Monday, December 19, 2011

'if not in paint' launched

Marion May Campbell's if not in paint was well & truly launched recently, with a wonderful speech by her childhood friend and novelist Joan London - the last 5 copies of the book sold out on the night - a rare thing for Electio - with Joan's permission, here is some of what she said about Marion's work & the book -


From my first reading, and all subsequent readings, I was overwhelmed by the beauty and skill with which the poem unwinds its interior vision, its journey back to a landscape that seems terribly familiar to me, the harsh brightness of its highways and the shining beauty of its natural world. Its imagery remains alive in my mind, like something awakened: the mother 'still giving advice from the rear-vision mirror', the 'red wattle bird flexing / the yellow callistemon / chokchoks at the glass'. . . . It's a long unwinding, a voice speaking from deep inside, flowing from thought to memory to allusion, a prisoner released, each image an emotion, like a brushstroke. . . . Everything speaks for this poem. The golden box, containing the heart's treasure. The rough, beach-coloured texture of its cover, the vibrant lemon yellow signboard of its title. The flashes of red print, like the images of red - flamehaired, red birds, red dreams - that recur throughout the text. . . . Miriam Morris's sinuous drawings, splashed with water colour, are alive with a practised, graceful lightness of touch that reflects the poem's art. . . 


Marion (right) acknowledging Joan's speech at the launch -