Four brothers, four artists. Four award-winning, influential and controversial careers as commercial artists, visual artists and educators. The four Mayrs brothers come together in an exhibition at the West Vancouver Museum and concurrently at West Vancouver Memorial Library, aptly titled “We All Drew, Always.”
It’s just the three brothers now. William and Marjorie, their parents, and elder sisters Margaret and Irene, are gone. Frank died in 1994, at the age of 60 at his home in Ottawa.
As far as the record can be traced, the Mayrs brothers family tree includes no artists. Irish on both sides, they were haberdashers, shopkeepers and farmers. Until the boys’ parents broke the mould.
William left farm and family to apprentice as a butcher, and in 1910, at the age of 21, he sailed away to a new life in Canada. William would return to Europe once more, to serve with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War.
Marjorie Henry was born in Belfast, orphaned at age three. The 15 years she lived with relatives on a farm instilled in her an intense dislike for that life. In 1922, on her 18th birthday, Marjorie boarded the liner that would take her across the Atlantic to the new world.
Marjorie and William married in Winnipeg in 1925. William owned a Red and White store, a combination grocery and butcher shop. Marjorie kept house and raised the children. First came Margaret and Irene, neither ever evincing any interest in the arts, then the four brothers, Bill in 1932, Frank in 1934, David in 1935 and Charles in 1940.
It was a rambunctious household, with sisters squabbling, the boys fighting one minute and friends the next, young Charlie bearing the brunt of the brothers’ teasing. To keep peace in the family, William gave the boys butcher paper and grease pencils from the shop, with instructions to go away
and draw.
Every night after supper, the brothers copied their favourite comic strips. Bill’s pick was Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff. Frank liked the Second World War adventurer Johnny Hazzard and Dave liked Rip Kirby, private eye. Charlie copied the comic book character, Felix the Cat.
“One might say the Winnipeg days were the proving grounds for the art of the Mayrs brothers. We loved art and we loved using our imagination. Give us blank paper and we brothers created art, which our mother proudly pinned to our bedroom walls,” Charles said.
The family moved to Vancouver in 1947, inspired by William’s visit to the coast one winter, the experience preserved in a postcard that reads, “Oh, Marjorie, the daffs are up!”
For Charles, the move was significant. “I can’t speak for my brothers, but I wanted to go. To me, Winnipeg was mosquitoes and snow. I was seven but I had the feeling I was starting a new life.”
William opened a butcher shop at 4th and Macdonald. Marjorie, who had a thrifty temperament, ensured that everyone worked. The brothers set pins at the bowling alley behind the Kerrisdale Arena at night and delivered the Vancouver News Herald in the morning. Marjorie decided Charles would have a paper route too.
“Mother phoned the Province newspaper every day, until they gave me a paper route, even though I was underage. I delivered about 30 papers around Larch Street where we lived.”
From 1947 to 1957, there was at least one Mayrs brother at Magee high school. Art teacher Laura Wilcox encouraged the boys in their intention to be artists.
Bill paved the way, announcing his plan to enroll at art school. Threats were issued and laws laid down, but Bill was firm in his commitment to a career in the arts, and so, therefore, were his brothers.
“Following Bill’s lead, we fell like dominoes,” says Charles. “We all attended the Vancouver School of Art where we had the good fortune to have Orville Fisher, Donald Jarvis, Peter Aspell, Jack Shadbolt, Bruno Bobak, Gordon Smith, as our teachers.”
The brothers calculate that from 1950 to 1996, one or more Mayrs was studying or teaching at VSA, a stretch of 45 years minus a couple of years in the 1960s when no Mayrs were at the school.
Four careers in the visual and commercial arts were launched after graduation. Frank went to the federal government. Charles started working with Lovick advertising agency right out of school. Bill went to an agency in Winnipeg, David to London on a traveling scholarship.
Eventually, except for Frank, who was in Ottawa, the brothers made their homes and raised their families on the North Shore. The pace of life and work as they established themselves in the visual and commercial arts kept the brothers apart but they always celebrated their siblings’ successes. Childhood roughhousing and teasing gave way to respect and support.
Many bright spots shone along the way, some very familiar to Canadians. Bill designed the logo for the Pan American Games in Canada’s centennial year. Frank designed the Expo 86 logo with colleague Ian MacLeod. Charles was creative director at Baker Lovick/BBDO, the Vancouver agency that secured the Expo 86 account.
David was the first to receive notoriety as an artist. In 1967, an exhibition at the Douglas Gallery, which included a painting titled St. George Ten Minutes After Slaying the Dragon, led to charges of obscenity and a court case that was eventually settled in favour of the gallery. He continued painting alongside his parallel career teaching at the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design). In 1996, the year David retired, both of his daughters graduated from the school.
Four brothers. Blessed with parents who paved the way for their sons’ decisions to make their way as artists. The brothers are parents and grandparents now. David has retired from painting. Bill paints in Mexico where he lives part-time.
Charles paints every day and creates limited edition letter press books which find their way into special collections at libraries and universities. His latest, Beguiling West Vancouver, a paean to all that Charles loves about his home community, is displayed at the current exhibition.
“We All Drew, Always” is showing at the West Vancouver Museum until Dec. 16 and at West Vancouver Memorial Library until Jan. 9.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or email her at [email protected].
