Editorial Notes
Eco-Issue, Spring 2009
Dedication
This issue is dedicated to my father Gerald Keith Sands, who passed away on February 27, 2009, just as I was finishing up the preview copy. I would also like to add that Paula, the featured artist, and I seemed to have had a common experience, as we are both from the United States, both married a Woodbury, are both living in Canada now, and both lost our fathers this past February from Parkinsons disease.
My father was an exceptional father, husband, friend, son, grandfather, uncle, nephew, cousin, and brother. He was the type of person to lift people up, not cut them down. He never made me feel small or unimportant. He was a certified genius, and as my sister so sweetly said when describing his Parkinsons disease, which slowly ravished his body and mind: he could lose more of his brain cells and still be above most people! This was indeed true. I got to spend months with him during his last year at the nursing home, and watched as he grew from somewhat communicative to hardly communicative -- except for rare times when he would have a good day and still speak very eloquently describing a dream, the pleasant day, or some music he heard.
I dedicate this issue in memory of my father for his frugality in life, his work ethic, and especially because he so firmly loved and admired nature and the outdoors. In all of our growing-up years, Dad took us children to the outdoors: to hike the wonderful trails of Indiana's state parks, to raft the whitewater of Wisconsin's Wolf River, to cross-country ski the forest preserves outside of Chicago and up in Wisconsin, to canoe the still waters of Sugar Creek, to swim in lakes and rivers and pools, to ride horses and get lost in the middle of the Arizona desert, to climb the hills and mountains of the South and West, to investigate the caverns and caves of Texas and Kentucky, and to enjoy the simple pleasantries of camping and just being outdoors, whether it was a big picnic or a simple outing. He subscribed to National Geographic and Time-Life books for years, and I remember those being my favorite things to read when I was young. Because of his encouragement and guidance in teaching me about the natural world all my life, this issue of Jack is what it is.
Artwork This issue has gone back to being minimalistic, tying in to earlier visions of Jack, which were less cluttered than later issues. There's usually not a lot of rhyme nor reason to the changing look of Jack except for mood and whatever artwork is featured. I like to experiment with the cover and contents some, though the inside pages have the same look they always did.
Paula Cravens is this issue's artist, and I found her by seeing a couple of her collages framed on the walls at my husband's dad's place. Paula is my husband's aunt by marriage. I later looked at her blog and contacted her about this issue of Jack. With a recurring literary and environmental theme -- this issue being a tie-in of the two -- Paula's paintings seemed to fit right in.
I chose some animal paintings, a plant painting, and several collages and paintings of different goddesses portraying birds and fruits, thinking they'd go well with the ecological focus of this issue. The paintings seem to be primitive and ancestral. And reverent. Think of Jack's big white spaces as museum walls and corners that provide no depth, only light and a backdrop for the words and art appearing here.
Sometimes Jack is full of clash, wild color, and clutter, but not this time. Nature paintings and nature writings are to be unpolluted, if that makes sense.
New blog and link page Jack Magazine has also recently joined the blogging world at Jack Magazine's Blog. All links will be updated at the blog site.
