Carole Itter is a Canadian artist, writer and filmmaker based in Vancouver.
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Life and work
Carole Itter was born in Vancouver on September 29, 1939 where she continues to live and work. Her sculptures, assemblages, collages, installations, performances and writings are strongly influenced by the people and places where she has lived, and frequently reflect social and political issues. Carole Itter and her long-time partner, Al Neil, an experimental artist and jazz musician, share a home in Strathcona. Itter is represented in the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Public Library and the Canada Council Art Bank.
In 1972, Itter had a daughter, Lara, with Vancouver poet, Gerry Gilbert. After battling depression for many years, Lara Gilbert committed suicide in 1995. Itter edited Lara's extensive journals and published them under Lara's name in I Might Be Nothing. With Daphne Marlatt, she compiled and edited a history of Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood titled Opening Doors: Vancouver's East End.. Their book was republished as Opening Doors in Vancouver's East End in 2011. Other works by the artist include The Log's Log and Whistle Daughter Whistle.
For nearly 50 years, Carole Itter and Al Neil shared a studio, the "Blue Cabin," on the foreshore of Cates Park in Dollarton. This waterfront area had also been home to Malcolm Lowry, Earle Birney, Dorothy Livesay, and Al Purdy. Neil first moved into the cabin in the 1930s when he worked as the informal beach watchman for McKenzie Barge and Derrick Company. The land once owned by McKenzie Barge and Derrick is undergoing development which required Neil and Itter's cabin to be removed from the foreshore. In 2015, with the assistance of Glenn Alteen at Grunt Gallery, Esther Rausenberg of (http://www.creativeculturalcollaborations.com), Barbara Cole of Other Sights for Artists' Projects, Polygon Homes, Port Metro and many volunteers, the cabin was preserved and moved into secure storage until a permanent location for it could be found.