Wednesday, April 3, 2019 ~ SOOKE
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
The first Art & Word published collection of Sooke local poetry, prose and images [ISBN: 978-1-9994743-0-0] was released last fall, but enjoyed an outdoor celebration in springtime last weekend.
It’s a nice book to look at and hold. Glossy cover. The white inside pages are not overly glossy but smooth. The open-edges are cropped with round corners for an intimate feel. Nicely printed and with a glue-bound spine by Hillside Printing in Victoria, it’s a fine piece for marketing the Sooke Arts Council (SAC) that created it.
The 86-page book was shaped by committee. Which isn’t always a successful organizational model, but this group seems to have made it work for the 33 artist and writers who contributed. The content, theme and final book format hangs together with bright colours yet ample white space to present the pairings of image and word.
Committee members were Linda Gordon (president, SAC), Linda Green Abraham, Tatjana Darling, Deb Clay, Frederique Philip, Linda Anderson, Melanie Fast and Gregory Varano.
The thing about creative writing — much of it poetry in this collection — is that it’s all about personal inclination. Poetry by its own nature is introspective, so the reader is commanded to see the world through the poet’s eyes. The setting for many of the writings and images (paintings, photos and images of creations such as mosaics and clay art) is Sooke. That was the point.
There are the expected natural and regional themes in this collection including animals, wildflowers and trees, lighthouses, nature walks, the beach and waves and morning dew. Also explorations of homes and family, remembrance, gender exploration and emotional examination of fury. It’s quite a range. Yet it all seems to hang together somehow, concluded with sunset imagery of Whiffin Spit in both image and prose by long-time Sooke resident Frederique Philip.
A short bio of each artist or writer is presented in the final pages. Upon closing the book, the statement “We believe in art in its many forms” is nicely placed.
Sponsors intended for the Sooke creative arts to be supported by this venture. Official sponsors acknowledged in the book are the BC Government, BC Arts Council, District of Sooke, and the Capital Regional District.
The declaration on the back cover is that the book “explores the connections between art and word and how one influences the other”. It’s a broad claim, this: “It will inspire you to further explore the possibilities and you may never see images or read text in the same way again!”
The book retails for $35 at the Sooke Region Museum gift shop (corner of Sooke Road and Phillips Road in Sooke). Bulk pricing also available. More info: https://sookecommunityarts.com/art-word/