ARTS EAST

Multi award winning singer-songwriter Jessica Rhaye is feeling comfortable in her own skin these days and it shows; her latest release, Song In Me , embodies that ease with a collection of natural tunes that reflect the seasoned singer-songwriter’s maturing sense of herself and the world. Recently we spoke with her about her career and her new recording. What is your background? I was born in Saint John, New Brunswick and raised in Hampton, NB, where I still reside. My grandparents are of English and Scottish decent. When and why did you start performing music? I feel like I have been singing and writing music ever since I can remember. When I was a little girl, 5 years old, my Dad would set up a microphone to his stereo and I would spend hours recording myself on cassette tapes, singing every song I knew, and making up my own song lyrics and melodies. I enrolled in ukulele and violin in elementary school and then joined choirs and theatre arts in junior high and high sc...

Inspired by true events,   Art Love Forgery   is a story of forbidden love in nineteenth-century St. John’s, a legend that lives on within the walls and ceilings of Government House. Recently we spoke with author Carolyn Morgan. What inspired you to write Art Love Forgery? I first heard about Alexander Pindikowsky’s story on visits to Government House and The Presentation Convent. I was fascinated by the fact that the beautiful ceiling frescoes at Government House were painted by Pindikowsky, in 1880, while he was serving a prison sentence for the crime of forgery. Even more compelling was the fact that there is a small portrait of a woman’s head painted in the ceiling of the ballroom. The popular story is that the portrait is a likeness of Government House parlour maid, Ellen Dormody, since he later married and had a child with a woman of that name.  It is thought that she and Pindikowsky fell in love while he was creating the frescoes. The story was so intrigui...