The pacing is as deliberate as a brush stroke, and Kishkans unflinching, vividly rendered reflections offer a powerful study of how art can both celebrate and appropriate the female form. A richly textured meditation on a reclamation of self from the frames of the past.Kirkus Kishkan is a lid lifter, bearer of ceilings, and stair dweller who scatters thoughts and emotions with keen insight, Homeric hymns, and the Limners of Victorias artistic scene. Her portrait with dark hair, strewn flowers, blue vest, and lateral gaze haunts the pages of her memoir. Her story involves an understanding of boundaries, not just between men and women, but between art and society, and the nature of frames and framing. Kishkans flowing words, thoughts, and rhythms overpaint Wilkinsons portraits in a pentimento of counter-discourse that purges shame and guilt.Michael Greenstein, The Seaboard Review of Books A stunning landscape of memory, archive and art that reads like a confessional. This haunting story of subversive beauty is not to be missed.Sonja Pinto, BC Bookworld Theresa Kishkan writes beautifully about art and selfhood, about the timorous spirit of young women during an era that was repressive of their sexuality even while it held them accountable for men's desires and actions. For British Columbia readers, this is also a fascinating portrait of Victoria during the era of the significant Limners Society, a group of artists and writers that included (as well as Kishkan's portraitist), crucial figures like Myfanwy Pavelic and poet-critic Robin Skelton.Heidi Tiedemann Darroch, Canadian Womens Crime Fiction
