Poetry

Royal

Spring Bloom in Saguaro National Park

Beth Cash

I was enthralled with a visit to Saguaro National Park in the spring. I had never seen the desert before and the flowers were breath-taking. I felt very lucky to bear witness.

Essence_of_Nature_II

Essence of Nature

Michael Roberts

In the last several months, I have been exploring minimalism as a way of projection and abstraction in my photography. The simplicity of minimalism reduces nature to its essence to reveal the underlying beauty of structure and form. These three images were made while hiking trails in the Sonoran Desert.

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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.

Poetry

Featured image for ““string theory in RWJ Hospital,” “this land,” and “birthing heaven beneath feet””
Jaweerya Mohammad

“string theory in RWJ Hospital,” “this land,” and “birthing heaven beneath feet”

time in hospitals is not linear.
the past and future lives of patients
dangle
by wires and rolling IV carts,
souls spread thin beneath bleached sheets.

September 2024
Featured image for ““Grasshoppers,” “Harvest,” and “Fishing””
Joshua Kulseth

“Grasshoppers,” “Harvest,” and “Fishing”

When in the rainless weeks of summer the mulch pile dried,
and worms we hooked for bait would burrow
deeper than our reaching fingers could grope,
we’d sweep with bare feet the hay fields for grasshoppers…

September 2024
Featured image for “Reverie”
Michael McQuillan

Reverie

Serenity before dawn’s waking human world disrupts pristine Creation. I and my companion share psalms we read aloud, a sacred veil ensuring inner peace. With opened hearts we rise as sparks in spans of history…

September 2024
Featured image for ““With Me Between the Lines,” “Knowing That You Knew Joy,” and “Until Tomorrows Are Swallowed By Yesterdays””
Russell Willis

“With Me Between the Lines,” “Knowing That You Knew Joy,” and “Until Tomorrows Are Swallowed By Yesterdays”

There are those who live
between the lines of life
who once were my story
but came not to fit,
not them in mine
nor me in theirs;

September 2024
Featured image for ““Radishing,” “I Roll Over,” and “Tongue of Love””
Rachel Chamberlain

“Radishing,” “I Roll Over,” and “Tongue of Love”

will we ever know ourselves as well
as we know the radish we pull from the garden bed?
know our readiness as its, as it bulges at the surface dirt
with rusty shoulders that promise spicy delight?

September 2024
Featured image for ““Divine Right,” “Of Kings,” and “The Oracle of New Delphi””
CS Crow

“Divine Right,” “Of Kings,” and “The Oracle of New Delphi”

A paper Burger King Crown,
Lunch with mom in the park,

She adjusts it over and over,
But it never fits right upon your head.

August 2024
Featured image for ““Succulents,” “All My Doctors Fear My Mother,” and “For You Are At That Place””
Claire Poole

“Succulents,” “All My Doctors Fear My Mother,” and “For You Are At That Place”

When I arrived home from the hospital,
there was a gift box at my doorstep
from my daughter, who recently moved away.

August 2024
Featured image for ““Listening In,” “Few have Noticed,” and ‘The Big “C”’”
William Ray

“Listening In,” “Few have Noticed,” and ‘The Big “C”’

the winter-bare forsythia is so many
arrows of neglect, bundled;
the light, quilted, a question.

August 2024
Featured image for ““Gardenias,” “87 years ago,” “Eyrinyes””
Lumina Miller

“Gardenias,” “87 years ago,” “Eyrinyes”

Skin stippled with drops from the emerald canopy
quietly content with the other,
no need to speak over
the rustling soundtrack of ironwood sway.

August 2024
Featured image for ““Kayaking On Spy Pond,” “Parenting Mistakes,” and  “Choices””
Randi Schalet

“Kayaking On Spy Pond,” “Parenting Mistakes,” and “Choices”

I lied when I said he’d been clean for a year.
It made a better story:
Addict resisting the call of meth,
riding the wave when the desire hit,
how big he felt—and bigger.

August 2024
Featured image for ““Still Life,” “Lost,” “Nothing””
Anna St. Aubrey

“Still Life,” “Lost,” “Nothing”

This morning I wanted
there to be eyes watching
out for us, something somewhere

caring that we died,

August 2024
Featured image for ““Never Flan,” “No Cares Where We Go,” “Work This””
Christopher Rubio-Goldsmith

“Never Flan,” “No Cares Where We Go,” “Work This”

I am sure that everyone in my familia really enjoys flan.
But not me.
May I please taste the glazed churro,
the timeless cochito (con café and cream) or the delicate
tres leche cake.

August 2024
Featured image for ““Picky Soul Eater,” “I Was Thinking…,” and “The Witch and the Townsfolk””
Blair Boleyn

“Picky Soul Eater,” “I Was Thinking…,” and “The Witch and the Townsfolk”

You want my love but don’t want my pain,
My sunshine, but not my rain.
Can’t you see how that’s driving me insane?

August 2024
Featured image for ““A Priori,” “Signs of Something,” “Zero-Sum””
Julie Benesh

“A Priori,” “Signs of Something,” “Zero-Sum”

The first time I saw St. Peter’s
magnificent marble and lack of time-
pieces, I dismayed my travel

partner with an obvious observation;
a trifling truism: that it reminded me of a casino
welcoming the hopeful riff-raff

July 2024
Featured image for ““Interval 213,” “Étude 46,” and “Étude 76””
Ray Malone

“Interval 213,” “Étude 46,” and “Étude 76”

reaching across, hand into the blackberry bush,
a walk from where we were down to the sea,
a small bay, of pebbles & the incoming swell of the water,
listening for the rhythm, as if it might be the key to writing

July 2024
Featured image for ““Big Bang,” “Mother Tongue,” and “Rarity””
Raju Vegiraju

“Big Bang,” “Mother Tongue,” and “Rarity”

How can something
come out of nothing,
let alone the universe?

But that is what contemporary
theory of cosmology proclaims—

July 2024
Featured image for ““Shaped,” “Relay,” and “Speechless””
Susan Shea

“Shaped,” “Relay,” and “Speechless”

Seeing blurred writing
on an abstract painting
brings me right back

to begging you to teach me
to read before I went to school

July 2024
Featured image for ““Your Clothes in Tatters,” “Into the Slow Air,” and “Current or Currently””
Samuel Gilpin

“Your Clothes in Tatters,” “Into the Slow Air,” and “Current or Currently”

…skyward, lying on our backs listening for rainfall,
lying, we the ones of loitering, of settling into the longing for dreams to overtake us,
asking if anything could overtake us,
this overwhelming desire, this yearning for…

July 2024
Featured image for ““I Used to Love Christmas Movies…,” “Friday Morning 2:00 am,” and “Chasing History””
Joanne Alfano

“I Used to Love Christmas Movies…,” “Friday Morning 2:00 am,” and “Chasing History”

I have been watching White Christmas for 65 years so
tonight, the first film shot in VistaVision and Technicolor
rolls onto my tv screen; but the evening news, with far more
advanced tools, has begun to seep into my holiday films …

July 2024
Featured image for ““Jack Pines,” “Beachcombing,” and “Yards Away””
S.D. Dillon

“Jack Pines,” “Beachcombing,” and “Yards Away”

They survived the fin de siècle logging
That claimed the rouge et blanc

Leaving tepees of slash
On the Grayling sand.

And the farmers
Wielding fire to clear land…

June 2024
Featured image for ““A Poem for Safe Keeping,” “Convergence,” and “Morning””
Olga Dugan

“A Poem for Safe Keeping,” “Convergence,” and “Morning”

because I told you
how the homeless woman
preferred over a stranger’s
offer of food, water, money
just a moment of conversation
to confirm that she exists

June 2024
Featured image for ““I am Here,” “A Small Map of the Stars,” and “An Adventurer””
Dorothy Johnson-Laird

“I am Here,” “A Small Map of the Stars,” and “An Adventurer”

He takes to his branch each morning, lingers there
Finds his gentle, yet firm grip on the wood with his small claws
Steady, he welcomes the fresh air
The sun on his strong beak
The orange light peaking through the high buildings

He closes his eyes
Takes in the soft breeze on his black feathers

June 2024
Featured image for ““Love stories,” “It has been so long,” and “Saying goodbye””
Heather Cameron

“Love stories,” “It has been so long,” and “Saying goodbye”

The laughter you hear, deep within the interior of the house,
Where the old couple from Italy, have lived for fifty years.

Or the glimpse of the treasured grandson across the road,
Laughing as his cousin chases him with the garden hose.

June 2024
Featured image for ““Fireweed in Autumn,” “Night Falls,” an “High Desert Nightfall””
Francis Flavin

“Fireweed in Autumn,” “Night Falls,” an “High Desert Nightfall”

A sentinel for three seasons,
The fireweed stands unsteady
In the freshening breeze.

A phoenix of the scorched earth,
Its seeds break out in gossamer clouds,
Seeking newly ravaged lands to restore.

June 2024