Volume 4, Issue 2
Our second issue of Volume 4–and first of 2021–explores the theme of belonging: what does it mean to “belong” somewhere, to a family, or with someone?
“The Days Without Time,” flash fiction by Caroline Fernelius, follows a young person from North to South Carolina and back to their home beaches of Galveston, Texas.
Adam Carter’s short story, “Benediction,” takes the reader through the tragic life of a man imprisoned, exploring the inevitable choices he has made.
In “A Mother’s Gift,” a short story by Michelle Tang, we witness a funeral scene through the eyes of a woman about to learn her family’s secret.
Finally, John W. Bateman’s creative nonfiction piece, “Southerners Don’t Lie: We Tell Polite Stories,” follows the author as a young boy and his family’s humorous assumption.
Book Reviews
Interviews
Art & Photography
You Belong to Me | Visual Art
“You belong to me is a colorful piece with man and woman. The man holds the woman’s heart in his hand. Is this love? Possession cannot be defined as love, except by the possessor. The bright colors offset the theme of this painting.
It doesn’t depict violence as its true definition, but it is more than implied.”
Pandemic Engulfment | Visual Art
“My current paintings explore appropriating elements from Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Color Field painting and Dream Work. It is my intent to empower the viewer’s mind, imagination and soul. Each time you engage with these images you find new interpretations; one minute they are eyes then planets or just shapes.”
Entropy #054 | Visual Art
Entropy #054: This image is a multiple exposure of a derelict hospital and a wave. Like all my works in the series Paintings for a Robot, this piece was created by putting thousands of digital images into a video editing program. The images were then randomly merged together. Painters famously spend enormous amounts of time working on sketches, cartoons, etc. before putting brush to canvas. And then they spend endless weeks, months, or years, finishing their vision. Technology will change all this. Just like brushes improved image making in the first civilizations BC, computers and robotic devices will replace the insane manual labor involved in creating the paintings that are part of the canon. If robots can do surgery they can surely make a painting.