Issue 5, September 2017

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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 5, September 2017

Featured image for “Newberry”
Chaya Bhuvaneswar

Newberry

On the staid street in Boston, Vinita manages a manicure business for her cool boss Leo while he’s on a short vacation. But Vinita makes plans, and they have nothing to do with staying where she is.

September 2017
Featured image for “Junk Mail”
Aaron Heil

Junk Mail

Aaron J. Heil’s story steps ever so sensitively into the marriage of Justin and Renee, which is complicated by a family wedding, a misunderstanding, and a junk mail offer for on-demand weather.

September 2017
Featured image for “Photographing Dreams”
Robert Hilles

Photographing Dreams

In the tender love story by Robert Hilles, Scott sees his wife Cheryl holding his six-month-old daughter Denise, reminding him of the dream he had earlier that morning. It was the happiest he had ever been.

September 2017
Featured image for “The Redness of the Setting Sun”
Daniel Bartkowiak

The Redness of the Setting Sun

Daniel Bartkowiak knows how to make a sentence glide and dialogue slip into your mental sphere in a most understated way: “We have to go soon.” “Better start drinking then.” And this story is not quite what it seems.

September 2017
Featured image for “Rummage Sale – A Mathilda Dupre Story”
Piper Templeton

Rummage Sale – A Mathilda Dupre Story

“Rummage Sale” features Mathilda Dupre, the main character in a short story series by Piper Templeton, whose sixth sense leads her to problematic situations and compels her to act in the most surprising of ways.

September 2017
Featured image for “The Foundering”
Tim Rico

The Foundering

In the Gothic horror tradition of Edgar Allan Poe and E.T.A. Hoffman, Tim Rico brings us a gripping tale of a purloined galleon, a grotesque prisoner, and a shipwreck in “The Foundering.” The ending satisfies horror expectations.

September 2017
Featured image for “Half As Good”
Stela Dujakovic

Half As Good

Stela Dujakovic meets men and draws them as characters in fictional realms, sometimes several into one in “Half As Good.” The story explores the tension between reality and imagination.

September 2017
Featured image for “A Boy Who Was an Orca”
rainteller

A Boy Who Was an Orca

“A Boy Who Was an Orca” is one of those stories that come along every once in a while to upend one’s notion of perception and intuition. By rainteller, it is mystical, spiritual, and transcendent.

August 2017
Featured image for “San Carlos”
Michael Chapey

San Carlos

Michael Chapey’s uplifting story is about a dad who ruined his iPhone in the pool and is generously helped by an Apple “genius.” The name of the Apple genius? Carlos.

August 2017
Featured image for “Tadhg and the Seven Dragons: Story One”
Michael Radcliffe

Tadhg and the Seven Dragons: Story One

It is Halloween and Tadhg and his friend Jayden have been flying his new dragon-shaped kite, one with widespread wings and a long, spiked tail. On their way home to get ready for trick-or-treating, Jayden’s older brother Tavin stomps on the kite and ruins it. Ringing the bell of the home of a scary lady (Jayden) and a “nice” lady (Tadhg) on Halloween night, they are greeted by a pleasant woman named Miriam and her cat Dreyfus. Tadhg feels compelled to tell her about Tavin who steals their treats and teases them about dragons. Concerned, Miriam leaves them to reappear only moments later and gives Tadhg a small amulet “carved in the shape of a green dragon, with a Celtic symbol emblazoned on the wings.” Miriam tells the boys that the dragon on the amulet is Greatwing, a gift from one spellcaster to another.

August 2017
Featured image for “Tomnahurich Poems:  “The City of the Sleepers”, “Plaza of the Dead” and “‘Devoted Wife'””
David McVey

Tomnahurich Poems: “The City of the Sleepers”, “Plaza of the Dead” and “‘Devoted Wife'”

In this cemetery down the road from Inverness in Scotland, David McVey meditates on the dead in Tomnahurich poems: minor gentry, Indian Army subalterns, Anne MacKenzie, and others whose stories are untold, forgotten, lost.

August 2017
Featured image for “Bronx Poems: “Untitled 5”, “We are Loners (for my brother)” and “For Kalief””
Kay Bell

Bronx Poems: “Untitled 5”, “We are Loners (for my brother)” and “For Kalief”

Kay Bell’s Bronx Poems wrestle with hurt and loneliness, anger and love as only poetry can do to reach the inner core of empathy and understanding. Her poem “We are Loners (for my brother)” touches at the heart of love.

August 2017
Featured image for ““Woe of Women”, “Farmhouse” and “A Semester at Chicago Arts College””
Shelby Curran

“Woe of Women”, “Farmhouse” and “A Semester at Chicago Arts College”

You know the voice of the poet is strong when you feel like you and she are in the same room; such is the case with Shelby Curran’s narrative poem “Farmhouse.”

August 2017
Featured image for ““Nana’s Tears”, “Birth of Shaman’s Dream” and “Ghost Voice””
Mary Leoson

“Nana’s Tears”, “Birth of Shaman’s Dream” and “Ghost Voice”

Mary Leoson describes the relationship between the poet and her “Nana” in a pontoum, a poetic form in which content and form intertwine. See also “Shaman’s Dream,” a prose poem.

August 2017
Featured image for ““Elegy”, “How To Make It In Business” and “Child Saint””
Lynn Lipinski

“Elegy”, “How To Make It In Business” and “Child Saint”

When you read Lynn Lipinski’s poetry, you sense the command she brings to her poetry, especially in the poetic line. She does not miss an elegiac beat in “Elegy” to her father.

August 2017
Featured image for ““Entreaty”, “The Tangled Skein” and “On the Wings of the Wind””
Brandon Marlon

“Entreaty”, “The Tangled Skein” and “On the Wings of the Wind”

In Brandon Marlon’s poetry a “gnawing angst” permeates his poems about existence. There is not a poem richer than “On the Wings of the Wind” to explore these “depths unfathomed.”

August 2017
Featured image for ““Hitchhiking”, “Sailing the Ship” and “Blush””
Vern Fein

“Hitchhiking”, “Sailing the Ship” and “Blush”

The poet blends narration and metaphor in a morality tale when the roads were supposedly safe but not for “Renee” who was raped by a driver in the woods. The Revolution didn’t happen and they “fled to the suburbs.”

August 2017
Featured image for ““Wonder Woman’s Journey: Parts I, II, and III””
Jacquelyn L.M. Scott

“Wonder Woman’s Journey: Parts I, II, and III”

Jacquelyn L.M. Scott bears witness to a woman’s experience being treated for cancer. There is no place to hide from these poems.

August 2017
Featured image for ““January”, “The Only” and “Told Me””
Chelsey van der Munnik

“January”, “The Only” and “Told Me”

Just when you catch the linear threads in Chelsey van der Munnik’s poems— “January, “The Only,” “Told Me”—they shift and pull you in and in.

August 2017
Featured image for ““The Stars and Icarus”, “Out of Order” and “An Official Removal of the Nicknames””
Takáts Márk

“The Stars and Icarus”, “Out of Order” and “An Official Removal of the Nicknames”

Takáts Márk retells the myth of Icarus in the poem “The Stars and Icarus,” with an ingenious twist that can’t help but make you laugh at the irony. And in the companion poem “Out of Order”? Oh, the hubris of the poet’s ego.

August 2017
Featured image for ““I Can’t Find My Brother””
Sarai Seekamp

“I Can’t Find My Brother”

The pathos in Sarai Seekamp’s trilogy of poems “I Can’t Find My Brother” is apparent on first reading, but read them over and over and you might find yourself weeping.

August 2017
Featured image for ““Swim in the Light”, “Walking Along” and “I Say””
Jordan Lindsey

“Swim in the Light”, “Walking Along” and “I Say”

Jordan Lindsey has a passion for poetic expression, which becomes clear as he blends form and content in one meaningful whole. See: “Swim in the Light.”

August 2017
Featured image for ““An Animal Resembling Desire”, “The Last Threshold” and “The roof””
Sergio A. Ortiz

“An Animal Resembling Desire”, “The Last Threshold” and “The roof”

Sergio A. Ortiz paints his poetry with recurring images of birds and old trees and abstractions like desperation and desire, or “The roof” to cure loneliness where the poet “loved a man while dancing.”

August 2017
Featured image for ““Road Rain”, “Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge” and “Scanning””
Elizabeth Elliott

“Road Rain”, “Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge” and “Scanning”

In the poem “Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge” by Elizabeth Elliott, the driver depends on the cables that hold up the bridge suspended “like belief in a higher power,” but fear of the big earthquake lingers. What then?

August 2017