The Girls with Stone Faces by Arleen Paré revealed a small piece of Canadian artistic history that I knew nothing about, but learned in the discussion at our book group yesterday afternoon. Our host had generously researched Florence Wyle and Frances Loring, “two of Canada’s greatest artists…” Florence and Frances met in 1906 at the Art Institute of Chicago. Arleen Paré, the Governor-General award winning author of Lake of Two Mountains, tells us of encountering their sculptures for at least a second time……
“but this time I was
struck stuck pinned to the air suspended
if I could have stroked
every surface but there was a guard at the door I knew only distillate awe
a welter of bliss.”
This slender volume and its poetry, stories their lives, their sculptures and even the hard work of sculpting, many sculptures life sized or larger. Arleen Paré’s poetry, in a very visual sense, describes beautifully only some of their sculptures wrought in stone, and some about the difficulties that these two women faced in the early 20th Century.
My initial reading of Arleen Paré’s poetry was difficult as I found it unlike any other poetry I have read in the past. However, hearing her poems read aloud by members of the group, I felt and heard the flow that I had missed in my own reading. This is a book of poetry that I keep on my book shelf - not just for the poetry but for the Canadian history. I hope to see at least one of their sculptures in time.
“And poetry can also be sculpture,
or at least it’s more like sculpture than it is a conversation.”
~Michael Redhill
(quotation used in the front of The Girls with Stone Faces)
Title: The Girls with Stone Faces
Author: Arleen Paré
Copyright: 2017
Publisher: Brick Books
Type: Poetry
Format: Soft cover, PDF and EPUB
ISBN: 978-1-77131-464-0 (Soft cover)
ISBN: 978-1-77131-466-4 (PDF)
ebook ISBN: 978-1-77131-465-7 (EPUB)
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