MORE ISOMETRICS |

NOUR April 19 issue we car-
ried an article on isometric
exercises. In answer to nu-
merous requests we are pub-
lishing here a few more. Re-

member, do each exercise for
six seconds, holding your
breath and tensing your stom-
ach muscles each time. Exer-
cises 8 to 15 should be done
with a strong wand or piece of

broom handle about three feet
long.

1. Facing desk or table, press
inwards, as if trying to crush it.

2. Repeat same exercise but
seated with your back to the
desk. a

3. Standing two steps away
from desk, press down on its
edge full force with one hand.
Repeat with other hand.

4. Spread arms_ shoulder-
width and press down hard on
the surface of desk.

5. Repeat same exercise with
your back to ‘desk.

6. Your knee bent at right-
angle, place ball of foot on chair
and press down with full force.
After three seconds repeat with
other foot.

7. Plant sole of foot firmly on
chair and press down full force.
Repeat with other foot.

8. Alternate pressure inward

for six seconds, then outward, -

as indicated by arrows.

9. Arms behind back, try to
bring them together, then apart
(six seconds each).

10. Standing with feet apart
and body bent, try to bring
hands together, then apart. Re-
peat with body bent to other
side,

11. With wand held under
your knee, palms up, pull up-
wards, while your knee resists
downwards. Repeat with other
knee.

12. Your body bent forward

press down as if trying to push -

wand into the floor.

13. Take full stép forward,
grasping wand palms downward
under your knee, pull up as if
trying to lift yourself. Repeat
with other knee.

14. Feet wide apart, the wand
behind both knees, pull forward
and up with both hands as if
trying to pull wand through.
_15. Grasp wand nearer the
middle, place one foot against

it and press down as if trying ~

to straighten your leg. Repeat
with other foot.

‘Nudes without cynicism

OME will no-doubt cry that
they are obscene, these
great, brilliantly colored

nudes, painted with black con-
tour lines, and solid blocks of
acrylic: color almost in the style
of “painting by numbers.”

John Bennett’s paintings, now
being exhibited at the Pollock
gallery on Markham St., Toron-
to,
gerated female figures.

Prostitutes or not, “The La-
dies” — the title of the show —
are as much maternal as sexual.

Legs wide apart or massive
bodies coiled waiting for inter-
course; painted in lurid green
or deep blue; they might be
looked upon as the mothers of
the world. If their faces and
bodies are hard, it is the hard-
ness imposed by life, there is
nothing cruel about them.

The great bodies are open to
the world. The enormous thighs
occupying most of the fore-
sounds are solid as earth.

are more than just exag-.

The technique is basic — as
basic as the business of procre-
ation it portrays.

Each painting is like some
facet of nature — not surpris-
ing for a man who has long
been a painter of landscapes.

One, “Justine,” is green and
hulking like great rocks covered

VIEWING ART

with seaweed, awaiting the
prawn catcher.
Another, “Oona,” lying in

semi-classical pose, is a volca-.

nic island. A great pink mass of
lava nestling in a sea of sheets.
Her red hair and glaring eyes
are not quite hidden. They are
the half hidden threat of im-
mense feeling and passion.

“Rebecca” is the only one
who shows any enjoyment. Re-
latively slender,, she is the
young otter revelling in life.

June 18, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 8

The remainder are inert, to the
point where the painter seems
to imply that a woman’s role in
life is solely passive.

While only one painting
shows innocence, they all have
a certain purity. There is no
dishonesty, nothing hidden,
nothing of which to be asham-
ed, either in the paintings or in
the figures. Bennett takes life
at its most basic without rose
colored spectacles and without
cynicism. If these are prosti-
tutes, they are also women and
mothers, proud, wholesome,
human.

Some of them, especially those
in pink, are flat and dull in spite
of the rugged outlines. Others
are very powerful.

Upstairs there are abstract
watercolors mainly mild
Stripes and squares. You could
hang Lewis Bradley's “Vertical
Greens” anad ‘‘Stacked Spaces”
anywhere, but wallpaper is
cheaper.

—Dave Dent.

-eign Policy Needed” by William

~ side}
J. $. Wallace

The poet who is worth his salt
Finds clarity a fatal fault .
His words are surely heaven sent
When only God knows what he meant. -
Dear Joe: Ee.
I promised to write you about an animated coms,
tion on your latest column at an informal house gathe
in Nanaimo. People there were loggers, mill worker
wives, people like that. First of all somebody asked ;
I understood your poem “Communism won’t keep M&™
_/ till the gate returns in a higher form / while to @ ;
a mistletoe sky, / new sleigh bells ring and old We
ply.” One after another, everyone there said no. One a
“I think he was just having a fling at abstraction,
his eyes and wrote down whatever came into his ™
(Me: when you say that, smile!) ‘
The guesses at what might have: been meant a
much hilarity and some seriousness, revealing 4 1
preciation of poetry. ‘““You forget about dialectics,
an ex-logger. “He is talking about change. He means
he had lived since these things were in common US
won’t be here to see all the changes.” '
Anyway, one person said it was weird and oy
that if it was T. S. Eliot he would have been paid
(Me: when you say that, start running.) :

‘do

Dear Myrtle Bergren: 7

A fortnight later a salesman, steel worker, railr0
carpenter, moulder, engineer, etc., met informally ‘
house in London, I read them your letter in full; 001,
have had to condense it here. And their response was thi
the same: the verse seemed to be trying to say some
to them but to save their lives they couldn’t say
There were a few opinions expressed and more
guesses.

May I express mine? ua

A gas log or electric grate is obviously better tha
messy coal or wood burner. But something is 105
you no longer see dreams in the flames. The sleigh ©
stand up against the motor car yet something Waa
when the sleighbells seemed to be ringing to the
And something was lost when the quaint old cust”
kissing a girl under the mistletoe gave way to kissins
on her lipstick. :

What I meant to say was that under communist
that was good in the past would come back in 4
form: the essence of the good will remain or return.

Boys will be boys, in spite of what they say

Girls will be girls . . . I hope they stay that way:

oul!

wm
aS

—

“International evens
a fully independert
policy aligning itse
tries tia. base themsé!
peaceful coexistenc& ty
for national sovereig?® ,
dependence of every
and on non-interfereh
internal affairs of °
tries.” S38

CORRECTION

We regret a _ typographical
error in the article “New For-

Kashtan in last week’s issue.
The word “against” in the sixth
line of the 20th paragraph
should have read “aligning.”
The corrected sentence follows:

Planning a trip?

LET US MAKE ALL YOUR ARRANGEMENTS

”)

i

GLOBE _TOURS |
Ef

TRAVEL ~~~

613 SELKIRK AVE. -