BRIAN FOURNIER

from the foreword by

Candace Anderson for

About My Cat

and other tales

Brian Fournier creates art while writing poetry in no less than what he identifies as an act of survival. He shares his evocative art and poetry in About My Cat and Other Tales. Survival requires sharp personal insights as well as astute assessments of one’s surroundings. With compelling pen and ink drawings along with poetry deeply personal and sometimes edgy, Fournier clearly reveals both skills.

Creative endeavors often seem profound when they consider universal constructs by exploring personal truths. Fournier invites his readers to glimpse the inner world of his personal truths—innocence, creativity, and sensitivity. Yet, he doesn’t flinch from sharing painful truths about his life within the constructs of the outer world.

His act of sharing is bold—an elegant contrast to the finesse of the drawings in pen and ink. Fournier adeptly uses fine lines and pointillism to illustrate portraits and poses of his dear cat along with other subjects prominent in the artist’s evolving life. At times, the drawings are so fine they nearly seem to dissolve into the cosmos they inhabit on the picture plane. Many of the drawings find their power through such delicacy, a perfect foil for the emotional force of the story revealed through Fournier’s poetic voice.

Fournier’s poetry comes alive in complex underpinnings that emerge in sharing of a simple moment, such as a communication with his cat. The gentle tone rewards the reader with the sweetness of innocent intention followed by a gut punch of acute pain from an abrupt act that annihilates the sweetness.

The poems sweep broadly through autobiographical childhood episodes and into the angst and challenges of Fournier’s transformative adult persona. Through it all, Fournier never wavers from speaking his truth with a genuine and skillful voice.

Fournier wisely assesses creativity as an act of survival. The pretense of seeking accolades never drives his creative motivation. Fournier focuses on the rich process of seeing and interpreting the world—his personal world as well as the outer world shared by the reader. The resulting splendid book touches upon what it is to be human.

And the feline companion seems to intuit many of the answers.

Retired educator Candace Anderson of Petersham, Massachusetts, is a Signature Member of New England Watercolor Society.