Local artist’s book releases inspired from the merging of painting and poetry

By Al Beeber on August 6, 2021.

Herald photo by Al Beeber - Linda Horner and her third published work of poetry and paintings, now available at Analog Books in Lethbridge.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

She has written three books combining poetry and painting and now Lethbridge artist Linda Horner is working on a fourth.
The retired teacher at Immanuel Christian School has been busy since walking away from the classroom in 2001 and just released her third book “Poetry and Painting in Southern Alberta,” printed by the University of Lethbridge.
Working out of her westside home where she and her husband have lived for 37 years, Horner has produced a substantial catalogue of works and has exhibited in various locations across western Canada including the old Bowman Arts Centre in Lethbridge where she staged two – “Faces of Landscape” which consisted of camouflage paintings and “Merging,” which featured poetry and painting.
Her latest effort can be found at Analog Books downtown at 322 6 St. S.
That book was 20 years in the making, Horner said this week.
“After I retired I’d be waking up at three in the morning and there’d be almost a complete poem in my mind,” she said.
So much to the chagrin of her husband, she would turn on a light and put pen to paper.
“That’s been happening for many, many years. It’s been 20 years in the making. It doesn’t happen overnight,” said Horner who has 13 poems ready for a fourth book.
Some of her new poems, she said, are funny while others are serious.
Working with acrylic and water-colours, Horner has created many stunning pieces of art over the years. One she has hanging on the wall of her westside home is inspiring her to write a poem about Indigenous matters.
She has begun putting more people in her paintings, she said, pointing to some on a table she calls her “COVID paintings.”
Some of the landscapes are real places, while others are imaginary, she said, adding she is now feeling that “people are as important as landscapes.”
Her poetry career, Horner said, has “kind of been a long process in the making. I did ‘Alphabet of Poetry’ and then I did ‘A Rainbow of Poetry and Painting,’ and then I did this third one.”
Combining painting and poetry in one work, she said, “came from when I had my last show at the Bowman called The Merging with my poetry and painting so I was writing my poetry into paintings.”

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