Inclinazioni di luce - Slants of Light

With a nod to Emily Dickinson, Lidia Chiarelli pays tribute to twelve women artists who each is, uniquely, a special slant of light. For each artist, it is as if poet Chiarelli is holding a prism to display the full spectrum of human feelings that each artist experienced in her life. A bonus is the pairing of each poem with a digital collage created by Gianpiero Actis, Lidia’s husband and true partner in this collaborative trove of artistry. One could say that her poems are “word paintings" of light and his digital images are "visual poems" of light. A bonus of this wonderful collection is that, in the form of an almanac, there is a short bio sketch of each woman per month, which I found especially helpful for the six artists who were new to me: Rebecca Korn, Louise Joséphine Bourgeois, Nick de Saint Phalle, Daphne Maugham Casorati, Camille Claudel, and Tamara de Lempicka. Even for the six artists previously known to me, these were helpful reminders of the lives they led: Lee Krasner, Sonia Delauney, Georgia O’Keefe, Diane Arbus, Frieda Kahlo, and Carolyn Mary Kleefeld (whose own acrylic and ink on canvas also is added). For readers who may already be fans of Chiarelli’s, Sunset in a Cup which paid tribute to twelve American and English woman writers, this book will be a welcome companion. Neal Whitman, Pacific Grove, California, USA