Finding the Colors: Recently published writing and photos, December 2022
Dreams, Turner and Moore, Jugglers, Pianos, Manhattan
Double rainbow over Rock Dunder, Ontario (copyright Meg Freer)
In this newsletter I dedicate two pieces to the late author Steven Lester Carr, who passed away recently, too young. With his Sweetycat Press, Steve was a tireless champion for emerging writers and was incredibly kind to writers he had never met. He was quite thrilled that my youngest son, Kalen, contributed the last line of my poem Like a Flame, and even sent him a copy of one of his junior novels. Steve published this poem in his Zooanthology of writing about animals.
Steve’s final gift to his readers is his last anthology, The Gift, a collection of drawings and writings about gifts we have received. I wrote a piece that appeared in it about the gift of a train ticket to go see an exhibit of JMW Turner’s art. Steve was a great art lover. Rest in peace, Steven Lester Carr.
Museum Visit
Being a proponent of experiences as gifts, I was overjoyed to receive for Christmas 2015 a train ticket to Toronto so that I could see a JMW Turner exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario. This day-trip a few days after the holiday contained more significance than the three-hour, routine train ride might suggest. I wish I could remember having seen Turner’s tomb in St. Paul’s Cathedral as a child, when my family lived in London for a year.
The Turner paintings were certainly spectacular—everything the poster outside said: sublime, emotional, serene, turbulent, powerful, stirring, frenetic, peaceful, intense, romantic. We as humans, of course, also exhibit all those tendencies, and perhaps that’s why his work draws us in. Small watercolours of scenes in Switzerland brought back memories of stunning lakes and mountains. Views of Venice—another magical place, the light there like nowhere else—included a picture of Turner’s hotel bedroom there, not so different from one my friends and I shared at Hotel Minerva as students. Especially beautiful was Venice at Sunrise from the Hotel Europa, with the Campanile of San Marco. Interesting also, especially to see in a Canadian context, was a large oil painting of the HMS Erebus, the ship that the Franklin expedition sailed to find the Northwest Passage. The wreckage was only found in 2014 by Parks Canada.
I noted criticism of Turner for using too much yellow, but what I noticed more than yellow was how much white he used. This isn’t apparent when you look at reproductions, but it really stands out up close. Notable also was that almost all the exhibited paintings seemed to have a visual division into three parts, sometimes horizontally but most often vertically, in the same way that many photographers compose their shots. Two compelling large works were the truly surreal Sunrise with Sea Monsters and Snow Storm.
An unexpected highlight was the Henry Moore sculpture gallery. I had to catch my breath when I saw the sheer number of sculptures there and remembered both my mother’s love of his work and how many pieces I have been lucky enough to see around the world. Henry Moore gave a huge number of drawings and original plaster models for his large bronze sculptures to the museum in 1974 and even designed the room the sculptures are in. His mother and child drawings are moving and exquisite. Outside the gallery passersby can view a large bronze sculpture, Two Large Forms.
But the Group of Seven galleries stunned me—room after room of paintings by these iconic Canadian artists that I hadn’t even seen in books. And so many with no glass over them. I had been so focused on going to see the Turner paintings that I hadn’t really thought about the extent of the museum’s collection. As I walked into the first room, my eyes teared up. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of works. By the second room, I actually had to sit down and compose myself, as I was really about to cry. The big paintings are simply astonishing, both up close and viewed from a distance, but the compact size of the boards most of the paintings are on is also quite appealing.
On my way out, an installation in the atrium caught my attention, with text by the Native Canadian artist, Robert Houle: “To be honest is to know the truth, have courage and to show respect and love. Through honesty, one attains and appreciates wisdom and humility.” As I walked down the street towards the train station in the dark, I saw my old buddy the CN Tower (whose 1776 steps I had run up the previous spring in a fundraising race). All dressed in festive red and green, the tower didn't look so tall after all. I made a Christmas wish that my walk through the gallery that day would help me become more wise and humble in the new year.
CN Tower, Toronto, Ontario (copyright Meg Freer)
Last Stanza Poetry Journal published my surreal poem Modulation in their issue 10. It was inspired by watching one of my favorite contemporary operas, Akhnaten, by Philip Glass, as performed by the Metropolitan Opera three years ago.
Staying with the New York theme, I wrote a poem inspired by the story of the Steinway Piano Company. It was published recently in a feature called Fresh Voices, from The League of Canadian Poets.
View of Manhattan from Brooklyn Bridge (copyright Meg Freer)
The League of Canadian Poets also reprinted my poem Facts Never Wake Up in their daily online feature, Poetry Pause.
For those of you not able to attend the poetry reading at Novel Idea Bookstore in Kingston on Oct. 20, at which I and three other regional writers launched some of our books, you can listen to it here on local poet Bruce Kauffman’s personal blog (originally broadcast on our local campus radio station CFRC), if you scroll to that date:
https://findingavoiceoncfrcfm.wordpress.com/
In the first hour, you’ll hear readings by Kate Kristiansen, Claudia Coutu Radmore, followed by my set of poems. In the second hour you'll hear Susan J. Atkinson's reading. Lots of fun with new and old friends from the region that evening!
Goodbye to 2022, and I wish you all good things in 2023!