Literary magazine displays student creativity

Canvas Literary Arts Magazine, a product of the Union Board and produced by an array of students, demonstrates an interesting variety of literary and visual stimulations. The first several pages of the magazine are dedicated to artwork, housing everything from photography and painting to abstract drawings. The paintings are as varied as the writing styles displayed by the more than 30 authors and poets showcased throughout Canvas' 44 pages.\nSome of the artwork displayed on the first page denotes sadness and turmoil. One painting shows a person sitting down, hands clasped over the top of the head, knees drawn up to the chest. The face is indescribable because where the face should be the reader finds a black hole instead.\nOn the second page, two of the paintings also demonstrate this theme of identity crisis, as the faces are blurred, or, in one case, appear to be smeared out. In all the artwork housed on the first two pages, none of the faces are easily identifiable. \nThere are also photographs and paintings of different natural elements, one of a bright, mid-day sky; another of sharp, well-defined blades of grass with small, hand-etched, white flowers titled "grow." \nAfter the initial pages of artwork, the reader is met with an interesting array of poetry and prose fiction writing. One standout is the heartwarming piece titled "Goodnight, Fear" by Katie Soderberg. It is one of the best fiction pieces showcased in volume nine of Canvas magazine. The story has concise details and a firm structure from which flows a strong narrative voice and a solid, endearing main character with whom the reader can easily connect. The story is also complete, containing a beginning, middle and ending, which is too often absent in shorter fiction pieces.\nAnother beautifully written fiction piece is "Heat" by Daniel C. Berlin. The story uses intense imagery strongly revolving around an evening campfire. The main character keeps the reader involved through descriptions of a possible unrequited love and unique metaphors.\nThe final prose piece that is truly enjoyable is "Letter to My Six-Year-Old Self" by Andrew Roberts. The letter describes the drastic juxtaposition of one little boy's dream of his older self and the person he actually becomes. There are meaningful insights and a powerful analysis of childhood innocence versus childhood naïveté. There are other prose and fiction pieces included as well that include a variety of themes and topics, but the three mentioned above stand out exceptionally among those presented in the literary magazine. \nThere are also many enjoyable poems scattered inbetween the prose pieces and artwork showcased within Canvas. One of the poems that was very well-written and encompassed of a wide variety of topics is titled "We'll Live On The Second Floor (in case there's a fire)" by Alice Wildes. The piece uses a diverse vocabulary and imagery but also appears to be incomplete as it ends rather abruptly without warning.\nCanvas is definitely worth reading and allows the reader to pick and choose pieces to spend time on simply by thumbing through the titles and looking at a variety of topics and genres presented. It is also a very quick, entertaining read.\nIf you'd like to learn more about Canvas Literary Arts Magazine, you can go to http://mypage.iu.edu/~canvas/index.html.