Artists inspire book of poetry
LOCAL POET’S LATEST BOOK TO BE OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED FEB. 15
“Imagine three artists sitting at their easels about to represent the world around them,” Blaine Greenwood writes on his blog. “Take a subject as common as the human eye. Matisse just suggested the eye with two or three strokes of bold colour and often hid his initials within those strokes. Magritte took the eye and turned it into a gigantic advertising poster — with clouds floating in the iris. And then there was Dali … the eye appears, suspended in mid-air over a sky, like a bruise glassy and weeping.”
Greenwood was talking about his new book of poetry, “The False Mirror,” which is inspired by a trio of renowned 20thcentury painters — René Magritte, Henri Matisse and Salvador Dali.
The book’s title, says Greenwood, is taken from Magritte’s painting of the same name. “Magritte’s work takes ordinary objects and turns them into thought-provoking mysteries,” Greenwood continues. “Dali, an ultrasurrealist, is an artist of dreamscapes that seem to scream for psychoanalysis. Matisse, who appears to be more serene of the three, is an artist that uses flat patches of intense colour and tends towards an economy of line and shape.
“These three artists — Matisse, Magritte and Dali — having experienced many common life experiences, represent their views of reality in radically different ways. Hopefully what this collection of poetry will cause you to do is see reality not just with your eyes but your mind and your imagination as well.”
The official launch of “The False Mirror” will take place Feb. 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the University of Lethbridge Bookstore, 4401 University Drive. The launch will feature a performance by students who participated in Noble Central School’s second Poetry Slam in December, for which Greenwood served on the panel of judges.
Greenwood’s book has received early praise from the literary community.
“‘The False Mirror’ is a unique poetic insight into an ekphrastic response to art,” said Vivian Hansen, author of “A Tincture of Sunlight.” “Matisse, Dali and Magritte receive the Greenwood brushstroke of exquisite poety to reflect their work. This collection is sparse amd muscular. Blaine Greenwood has delivered an energetic poetic portrait of living, artful words.”
“Blaine Greenwood’s ‘The False Mirror’ is clear-eyed ekphrastic portraiture of three turn-of-the-century artists, Matisse, Magritte and Dali,” said Micheline Maylor, Poet Laureate of Calgary 2016-18. “It is a celebration of reflective form and image in a time when art, war, and the strangeness of psychoanalysis became bedmates. Through the gestalt law of proximity, things become other things and the complexity of the time reveals itself as art. Greenwood’s poetry allows for conversions of history into dream states and fascinating conversations that illuminate the inner lives and perceptions of these artists. Language itself lilts and plays at surrealism and sensuousness.”
“The False Mirror” can be ordered online at
Greenwood, who was born in Viking, Alberta and worked as an educator, is the author of an earlier book of poetry, “Black Cat in the Shadows” (Ekstatis Editions, 2015).