What You See: Drawings by Gail Geltner

Janet Money is Sports Editor of the Woodstock Daily Sentinel-Review.

Geltner’s drawings have appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers
for more than two decades. This collection is a testament to her skill,
for these delightful and surprising drawings work on their own,
independent of the text they accompanied in the original publications.

Geltner has a keen eye for what it is like to be a woman in a world
still dominated by men. The self-portrait that opens the book—Geltner
as archer, drawing pens from a quiver—anticipates the many drawings
that go to the heart of the female condition. In a postcard called
“Timber!” a woman with a saw appears dwarfed by an enormous
spike-heeled shoe. A puny man asks a foolish question in “Why the Long
Face?”

What You See includes an introduction by Linda Hutcheon as well as an
afterword by Geltner in which she calls her work “inky meanderings
that lead to small discoveries and unexpected connections. Not unlike
kicking a pebble down an unfamiliar lane—the stone may end up at a
trellis of Morning Glories or at the body of a dead squirrel.” What
Geltner has collected here is immensely entertaining.