Jill McCubbin - Archivist of Emotional Treasures
By Sally Hansen

If you could paint the soul-satisfying smell of wash cavorting on the clothesline on the first gorgeous spring morning, it would look just like a Jill McCubbin painting. Jill paints clothes dancing in the breeze to record her own treasured memories of favourite garments worn by her favourite people.

McCubbin is an archivist of emotional treasures. She hates to throw things away; she doesn't like to buy new things. But closet space is finite, so she captures cherished images of the poignantly familiar on canvas. She shows me a painting where she has incorporated the pattern of the fabric of her aunt's old couch. "I loved that couch," she explains. She also paints pictures of her favourite cup resting on her favourite tablecloth from her memories of the family-run Greek restaurant where she worked as a teenager. Her aides memoire glow with the warmth of her regard for her supposedly inanimate subjects.

"When we moved to Almonte six and a half years ago, we bought our first house, and I finally had enough space to try painting. I just did it. I tried acrylics because they were the least scary. I've never taken an art class or read a 'How To' book," she tells me. "I keep taking them out of the library, but I always return them unopened." She wanted to learn by doing, and investigate on her own. Only now that she has developed confidence in her abilities is she finally willing to expose herself to other influences.

Carpe Diem
Her auto-didactic and very personal approach to art is completely consistent with her general approach to life: "Carpe Diem" and experience it for yourself. Maybe this explains the sense of spontaneity and freshness that is characteristic of her paintings.

After studying journalism at Carleton University, and English and history at Trent, she became the manager of an Edwards Books and Art store in Toronto where she hired friend and fellow student Chris O'Brien as assistant manager. When the parent company closed its doors in 1997, putting the young couple out of work, Jill and Chris seized the moment to realize their dream of owning their own bookstore. They moved to the Ottawa area with their new baby daughter and went knocking for opportunity.

Today Chris manages The Miller's Tale, Almonte's beloved bookstore, and Jill manages to assist him, home-school their two children, and create captivating pictures of her favourite things. "We picked Almonte because it's a great little town, and it needed a bookstore. We have no regrets. It can be very challenging, but it gives you the chance to feel good about what you do and not get eaten up by your job."

Somewhere along the way Jill found the time to teach English and French in the Czech Republic, pick olives in Greece, and tend bar in a "crazy old pub in England." She also entered a hitchhiking race in Ireland from Dublin to Galway - and won! But the escapade that remains the most vivid in her memory was her month's stay in a nurses' residence at a psychiatric hospital. "It was clean and it was cheap. I still find myself thinking about the fine line that separated many of the nurses from their patients. It really makes you wonder about how the rules get set, and who makes the decisions."

A Few of My Favourite Things
Many of Jill McCubbin's paintings feature words. That is because words figure prominently on her list of favourite things. When she was a kid she really loved writing. "I always thought I might be a writer some day, and maybe I will." Her home is full of pithy sayings. One of my favourites on display is "Only dead fish go with the flow," accompanied by its Latin equivalent, "Pisces mortui solum cumflumine natant".

For now Jill's first love is painting. "It's more immediate, more physical. I love the feeling of flowing you can get when you use your whole being - you engage the physical as well as the emotional and the mental - I get a sense that this is really working for me. Another thing I like is that it lets me really focus on one thing." She quotes from Mae West: "Too much of a good thing can be wonderful".

You'll have an opportunity to sample Jill McCubbin's wonderful works on May 29th and 30th at the Almonte Old Town Hall. Over 30 artists will be on display at the Art in the Attic show sponsored by the Almonte and Area Artists' Association. Chris O'Brien or his assistant Jill would be happy to point out one of her works on display at The Miller's Tale. Commissions are welcome, and Jill McCubbin can be reached at 256-8128 or by email at jillandchris@bellnet.ca.