. What I admire so much about Dr. LeSueur, and cherish the fact he has provenance with our towns, here in Muskoka, is that he fought Mackenzie King, and despite being discredited and losing publishing funds, never changed his mind about the less than stellar accomplishments of the "not-so-much" weak-tea firebrand. King went to huge lengths to stop publication of LeSueur's book, because it knocked down the legend he wanted to be true. With what was protracted litigation, King was successful in keeping the LeSueur book off the shelves until the 1960's, I believe…..decades after both men had passed out of this mortal coil. When the book was finally released, it was every bit as important and relevant to the study of William Lyon MacKenzie, and is today, still a very important reference text to the study of this period, of the 1830's, in pioneer Upper Canada, and the quest for responsible government. Hey, we're still looking for that…..oh, geez, I just got political again.

The point of bringing this up, is that this is what I have been doing for years, and it makes my contemporaries cringe, at times when I threaten to write a new tell-all history book for the District of Muskoka. When I see film re-creations of the our history…..the "popular" version, because that's what most folks seem to want, I confess, I'm "outta-there" by the fifth minute of video……of that romantic, nostalgic, sickly sweet part-history we're being fed. Well, with what I have uncovered over the decades, I've got another version…..the "R" rated one, where by golly, Muskoka's pioneer laborers "did so" have prostitutes. Maybe that's not a surprise. Maybe we're working off the same script. In tomorrow's blog, I'll paint a clearer picture of what pioneer Muskoka was really like……not much like what has been recorded so far in the mammoth amount of books previously written about our area. They're important books for some things. But miss the point completely in others. I start off by dealing with the logging industry, and what hasn't been discussed about rambunctious loggers, booze and God……who was supposed to save their souls……but a lot slipped through the log jam.

Thanks for joining me. See you again soon.