Connections

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, Japan Foundation Fellow 1991-92, and the author of
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home and As Though Life Mattered:
Leo Kennedy’s Story.

This book celebrates the concept of community in the creative process.
When sculptor and printmaker Jane Garland was confronted with a personal
crisis, she received generous support from seven women in Grey County,
Ontario. As creators in different media, the eight women have encouraged
and inspired one another.

Eight sculptures by Garland, paired with eight poems by Liz Zetlin,
express and honor the individuality of each woman in the group and their
capacity for sharing. Garland’s sculptures are fresh, strong, and
innovative. To call them mixed media is an understatement. They employ
such materials as copper wire, wood, glass beads, fabric, roots,
styrofoam, moss, and clay. Zetlin’s moving narrative poems encapsulate
lives in a few short pages of free verse. “For Karen” ends with
“Not the kind of laughter / you would have telling jokes. But a
warmth. / The warmth of women laughing.”

Connections makes a powerful statement on creativity and community. The
two artists have made a cassette with the same title.