Out-take: sketchbook

This is Ian Sokoliwski, fantasy and comic book artist who lives in Winnipeg.

I know Ian from around. I've seen his work around and he/it looks nifty.

Anyways, I spotted Ian at yesterday's Afternoon Book Chat with Joseph Boyden and Marilyn Dumont as I slid into my seat. He'd installed himself at a table and already had pencils and a couple of sketchbooks out.

During the readings and subsequent conversation, Ian sketched in both books.

Though it may have looked like he was ignoring the goings-on - which, incidentally, focused almost entirely on handiwork like beading and sewing and writing - I think he was drawing under the conversation.

I've often written poems while at lectures. It wasn't that I wasn't paying attention, it was that whatever was being discussed had twigged something.

And if you don't pay attention to those jabs, those improbable gifts of image and language and energy, then you're just dumb.

After everything was all over, Ian let me photograph his hour's work.

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Ariel Gordon is a Winnipeg-based writer and editor. Her poetry has recently appeared in PRISM International, The Fieldstone Review, and Prairie Fire. In addition to being Events Coordinator at Aqua Books, Ariel also contributes to the Winnipeg Free Press' Books Section and Prairie books NOW.

A hand-made, limited-edition chapbook of Ariel's poetry, entitled The navel gaze (with Kingsville, ON's Palimpsest Press), will be launched Oct. 1 at Aqua Books.