Lögberg-Heimskringla - 13.12.1991, Qupperneq 3

LögbeFg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 13. desember1991, • 3
Free Spirit, continued
Saskatchewan for two summers; Emily
Carr College of Art and Design in Van-
couver, where I studied film and video,
and in Montreal at Concordia I attended
a program called Cinema.”
Erika has also travelled quite a bit.
She left grade 12 to work as a nanny for
two months in Australia. “I completed
that grade by correspondence and then
travelled for four months she says.
“And in 1983, my brother Arne and I
travellcd fortwo months in Iceland.
“One year, our afi, Hafsteinn
Bjarnason, gave us raffle tickets for
Christmas. The grand prize was a trip for
twotolcelandand somecash. Mybrothcr
and I made a pact. If onc of us would win,
we would takc the other along, but kcep
the cash. And sure enough, at the Ed-
monton Þorrablót the following spring,
Ame won.
“As we were landing at the Keflavík
airport I remember thinking, how can
anybody say that this is such a beautiful
place. But, bit by bit, as the trip went on,
the landscape bccamc more scnsational
and I was totally blown away.
“We travclled all over. In Þórsmörk
wc both fell in an icc cold glacierstrcam
and ate blueberries and crackers. My
brother, who had been in Iceland be-
fore, was sure there was a store or a
small village close to the place, which
we later found out is in the midst of
wilderness.
“When I was growing up, our mother
always reminded us of being Western
Icelanders although my father, of co urse,
is not Icelandic. Consequently, I had
very romantic ideas about Iceland and
the Icelanders. I guess I expected to
find a nation that hardly ever took its
nose out of a book and that all the afar
would be sitting
with little blond
blue-eyed children
in their lap, reading
to them from the
Sagas. Of course,
modern Iceland is
quite different. But
we met a lot of veiy
interesting people
and really enjoyed
our stay there.”
In Montreal,
Erika first met her
friend Louise
Loewen, who is also
involved with the
St. Norbert Artsand
Cultural Centre. “At
that time Louise
and Shane were al-
ready living at the Guest House in St.
Norbert. I came back here with her to
do a mural,” she says. “We did the
mural on the west side of the West End
Cultural Centre and we also facilitated
an art group at the St. Norbert Drug and
Alcohol Rehabilitation Foundation
which did the mural on the St. Norbert
kiosk on Pembina Highway.”
Erika says she has no regrets about
moving to Manitoba. “I find the artistic
community in Winnipeg very accessi-
ble, and I’m fascinated by the inde-
pendent nature of its film community as
well. Its members feel free to produce
what they want and they have the com-
munity’s support to go ahead with it.
. ... - . .---‘-'V., >>
The movies coming out of Winnipeg,
for example, are not mainstream. Look
at the quirkiness of Guy Maddin’s mov-
ies, and of Smoked
Lizard Lips . You
can’tlabelthiswork
as mainstream. I
have worked in
training positions
as an apprentice
on a few Winni-
peg-made movies,
andlfind thatyou
can work in a
number of artistic
media without be-
ing labelled, and
still your work is
taken seriously.”
Erika is still taking Icelandic
lessons at the Scandinavian Centre.
But on occasion she will say, “I won’t
be able to attend the next four classes,
I’ve got a job to do.” At one time she
had been commissioned to do an art
piece out of province, at another she
was building a cabin, which her frfend
Louise had de-
signed, somewhere
in Kenora, and once
she had restricted
herself to a friend’s
basement in order
to complete one of
her artworks.
I wouldn’t be a
bit surprised if she
were one day to tell
me she had to go to
Peru,China, Siberia
orlcelandto heada
community-based
art project. And I
have no doubt she
would go at it with
the same gusto and
fun as everything
else she does.
Erika Mac-
Pherson is a free
spirit. And watch
out, on a windy
day she may blow
into your town,
like Mary Poppins,
and feel entirely
at home.
After the holidays
JCELAND
1Ihe very center of the worlbí) ^
Your European holiday, centered
around breathtakingly beautiful
lceland, not only puts you in the
very heart of things but saves you
a nice bit of change, too.
• Eurobargain and Super Bar-
gain fareson direct flights
from New York and Orlando,
Fla. to Luxembourg.
• Low cost round trip servlce to
Paris. ftankfurt. London and
Stockholm, Copenhagen,
Osto, Helsinki, Gothenburg,
Bergen.
• Bargain stopover tours of
lcetand.
• Super Saver car rentels in
Luxembourg.
• FREE bus service from Lux-
embourg to cities in Germany.
• Reduced train fares to
Swhzerland and France.
Lögberg-Heimskringla will resume
publication on Friday, January 17th,
after our traditional Christmas Break.
In our first issue of 1992, which is
L-H’s 103rd year of continious pub-
lication, we will feature a review of
Gus Sigurdson’s book of poetry, Seven
Books Between Two Covers, and of
Betty Jane Wylie’s book, New Begin-
nings—Living through Loss and Grief,
which was launched in the fall of 1991.
We will also report on the Frón Ice-
landic Language Classes’ Christmas
Party and feature other interesting
articles.
I wish to take this opportunity to
thank all our readers for their continu-
ing support of Lögberg-Heimskringla.
Without you we could not survive. Not
only have you supported us with direct
financial donations, but also with the
submission of excellent material for
publication.
More and more people are writing
letters and articles, and voicing their
opinions on important issues. This kind
of activity is essential for a small ethnic
community newspaper such as ours.
Along with a supportive Board and
a volunteer operational manager,
Gordon Thorvaldson, who has restruc-
tured the administrative side of the
paper, we have only our editor and
graphic artist, Barbara Gislason, who
has reshaped L-H’s look, working di-
rectly on the paper’s actual produc-
tion. If it were not for the copy and
articles you send in, Lögberg-
Heimskringla would not be as interest-
ing as so many of you are telling us it is.
Keep up the good work and a very
Merry Christmas and Gleðileg Jól to
all.
Hulda Karen Daníelsdóttir, editor.
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