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Kin on, and For rill Patterson weaves a tale of wonder in Painted Hallway By Mel Taylor ASSORTMENT OF ! , . SWEAT SHIRTS || 25% OFF : wwer sneac anaios S00 1 w swent snt puncnise i $ 9g9 1 NOVEMBER 4THâ€"STH, 1 6 prices 24 I _ WiITH THIs COUPON _ ! JUST ARRIVED F% my mother was an artist, 1 Patterson based the house with the was going to be an artist too,"‘ says painted hallway on those she had seen in Patterson. ‘"And | read all the time. | was _ her travels through Ontario, and placed it a bookish little girl like Jennifer in the in a small town populated with the stock story." characters she had met while studying After receiving her BA in Fine Arts from _ British, American and Canadian ghost the University of Washington in Seattle in _ stories. Here you‘ll find the mystenious 1951, Patterson eagerly pursued a old housekeeper, the town librarian and career in the arts, working as a scientific . the country doctor, all playing their bit illustrator for the Smithsonian Institution, _ parts in bringing Jennifer closer to the teachinga art at Seattle University and truth about her family s past selfâ€"taught crash course."‘ * Art is a kind of door into an alternative world. The world is just tull of The crash courses into many branches _ these sort of magical things that just of Canadian art continued, and in 1968 happen all the time. To act as if the only Patterson began teaching Fine Arts at the _ things that ever occur are what happens University of Waterioo, a position she in daylight is like disregarding your held until her retirement this year. dreams . Throughout the years, the "bookish . _ While The Painted Hallway may be little girl"‘ never lost her passion for perceived as a novel for young adults, as literature, and, as well as producing a was the case with her first book plethora of learned papers and academic . Patterson is quick to point out that this essays on topics as diverse as book too has enough of an underlying mythopoeic literature and German folk mature theme to appeal to an adu!t art, she wrote a steady stream of poetry . audience as well and dabbled in short stories. in 1968 she "If you‘ll turn off that tape recorder . | I| published her first book of poetry, All tell you what it is,‘‘ she says coyly, and Green Creation, with an introduction by _ she‘s off again, weaving wonder. But Earle Birney. Meanwhile, she continued _ that‘s a story you‘ll have to tind out for to immerse herself in the fantasy of yourself. J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Meanwhile, Nancyâ€"Lou Patterson is "I had all these years been reading hard at work on a new series of books fantasy,‘‘ Patterson says. ‘‘My husband _ about a detective who happens to be a said ‘why don‘t you right a fantasy retired academic with an insatiable Waterloo author Nancyâ€"Lou Patterson _ She immediately set to work to create WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1992 â€" PAGE 23 CLASSIC cA se i4 ppre K : HWI‘T wiplet) : B 2 rlidbdl | § 3 Pm [ RECEIVE AN ADDITIONAL ‘‘a fullâ€"blewn invented world fantasy which was published by Porcupine‘s Quill in 1985. While Apple Staff & Silver Crown was perceived at the time as a children‘s book, Patterson always felt there were elements in the book which could be entertaining to an adult audience, just as she had always loved The Secret Garden and the Chronicles of Narnia It was about this time that her interest in German folk art steered her in a new direction when a friend arranged for her to tour the McWilliam House in Drayton where she saw the ‘ wondertul paintings in the hall.‘ She wrote a paper on the subject for Material History Bulletin at the National Museum, and soon discovered that there were numerous examples of this marvelous German tolk art throughout southern Ontaric The more of them she documented the more the writer in her began to realize what a wonderful springboard tor a story one of these painted rooms could be. and thus was The Painted Hallway born Patterson had but to imagine what curious influence such a mysterious work could have on the inquiring mind of a "It isn‘t a ghost story. says Patterson. "But it is a visionary story You can see it as an absolute ftantasy although it is really not ftundamentally occult, It is a story of the imagination and, if it‘s about something, it s about the way in which works of art gradually communicate meaning "If you‘ll turn off that tape recorder . | I| tell you what it is,‘‘ she says coyly, and she‘s off again, weaving wonder. But that‘s a story you‘ll have to find out tor yourself. Meanwhile, Nancyâ€"Lou Patterson is hard at work on a new series of books about a detective who happens to be a retired academic with an insatiable curiosity. Typeâ€"casting?