Letter to the Editor

century - to the dawn of the next millennium with all our ghettos in place and all their walls still standing. Women over there - men over here - Afrocentrics here - Eurocentrics there - Sinocentrics and all the rest of whatever other-centricity there and there and there and there... still at war - still claiming territory - still excluding - barring - denying others. Us and them - all the way to the end. I would -like this dream - this nightmare - to end. I would like to wake up. Letter to the Editor In the Winter 1992-93 issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies, Jonathan Bordo's excellent article, "Jack Pine Wilderness Sublime or the Erasure of the Aboriginal Presence from the Landscape," on wilderness as a source of art makes the point that I was wrong when I suggested, in a recent article in your pages, that Tom Thomson helped create the image that we have of Algonquin Park. Bordo says the wilderness came first, then the painter, and I say the painter helps create our vision of the wilderness. In support of my view, may I remind your readers that Thomson found it difficult to see exactly what was worthy of pictorial note in Algonquin Park. He sometimes asked people he guided as well as chance acquaintances, what they saw as beautiful in the park. Perhaps they pointed to the sunrise or sunset - or certain trees - and, we may suppose, he painted what they suggested. Journal ofCanadian Studies I would love to wake up. But dare I? Here we are - occlusive - each of us in place - armed against one another's intrusion - and all our eyes on the gates of the ghettos. What if they were to open - be opened? How then would we greet one another? TIMOTHY FINDLEY Thus, his view of what made a good painting was tempered by the tastes of people he encountered. They, in tum, had their tastes formulated by looking at picture books, magazines, and visiting museums (they had looked at British painting surely, and perhaps at some Canadian art). Thomson's tastes had been formulated through his work in advertising , and through looking at Canadian art. The process of creating images thus seems to be a complex interweaving rather than a simple fact, and while nature is important so is the way we form our approach to nature. Yours.sincere!y, Joan Murray Director ofthe Robert McLaughlin Gallery 159 ...