One month from today we will showcase the life and cultural legacy of Fanny Y. Cory whether we are ready to do so or not. Here are a list of the jobs still to be done.
Can we do it?
Complete Fanny: The Artist who made America smile Documentary
We are creating a documentary movie that tells the story of Fanny Y. Cory titled “Fanny: The Artist who made America smile.” My son Julian and I shot footage in Montana this summer, and we interviewed the four grandchildren of Fanny. We have also collected a lot of old video and photographs. Now comes the task of weaving the footage and interviews and photos into the compelling story that Fanny’s life is.
Here’s an example of some of the raw footage that we have.
(1) footage of the old studio, bunkhouse and windmill that was moved to higher ground in 1952 when the water of Lake Sewell was raised which left the old ranch completely under water.
(2) Footage of a morning sunrise over Canyon Ferry Lake (once called Lake Sewell).
(3) Footage of our interview with Amanda, Curator of Collections at the Montana Museum, in the vault where Fanny’s original Fairy Alphabet paintings are stored.
My friend Chris Wyatt, who is a film critique and film maker has promised to provide some consulting on pulling together the final product. But there is a lot of work still to go. Can we do it?
Release of a new biography of Fanny titled, Queen of Montana Beach: the story of artist Fanny Y. Cory by Toni McCarty.
The least of our problems is picking up the 600 copies of the book on my day off, Monday, October 2nd. The much bigger job before me is arranging two book signings in the Seattle area. I’m happy to say one is nailed down in Redmond on Monday, October 16th, and will include a showing of the documentary film. Besides this there is setting up an account on Amazon as an individual seller, nailing the on-line pre-release of the book on October 1st, and all the other promotion that will help us sell all 600 copies before the end of the year.
Preparing the Display
Because this is a showcase of the life and cultural legacy of Fanny, there is a lot of work still to be done to create a visual showcase telling her story through photographs, timelines, newspaper articles, etc. There are letters to go through, many magazine articles and newspaper clippings to present, all with the goal of telling the story of this amazing woman. Besides all of that there are 24 fairy prints to frame.
And if that was not enough…
Hanging the Show
We have to collect the art and hang the show. This is where Jenny the “collager” shines. But she will have her work cut out for her.
She will find a way to showcase the 24 paintings of the Fairy Alphabet.
She will display the over 40 books that Fanny illustrated. She will showcase “Sonny” which was a nationally syndicated daily cartoon that ran in newspapers all over the country – and world – for 35 years,
and “Little Miss Muffet”, another syndicated cartoon that was King Syndicate’s rival to “Little Orphan Annie.”
She will find a way to show the beautiful paintings of Fanny like this one of a rose.
She will display the many magazine covers and illustrations that Fanny’s art was featured in like these.
And also show the sweet illustrations of Fairies that Fanny made in her late years. They show Fanny’s decline eyesight and less control of the brush that came in her 80’s, but still they sparkle with her vivid imagination and love of beauty.
And if that was not all, Jenny will find a way to demonstrate many of the hundreds of paintings that Fanny did looking out her window on the southwest side of Camano Island, onto Saratoga passage and the Olympic Mountains beyond. These paintings catch the changing seasons that Fanny witnessed, and show the overflow of her creativity.
It will be in short, an incredibly rich and strikingly beautiful show.
Those who are able to visit Sunnyshore Studio on Saturday, October 14th and October 21st, will be treated to an amazing display of creativity, beauty and imagination that was Fanny Y. Cory!
Can we pull it off? By God’s grace, I hope we can!