Author(s): Catherine Bagnall; L Jane Sayle

Poetry | Art | Aotearoa | Read our reviews!

The book is developed from moments of intense connection with environments, landscapes and seasons, and the authors' shared understanding that simple but inspiring moments are a source of strength, a solution to the hysteria of contemporary life. The authors say: 'To be outdoors, that is the first thing.'

So, the settings of the 21 poems and 26 paintings range from gardens in Munich to the bush around Eastbourne. They pause to note birds on lamp-posts, snow-laden trees and warm pavements. The authors also say 'To connect is the last thing. It's vital, in a well-lived human life to share moments with others. We're not separate from the natural world and its sublime complexity of organic inter-relationships. Small everyday acts of connection that honour it strengthen and ground us.'

Review: 'This collaboration between an artist and a poet, both raised near Wellington, is another beautiful hardcover book from Massey University Press, in a cute and compact ''poetry book'' size. Catherine Bagnall's dreamy, exquisitely coloured watercolours drift layers of meaning in the gauzy colours of summer leaves, spring greens and indigo skies through Jane Sayle's interleaved lines: On we go Empty suitcase made of leaves and a stomach light as air just to walk up in the sky talking with you; There is something so alive about Sayle's metaphors - the ''empty suitcase made of leaves,'' the ''rabbit under the pillow/birds in the bed'', ''an ember-winged monarch/breathes in and out/the shadow of daylight'' a spirit which sneaks through, over and under Bagnall's paintings of human forms transformed by mischievous animal cloaks.' - Jenny Nicholls, Waiheke Weekender, 15 April 2021. ; 'A magical and unique reading experience.' - Paula Green

Contents: 13 The time of the now 15 Overwhelmed by something ... 17 The first day 21 At last 23 What bird is that? 25 On we go 27 Companions 29 Going back 33 Lovey 37 In my stomach a winter garden at night ... 39 Botanical 41 As you were 43 Bedtime 47 The company 49 An ember-winged monarch ... 51 Souvenir 53 360 degrees 57 Superstructure 59 As to my infinite ... 61 Quartz Hill 63 The flowers of St Francis 65 Two heroes 67 Wildflowers 71 List of works 79 About the artist and the poet
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STELLA'S REVIEW:
On We Go is a beautiful book, in design and content. This collaboration between artist Catherine Bagnall and poet Jane Sayle is a whimsical dreamscape, contemplative with little pinpricks of curiosity and quiet insistence. Here on the page are the watercolours and the words moving against and with each other. Here on the page is our place and relationship with nature. Our eyes are drawn to the creatures and landscapes of the paintings; we both wonder at these magical places and the human-animal hybrids. Are they us? Are they our inner selves wandering in the garden, in the bush? Are they our nightscapes of dreams or unconscious rememberings? Our mind lingers on the words. A passing phrase here, a word there, evocatively carving its way in. This world so familiar, yet slightly strange  — off-kilter, mythic. And within and beyond the work are the themes, the conversation about ecology and the perils facing the natural world — a whisper of fragments that build upon each other and suggest quietly, yet forcefully, an attentiveness that is due to this place we live in. I’ve owned my copy of this perfectly designed small book of poems and art for a few years and it is a pleasure to read and contemplate each time I glance into it. I was drawn to it initially by the watercolours and then by the words, and back around to the art. A circular relationship in my looking and reading which reflects this excellent collaboration. You sense the flow of ideas and exchange between the two contributors; the ease that makes the work sing on the page. A lilting exploration of our place, and sometimes conversely, our otherness, in the natural world.

Author Biography: Catherine Bagnall is a senior lecturer in the School of Design at Massey University. Her work focuses on performance practices and its intersection with dress. Jane Sayle has been a dealer in curios and ephemera, an art writer and reviewer, and a lecturer in art and design history. For the past decade she has lived in California, France and Germany, and has recently returned home to New Zealand. This is her first book of poems.