Issue 83, May 2024

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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 83, May 2024

Featured image for “Divine Wanderers”
Katherine Orfinger

Divine Wanderers

Edith fell deeper into a nightmare while her younger sister, Wiktoria, busied herself in the kitchen. The apartment was small enough that the sounds of Wiktoria’s two small children eating their breakfasts carried into the spare room where Edith slept and transformed into the soundscape of her nightmare.

May 2024
Featured image for “Discovery”
Peter Hoppock

Discovery

Todd—I have looked over the latest materials the DA sent you. You must be desperate! Are you sure this is everything? As you know, I scoured the depositions and interrogatories last week, and Phil has my report on those. Did you guys even talk to each other? How are you planning to defend Mrs. Bierman?

May 2024
Featured image for “Letters to Santa”
Maryanne Chrisant

Letters to Santa

My brother and I are twins. My brother, Ben, and I don’t look alike, and our demeanors can’t be more different. But we are brothers, joined from that sparkling moment of conception, used to sharing common quarters, food supply, and our mother’s attention…

May 2024
Featured image for “Where Is Paul Bunyan?”
Christian David Loeffler

Where Is Paul Bunyan?

I stared at a room full of strangers, students, when my heart most recently shattered. The scattering of its pieces on the classroom floor can be attributed to the following four words: “Who is Paul Bunyan?”

May 2024
Featured image for “A Week at Work”
Quin Yen

A Week at Work

The last week of July in 2009 is the craziest week that Dr. Wu has had since she became a Rehab physician fifteen years ago.
Dr. Wu moved from the Midwest to the Northeast in early July, and thus far, her transition to the new hospital has been smooth. At the age of fifty, she is proud of her adaptability.

May 2024
Featured image for “Out in the New World”
Casey Charles

Out in the New World

He took the fat wooden hangers out, made room for his Bible, Bakunin’s manifesto on anarchy, thankfully thin, stuffed neatly between testaments. The guards at Castle Gardens would no doubt rifle through his dirty frontier shirts and gravy-stained zupan.

May 2024
Featured image for “Another Rainy Day”
Joshua Silavent

Another Rainy Day

Rainy had left the backdoor open to the cold sweat of the world, its swinging clanks her remains, as if she were now the wind itself – whipping around the loose, lilting porch and flying off the faded shingles of the roof…

May 2024
Featured image for “Parable of the Persistent Widow”
Sandro F. Piedrahita

Parable of the Persistent Widow

When Carlito’s son suffocated to death in the back seat of his father’s brand-new Mercedes SUV, Caridad García felt all her suspicions had been confirmed. Maybe her son’s sudden fame and fortune were not a blessing but a curse. Everything had happened so quickly since the release of Carlito’s single “Love a la Cubana,” a song sung in English to a salsa beat.

May 2024
Featured image for ““First taste,” “Cooks River Avian Real Estate,” and “Breakfast””
Wendy Blaxland

“First taste,” “Cooks River Avian Real Estate,” and “Breakfast”

Obediently, the baby
opens her mouth
to the spoon.

She has watched the adults
opening their mouths
around the table for so long,

May 2024
Featured image for “Not Mom”
Patricia Carino Pasick

Not Mom

Dear Paul,
When your hospice nurse called, I was drumming my fingers in a parking space at a Bixby’s drive-thru, aching for the large, 550-calorie caramel cappuccino I ordered online. Anything to get me through Mom’s 4:00 cocktail hour.

May 2024
Featured image for “Shy Demon”
Michael Washburn

Shy Demon

Osuke felt a twinge of unease as he strode across the scarlet carpet toward the host in the velvet robe with glimmers of silver. Megumi looked glad to see the young man and pleased that he had picked out an elegant dark suit for this occasion.

May 2024
Featured image for ““The Voice of Wind,” “Coyote Laughing,” and “Some Instructions for Living””
Kristi Joy

“The Voice of Wind,” “Coyote Laughing,” and “Some Instructions for Living”

Listen to the wind, its
strings and strains of
language and song
pulling you to your feet;
a ragdoll animated and living.

May 2024
Featured image for “A Life and Death Visit”
Carol Pierce

A Life and Death Visit

I’m not allowed to go to Grandma’s hospital room because I’m only twelve years old, and the hospital regulations say I need to be at least thirteen or accompanied by an adult.

May 2024
Featured image for “Was That All it Was?”
Andrew Sarewitz

Was That All it Was?

To my parents’ dismay, I took full advantage of New York City’s disco era in the late 1970s till the mid-80s. I did go to NYU undergraduate, but if someone asks, “What was your major?” I answer “Night Life.”

May 2024
Featured image for “The Red Wheelbarrow”
Carsten ten Brink

The Red Wheelbarrow

Something was different when Danny closed the wooden picket gate behind him at Aunt June’s. The first thing he noticed was an odd smell, something mixed in with the pines along the path.

May 2024
Featured image for “Prison Palette”
Michael McQuillan

Prison Palette

Athletic vitality invites gym walls of vivid colors, players spilling onto courts with crimson tones fitting coming contests yet pale walls circumscribe this setting, matching well-worn olive sweatshirts, khaki pants and lemon tees as men of subdued spirit shuffle in beneath torn net strands, symbols of their fall.

May 2024
Featured image for “The Call”
Nancy L. Glass

The Call

I was walking the trails through the oak forest on our property, looking for the pair of pileated woodpeckers I could hear furiously pounding their heads against a tree trunk. My phone rang with a similar rhythmic urgency in my pocket, as though in conversation with the woodpeckers.

May 2024
Featured image for “Quantitative Unease”
Daniel Bartkowiak

Quantitative Unease

3.2.2_
Hi. My name = Aioli McCoy. And, first things first, I think this is stupid. And by this, I mean you. Diary. Journal. Thingamajig. Honestly? I’m only writing to make Pauleen (wife) happy. Due to, earlier, when I came home from work, she sat me down, put on serious face like she had big news to share, then handed me this black moleskin.

May 2024
Featured image for ““She Comes. She Goes.  She Comes.,” “On the Fence,” and “In the collection””
Michal Rubin

“She Comes. She Goes. She Comes.,” “On the Fence,” and “In the collection”

She disappears
takes with her
something created together
I move forward to where she stood
the absence of her presence
leaves behind a vacuum

May 2024
Featured image for ““Wood Wound Pareidolia,” “Gravity,” and “August 6 with Kokeshi Dolls””
Vincent Casaregola

“Wood Wound Pareidolia,” “Gravity,” and “August 6 with Kokeshi Dolls”

The possible face stares back at me
from across the weedy, ragged backyard,
its dark grey oval rising from the darker
striated bark of the sweetgum.

May 2024
Featured image for “Daughters of Mindanao”
Nikki Stinson

Daughters of Mindanao

The water level rose to the floor of their hut despite it being a few feet off the ground. Nimuel rushed around their home, gathering everything he could carry while Ligaya got herself and their newborn together. She moved slowly, still sore from giving birth only hours before.

May 2024
Featured image for ““Starlight Stitches,” “A Collection,” and “A Moment Lost””
Leonardo Chung

“Starlight Stitches,” “A Collection,” and “A Moment Lost”

In the galaxies pooling in the waiting room
where black holes hum the prelude
to creation
we chart the shushed diagnosis
embossed in the orbit of
the body’s forgotten comets.

May 2024
Featured image for “Cherry Blossoms”
Annika Connor

Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossom Forest

May 2024
Featured image for ““The Handkerchief,” “Elfie Cooks Oatmeal,” and “Ascension””
Malcolm Glass

“The Handkerchief,” “Elfie Cooks Oatmeal,” and “Ascension”

My mother’s white handkerchief
lies on my hand, the corners
embroidered with small flowers,
pink, blue, white. I unfold it
and find the yellow feather,
where I put it eighty years ago.

May 2024