Saturday, October 13, 2007

Gloe Cormie poems sculpture student Kim Halpenny.

Poeming sculpture student Kim Halpenny in her barn studio at the University of Manitoba was soulful and fun. We had a good talk about art and politics. She and I talked of the challenges of being an artist in sculpture as a woman in 2007 versus two decades ago, when I was a sculpture student. (I did a BFA, Hons. before my degree in English.) Her giant vinyl goldfish is designed so a person can “wear” it. In the above photograph, the goldfish head is on the left and its body is on the right, sporting a RAP sign strategically pasted on its scales. It’s the beginning of her sculpture thesis project that will include goldfish drawings and film work. I read her a poem from Sea Salt, Red Oven Mitts and the Blues, as well as a very recent poem titled, “A Fish Story”, which I also personally signed for her. She loved both poems and said she would be sure to read my book. In my narrative, magic-realist poem a man “begins to wish­throwing his line and lure out” and “Soon he lifts up a small translucent fish bulging with pearls”. I wished her “a handful of those opalescent fish pearls, dancing with light”.

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