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Summary

Born in Tallinn, Estonia, Merike came to Canada as a young girl in 1952. She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966 and got her MA in Sociology in 1968. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry Toronto and Room of One's Own and her articles on the art world in City Woman and Avenue. Her book of poetry, Ophelia After Centuries of Trying, was published by watershedBooks in 1998. She began painting in the 1970s and, more recently, making sculptures in the 1990s. As a painter or sculptor has had shows in Toronto, Vienna, Cobourg, Stratford, and Bellingham, WA.

Just recently Merike is also helping out Rod in launching a new federally incorporated not-for-profit environmental organization: Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy (Canada) Inc. / Écologistes Pour l'Énergie Nucléaire (Canada) Inc.

But, back to writing and art -- some of her short stories are presented on her website at www.rodmer.com/StoryRoom.html and some of her poetry at www.rodmer.com/PoetryRoom.html. Some of her painting and sculpture are shown at www.rodmer.com/Art Gal.html. She has recently completed her first novel: Leaving Lake Surrender.

She lives in the country just outside Cobourg, ON, Canada -- on top of a drumlin we call 'SwallowHill' -- with her poet/composer (late beginner) husband, Rod Anderson, and a successful dog (Laijka) plus four ruling cats (Kiisu, Cleo, Diva, and Tippy), the 5 of whom actually are the owners around here.

Background

Born Tallinn, Estonia, 1943
Lived in Estonia, Sweden, Toronto, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cobourg
Her family fled to Germany to escape the Russian invasion in 1944
Moved to Sweden after the war
Came to Canada in 1952
Lived variously in Toronto, Philadelphia, Los Angeles
Now lives in a century farmhouse outside Cobourg with her poet/composer husband, four cats and one dog.

Education

B.A. General Arts, University of Toronto, 1962-1966
M.A. Sociology, University of Toronto, 1966-1968

Published Writing

Ophelia After Centuries of Trying (poetry) watershedBooks (Toronto: 1998)

a book of poetry

4 Poems in Room of One's Own; Vol 19:2 Summer-Fall 1996

4 Poems in Poetry Toronto; Nov 1988

one of them was:

Ophelia after centuries of trying

"Portrait of the Artist as Woman",

lead article in City Woman; Mar/Apr 1979.

Art Reviews from 1979 to 1984, Avenue Magazine (Toronto)

Unpublished Writing

Leaving Lake Surrender

her first novel -- now in search of a publisher

"Brush with Disorder"

an essay on art distributed at her 1990 show at the Galerie Beaux Arts in Toronto.

numerous poems, short stories, novella

one of her short stories was:

Oxanna and Cleopatra

Anthologies

New Canadian Poetry, Fitzhenry & Whitside (Markham, ON: 2000) (3 poems)

Public Readings

A Review in Canadian Literature

• A review entitled "With Eyes Wide Open" by Susan Drodge -- being a review of Merike's poetry book Ophelia After Centuries of Trying (together with two works by other writers) appeared in issue #173 summer 2002 of Canadian Literature
• Ironically, the review title ("With Eyes Wide Open"), which was a reference to one of the other writers, happens to be almost identical to the title of one of Merike's paintings: With Our Eyes Wide Open -- life is full of coincidences.

Excerpts from Other Reviews of Her Poetry

Gillian Harding-Russell in Event, Douglas College Review, Vol 28/1, Spring 1999

"Merike Lugus . . . writes a lean verse in which the speaker examines her relationship with her father and lover using the Hamlet story as frame. . . . the poet-speaker in Ophelia after centuries of trying explores her own varying personae as daughter of a war refugees, lover, mother and artist. . . . Expertly, Lugus employs reported thought and speech to allow us to enter the rhythms of thought patterns in the characters' interactions with each other. . . . "From the Plath-like 'Daddy Why didn't You?' to the title poem 'Ophelia After Centuries of Trying,' which encapsulate the twin themes of dysfunctional relationships between the poet-speaker and her father and lover, Lugus creates a lyrical intensity using dense verses finely tuned by elliptical images."

Pat Jasper of watershedBooks, 1998

"Whether probing the fierce loyalties that bond even the most dysfunctional of families or the ramifications of the Ophelia stereotype or the coping mechanisms of those living with death and without love, her quest is no less than the reconciliation of the beauties of life with its cruelties. A work of full-fledged maturity."

Poetry and Short Stories on the Internet

• RodMer Poetry Room
• RodMer Story Room

Merike has always been interested in transitions, whether in personal growth, social conditions, or the environment. The world is going through major upheavals and, while she finds the integrity of an individual life the most important focus, each life is affected by the changes swirling around us. Some of these changes (the technological miracle that allows us to connect individually yet globally over the Internet) are exciting; others (the increasing numbers of the wandering homeless), profoundly disturbing.

Solo Art Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Excerpts from Reviews of her Art

Kay Krizwiser, The Globe & Mail, Toronto

"[She] works out for herself the answers to human relationships she was unable to discover in sociology.... Her colour may be an Estonian legacy for it is clear, precise, and often worked out in the rich inter-lacing of design claimed by the Symbolists....She studies the joys counterbalancing the despairs of the human race."

Estée Klausner of the Estée Gallery, Toronto

"Most of her work features the human form, ... rendered with bold yet disciplined colours and lines which capture an underlying rhythm and energy. The resulting figure-patterns are pleasing in themselves but also offer an interpretation of the mysteries of the human condition, relationships and emotions"

Melanie Browne, Cobourg Daily Star, May 2, 1994

"To the left is another sculpture, Merike Lugus's Carapace, which was, for me, the star of this year's show. This moulded, armour-like female shape studded with nails is not as brutal as it may sound. It is, in fact, almost decoratively beautiful, and the peephole in the middle of the torso lightens the load of meaning without shortchanging the sculptor's serious ideas."

Art Interviews

"A Statuesque Figure" With Gillian Barfoot, Cobourg Daily Star, Jan 15, 1998
With Ron Thurston, video, Cobour, 1990
With CFMX radio, Cobourg, 1990

Art on the Internet

Merike Lugus Art Gallery on the Web

http://www.rodmer.com/ArtGal.html

Merike Lugus entry on Art Exchange

an on-line site for the works of countless artists (over 70,000 works)

[end of curriculum vitae]

Artist's Statement

• What I try to explore in my art