1983 Fredericton Convocation - Ceremony A
Bobak, Molly Lamb
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.)
Orator: Rowan, Donald F.
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L to R: Dr. James Downey, Molly Lamb Bobak
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Source: Joe Stone fonds-UA RG340, 1983 (#13601)
Citation:
CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1983
MOLLY LAMB BOBAK
to be Doctor of Letters
My charge this afternoon as University Orator is to "Pipe a song about a lamb." Still taking the notes of my song from William Blake, I ask "Little Lamb who made thee? / Dost thou know whom made thee?" Blake was a mystic and an artist -- one who dreamed dreams and saw visions -- and his answer is that the same hand which framed the gentle lamb also twisted the sinews of the "Tyger's" heart. He probes the mystery of this "fearful symmetry" in his poetry and in his painting, for Blake is a "maker" just as his God is a "maker."
Molly Bobak is such another; she too is a maker with the gift of vision and she seeks through her art to reveal the wonder of a creation which has room for both the lamb and the tiger. Much of her life has been dedicated to mastering her arduous discipline, to learning her craft so that she may share with us her unique perception of the infinite variety of the world around us.
Alden Nowlan -- a colleague and friend and one who had an artist's vision -- wrote of her thus. She has "a willingness to be continually surprised by the commonplace, combined with innate ability as a draftsman, a bottomless well of energy, and an unflagging trust in the soundness of her own sensibility." These qualities have made of Molly Lamb B. "one of the finest watercolourists active today" and an "oil painter who constructs her works like a sculptor."
She is, then, a fine and distinguished artist, but she is, as well, a cheerful and dedicated teacher who seeks to persuade her students to master the tools of their trade, to polish and sharpen their skills and techniques, and then -- and only then -- to listen to those inner promptings which sometimes lead them to break through the formal bonds of their art. She has told me in a moment of confession that one of the great and lasting pleasures of her life has been her teaching, and, today, it is fitting for us -- the University of New Brunswick -- to honour her not only for her art but also for her love of teaching. One may say of her as Chaucer did of his Clerk of Oxenford: Gladly wolde she lerne, and gladly teche.
Insignissime Praeses, amplissima Cancellaria tota Universitas, praesento vobis Molly Lamb Bobak ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradem Doctoris in Litteris in hac Universitate.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2
MOLLY LAMB BOBAK
to be Doctor of Letters
My charge this afternoon as University Orator is to "Pipe a song about a lamb." Still taking the notes of my song from William Blake, I ask "Little Lamb who made thee? / Dost thou know whom made thee?" Blake was a mystic and an artist -- one who dreamed dreams and saw visions -- and his answer is that the same hand which framed the gentle lamb also twisted the sinews of the "Tyger's" heart. He probes the mystery of this "fearful symmetry" in his poetry and in his painting, for Blake is a "maker" just as his God is a "maker."
Molly Bobak is such another; she too is a maker with the gift of vision and she seeks through her art to reveal the wonder of a creation which has room for both the lamb and the tiger. Much of her life has been dedicated to mastering her arduous discipline, to learning her craft so that she may share with us her unique perception of the infinite variety of the world around us.
Alden Nowlan -- a colleague and friend and one who had an artist's vision -- wrote of her thus. She has "a willingness to be continually surprised by the commonplace, combined with innate ability as a draftsman, a bottomless well of energy, and an unflagging trust in the soundness of her own sensibility." These qualities have made of Molly Lamb B. "one of the finest watercolourists active today" and an "oil painter who constructs her works like a sculptor."
She is, then, a fine and distinguished artist, but she is, as well, a cheerful and dedicated teacher who seeks to persuade her students to master the tools of their trade, to polish and sharpen their skills and techniques, and then -- and only then -- to listen to those inner promptings which sometimes lead them to break through the formal bonds of their art. She has told me in a moment of confession that one of the great and lasting pleasures of her life has been her teaching, and, today, it is fitting for us -- the University of New Brunswick -- to honour her not only for her art but also for her love of teaching. One may say of her as Chaucer did of his Clerk of Oxenford: Gladly wolde she lerne, and gladly teche.
Insignissime Praeses, amplissima Cancellaria tota Universitas, praesento vobis Molly Lamb Bobak ut admittatur honoris causa ad gradem Doctoris in Litteris in hac Universitate.
From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2
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