Issue 44, December 2020

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Dragonfly Out in the Sun

Tracey Dean Widelitz

Hold On To Me,
Sunlit Beauty,
and Rose Petals and Golden Wings

Refugees DRC

Despair Paintings

Owen Brown

The world seems to carry on as if there aren’t a million reasons to be shocked. But because I don’t want to go numb, I try to paint them, at least a few. For these, I paint figuratively, as I was trained, even though now, often, my desires, and my output, is abstract. Still, how can we ignore the drought in Afghanistan, the strife in Sudan, the war in Gaza, the invasion of Ukraine? Or even what goes on in our own lives?

Finding a Pathway

Finding a Pathway

Mark Rosalbo

As an emerging artist, the art form I work with is primarily abstract painting and large-scale installations. My artistic process involves using various mediums and techniques to create physical manifestations of internal dialogues and personal judgments. In my abstract paintings, I use house paint, various tools, and textured canvases. The technique involves creating overconfident brushstrokes that mask my imposter syndrome, with multiple layers of paint partially hidden under the surface. The inner turmoil arising from self-doubt is expressed as geometric shapes woven together with texture.

In Between

Wholeness Through Fracture: Sculpting the Human Condition

Aleksandra Scepanovic

Three works in clay by Aleksandra Scepanovic.
Each of these works tells a story of the complexity and beauty found in life’s fractures, embracing the wholeness that emerges through resilience.

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Coastal Grey

Miki Simic

This series of photographs, titled “Coastal Grey,” depicts elements of summer themes. My goal was to capture a vibrant setting and allow the viewer to realize it remains vibrant even though color is lacking.

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Symphony in Green

Patrice Sullivan

I paint landscapes, interiors, exteriors, still life’s with figures interacting and posing for the camera displaying memorable moments with families, friends, and neighbors.

friends

Friends, Triplets, and Family Narrative

Tianyagenv Yan

Tianyagenv uses light clay to make miniature figures and wishes to capture the characteristics of femininity, vulnerability, and resilience in potential.

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Green Canyon Bridge 1993, Thrive, and Tarot Deck: The Moon

Robb Kunz

My paintings explore the abstract simplicity of ordinary life and the deductive impulse to see ourselves reflected back in art.

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Metamorphosis

Marianne Dalton

The photographs are from the series, Metamorphosis. Each painterly creation constructed from dozens of layered photographs is driven by my reaction to nature’s extreme seasonal change.

La Huasteca

La Huasteca, Roots in Nuevo Leon, and Frames

Tee Pace

La Huasteca, Roots in Nuevo Leon, and Frames

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Cherry Blossoms

Annika Connor

Cherry Blossom Forest

Les Femmes Mondiales Black and White

Les Femmes Mondiales Black and White

Janet Brugos

Les Femmes Mondiales Black and White
Hurricane
Chicago Ice

Sunset over the Pacific

Three Photographs

Lawrence Bridges

UNDER THE PIER, MALIBU CA
SUNSET OVER THE PACIFIC
and POOL, POST RANCH INN, BIG SUR

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Joshua Tree Project

Holly Willis

The images are part of a larger series created in the Mojave Desert around Joshua Tree in the fall of 2023 that explore the shifting state of the desert.

October Still Life

Chasing Paradise

Marianne Dalton

This series, Chasing Paradise, draws upon my work as a fine artist in painting, as I create stylized photographs of flowers and plants found in my rural environment.

Turtle Light

Ocean Sleep and Turtle Light

Maite Russell

Turtle Light and Ocean Sleep are works of multimedia and sculpture mediums, respectively, depicting the natural world with fantastical elements.

Issue 44, December 2020

Featured image for “The Heater”
Micaela Edelson

The Heater

It’s late October and the cold has begun. Normally, the winter comes, the world freezes, and by the Spring, the frigidity of dormancy melts and the earth is reborn again.

December 2020
Featured image for “Lightbulb”
Jon Shorr

Lightbulb

It was during one of those Rockford Files car chases on TV that Mrs. Leonard Y. Silver knocked on my door. I didn’t hear it at first because Mrs. Silver’s three knocks coincided perfectly with that three-chord banjo stinger…

December 2020
Featured image for ““Moonless,” “Ars Poetica” and “My Mother’s Stories””
Ana Pugatch

“Moonless,” “Ars Poetica” and “My Mother’s Stories”

From the window of the faded ranch
I watched a bird floating in the kiddie pool:
a loon, with its reticulated band of stars.
I knew which bird it was from the tilt

December 2020
Featured image for “The Serpent Papers: Jump”
Jeff Schnader

The Serpent Papers: Jump

A small truck stood curbside in front of a narrow store; a florist was taking delivery as I approached. The shop’s metal cellar doors, normally flat and flush with the sidewalk, were opened and upright revealing the steps to the storage area below the shop.

December 2020
Featured image for ““Lifeboat in the Apocalypse,” “The News of Your Death” and “The Gift of a Green Scarf””
Kathleen Holliday

“Lifeboat in the Apocalypse,” “The News of Your Death” and “The Gift of a Green Scarf”

I haven’t always wanted to be
in the same boat with them
but when the time comes, I hope
there’ll be room for me in that lifeboat

December 2020
Featured image for “Stumbleweed Valley”
Stephanie Sandmeyer

Stumbleweed Valley

“Isn’t there some other way we can go?” she asked, looking warily at the work crew only a few yards ahead of them. She buried her hands in her muff, although she wished she had insisted on taking the reins. It was, after all, her horse and carriage…

December 2020
Featured image for “Where is Love?”
Michael McQuillan

Where is Love?

An aspirational God is manifest in an infant’s birth, the sun’s warmth, a shoreline’s rippling waves. It appeals to conscience, evokes compassion, succumbs to the primal force of base behavior. Order and chaos, hope and longing, love and indifference recycle themselves.

December 2020
Featured image for “Battle Creek”
Brad Neaton

Battle Creek

They were raised in the same town but could not have been more different.

December 2020
Featured image for “The Playlist”
M. Betsy Smith

The Playlist

I knelt in front of the oak cabinets, the knees of my jeans instantly saturated by the soaking wet carpet. I was so tired, but I had to get his record albums out.

December 2020
Featured image for “The Ruler of the Army”
André Fleuette

The Ruler of the Army

I woke in darkness and cold and listened to the keening of the wind as it tore at the walls of the staging building where we had taken shelter. It became known as Walaka. The Storm. The phrase, that word “storm” is inadequate.

December 2020
Featured image for “Birdsong”
Jennifer Fox

Birdsong

I had never heard anything quite like it before, yet there was something familiar about it. It was almost songlike, this noise, punctuated with agony and mournfulness.

December 2020
Featured image for “Dreams”
Tina Klimas

Dreams

Everything about this day has felt different from the beginning. It all started when her mother made bacon and eggs for breakfast. They usually only have bacon on Sundays.

December 2020
Featured image for “A Journey Together”
Hasan Abdulla

A Journey Together

Roland Harris felt as though the wind was piercing through his grey woollen overcoat, one April day, when the sky was overcast with clouds that seemed to threaten to pour down rain onto Kings Cross Station and its surroundings.

December 2020
Featured image for “The Path to Enlightenment and the Crazy Yogi”
Kabir Mansata

The Path to Enlightenment and the Crazy Yogi

The city of Calcutta lights up in the month of December, especially for the bourgeois families. There is a social event every evening and bars and country clubs are filled with patrons eating and drinking copiously, dancing till dawn, and overall having a gala time.

December 2020
Featured image for “When He Was One”
Kathleen Siddell

When He Was One

Shortly after the funeral, (whether it was days or weeks, she couldn’t say), Helen found a small jar containing six dead yellow jackets at the foot of Harry’s unmade bed. When she asked, Harry told her, “Bees can see faces…”

December 2020
Featured image for “Marrying Up”
Nicole Jeffords

Marrying Up

Frances first saw Jack in the winter of 1947 at a debutante party. He was with a blond-haired girl whom Frances later found out was his cousin, and who left him alone for most of the evening.

December 2020
Featured image for “Follow Me”
Brian Schulz

Follow Me

At first Lindsay thought the beat-up F150 and overloaded U-Haul trailer parked in front of her brother’s building belonged to Northeastern students moving out, but then she recognized the old oak drop-leaf table wedged precariously on the back.

December 2020
Featured image for “In Simple Terms”
Mark Mrozinski

In Simple Terms

Viola.
She sits still in the café, thinking about his words. How can he do this to her, to them? She watches Jeff’s eyes looking for a tear—something, but there is nothing, not a clue his heart is suffering. She thought he loved her.

December 2020
Featured image for ““Break Time,” “When Dying Deer Appear” and “Crawlspace””
Robert Eugene Rubino

“Break Time,” “When Dying Deer Appear” and “Crawlspace”

Maybe you’ve lost
your patience
with your country
with a loved one
with yourself.

December 2020
Featured image for ““Fur Coats,” “Gargoyles” and “Chamomile & Jokes about Good Band Names””
A. Smith

“Fur Coats,” “Gargoyles” and “Chamomile & Jokes about Good Band Names”

Commutes are the distances between
events. Some days I’m stuck with these
Black Mountain hipsters, pissing off
their North End balconies even on
a Tuesday.

December 2020
Featured image for ““November Cloak,” “Between Being and Doing” and “Toilet Talk””
Karen Carter

“November Cloak,” “Between Being and Doing” and “Toilet Talk”

Auntie Jane’s blanket,
attic stored, air cloved,
with her knitted cable yarn
she hums a morning tune.

December 2020
Featured image for ““A poem should be read all at once,” “The truth” and “A taste of ourselves””
Khaled K.E.M.

“A poem should be read all at once,” “The truth” and “A taste of ourselves”

To enjoy his selected poems
he only reads the first stanza
before going to bed
and keeps the second one

December 2020