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MiddleGray ISSUE #06
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Alvaro Morales
Catalina Piedrahita
Music Editor & Co-Founder
Editor in Chief, Visual Arts Editor & Co-Founder
www.alvaromorales.net
www.catpiedrahita.com
Dariel Suarez Letters Editor
www.darielsuarez.com
MiddleGray
Alina Collazo Assistant Editor
www.middlegraymag.com
Artem Derkatch
Cydney Gottlieb
Letters Editor
Marketing & PR Director
Alena Kuzub
Photography Editor & MG Staff Photographer
www.alenakuzub.com
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Middle Gray Magazine is a quarterly online publication featuring emerging artists of various disciplines including, but not limited to, Visual Arts, Music, Literature and Performance Arts. This arts journal is part of “The Middle Gray,” an arts organization that supports emerging artists by giving them space and opportunities to showcase their work while being fairly compensated. Our intent is to build a place that encourages the social connections and collaborations that nurture a vibrant creative community. We are an online-based organization with expectations to grow and evolve into a physical space.
We want to welcome you to our community and we hope you enjoy this experience. We are very eager to have you as part of The Middle Gray. We would like to give special thanks to all the artists being featured in this issue and to all our friends and followers for your support. Your enthusiasm and appreciation has made this project possible. Much love, The Middle Gray
© MiddleGray 2014 All Rights Reserved info@middlegraymag.com Cover Painting by Michael Gray & Nathalia Lopes Graphic Design: Catalina Piedrahita
All contributors to MiddleGray retain the reproduction rights to their own words and images. Reproductions of any kind are prohibited without explicit permission of the magazine and relevant contributor.
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Inside ELIZABETH IRELAND - 6 EDEN SHULMAN - 14 MICHAEL GRAY - 16 KATRINA JOHNSTON - 24 STEPHEN SONNEVELD - 26 JORDAN GILBERT - 36 TAMARA SILVA SANTIS - 38 MAJA LUKIC - 42 RESA BLATMAN - 44 SUSAN GUNDLACH - 54
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Letter
From the Editors Dear MiddleGrayers, The Middle Gray family would like to take this opportunity to announce a change in MiddleGray Mag’s format. This issue will be the last of our series of quarterly issues. The Middle Gray is getting ready to open its first physical location in Boston, MA (yay!) and, since the online zine was designed to be a representation of this physical space while in its planning and opening process, MiddleGray Mag will go through a revamp to better fit the location’s needs. The mag’s new format will focus mostly on local talent, and it will serve as a “program/schedule” for the location’s events and art exhibitions. There will be two annual issues highlighting the artists displaying, reading and playing their work at the space throughout the year, and we’ll be adding other content related to the The Middle Gray itself, the local arts and literary scene, and other regional issues. We are very excited about all these changes and we hope you keep joining and supporting The Middle Gray throughout this process. This last issue is dedicated to our beloved MiddleGray Mag team, which made these six issues possible and gave The Middle Gray the support and strength to grow and prosper. Thank you, Dariel Suarez (Letters Editor), Alina Collazo (Assistant Editor), Artem Derkatch (Letters Editor), Alena Kuzub (Photography Editor/Staff Photographer) and Cydney Gottlieb (Marketing and PR Director). Yours truly, Catalina Piedrahita & Alvaro Morales The Middle Gray Cofounders
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Elizabeth IRELAND Elizabeth Ireland is a 23 year old fine art photographer from Massachusetts. She is a recent graduate from the New England School of Photography (NESOP) in Boston where she studied black and white fine art and creative imaging photography. Elizabeth previously studied Graphic Design at Cape Cod Community College until 2012, but left after two years to pursue an education for her love of photography. www.elizabeth-ireland.com www.facebook.com/elizabethirelandphoto www.behance.net/elizabethireland
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Wishing - 7 -
Trapped
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Underneath It All
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“Sea Poems” Combining both digital manipulations and poetic elements in both gesture and color palette, Elizabeth Ireland brings forth her body of work, ‘Sea Poems’. This work is entirely self-portraits that illustrate Ireland’s longing for the sea whilst living in the city. The photographs and textures used are entirely from Cape Cod and areas along the East Coast that remind her of home. She yearns for the smell of salty air in her hair and sand underneath her feet. The work is self portraits representing Cape Cod and the Atlantic Ocean. Using a subdued color palette, fluid movements of water, and textures.
&
“Head In The Clouds” This body of work, ‘Head in the Clouds’ is a side project that is a work in progress of self portraits that was inspired by her ‘Sea Poems’ body of work. It is airy, dreamlike and contemplative. The work is self-portraits representing dreamlike memories. Using a pastel color palette, images of clouds, and gestures inspired by 1700 era paintings.
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City of Clouds
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Dreaming - 13 -
EDEN Shulman Eden Shulman is a 21 year old English student at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Born and raised in Bellevue, Colorado, he has spent significant time in Vietnam, Cambodia, and southern China. He is the Vice President of the Northeastern University Write Club, and his poetry has appeared in Uppagus, The East Coast Literary Review, and Up the Staircase Quarterly. Having written since a young age, he performs many short stories and poems at various open mics around Boston. His poetry attempts to combine humor, naturalism, and a love of the outdoors and humans’ place within it. After graduation, he is hoping to go into the Peace Corps and continue his writing overseas. He is currently working on a novel, hopefully completed by 2015.
TO WHICH To To To To To To To
which, to be singular in her capacity be conscionable with regularity follow guidelines – markers scratched in the sand eat or breathe an unhelpful frame be a glass pole, functioning with useful frailty have and receive trust, inexorably, with inertia rip unlawful laws from plasticene strength
She is, in her unblinking democracy, A being that functions metronomic A road that cracks with the weather And follows a visible, engineered path One that might bend through woods Or have horizons lost, dipped in rain, Sunk deep into canyon lands But even through mist and cover, exists Her life is object permanence One which abdicates all fate to fate And leaves all thoughts ahead to think
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THE BATH Now, as the receding tides untuck frailties, the last remaining drops will slither down, until our chapped sideboards bake in the sun. The beaches avow it all, dead starfish, lost rings, bowed figurines warped by months underwater. Salt cracks all precious things. It works inside through tiny fissures, stripping threads, until wheels fracture from springs and sink down to be devoured by barnacles meandering through the rubble. We once lost a piece of ourselves in the ocean. Dropped off a boat in a storm, recovered months later near the coast of Saigon, its hollowed center sounds like the keening of a shore, and the barnacle-crusted shell smells of brine.
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Michael GRAY The artwork of Michael Gray has been influenced by nature and organic elements. He studied at the Art Institute where he received his Bachelor’s Degree and is now working on getting his Masters of Fine Art Degree at Florida International University. He has shown at several Miami art shows and has illustrated various children’s books including “The Coldecott Chronicles” and “The Hummingbird”. His works revolve around themes including the chaos of nature and also focuses on the language of the body. His paintings and drawings are meticulously crafted with fine line and texture work which are built in layers to create powerful colors and complex surfaces. His recent work “Lolita” reveals the chaos of the natural world and depicts the negative effect of the presence of man upon nature through the body language of the whale being trapped.
www.imagechemist.com facebook.com/artist.michael.gray
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Michael and Lolita
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Michael & Lolita (process)
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Lolita “This piece revolves around the capture of whales for the purpose of our viewing pleasure. In this case, I have chosen a specific whale, Lolita, which happens to be the longest living specimen in captivity today. Since her capture in 1970, she has performed daily to meet the needs and standards of the Miami Seaquarium and her viewers. She was ripped from her home on a day where 4 of her family members were killed and many others were captured in the raid at Penn Cove in Washington State. She is the last whale to remain alive from these captures and is still performing in a tank not fit for a whale of her size. I have chosen to represent her from the perspective we see whales in captivity yet place her in the moment of capture from her natural habitat and home to juxtapose the two instances of the whale. We never get to see the horrors of capture but only the wonder of seeing such a majestic animal up close from an underwater perspective. I have chosen to mash the two instances together to illustrate such pain and suffering from a familiar perspective which usually triggers such feelings as wonder and amazement. In this image Lolita is trapped behind glass panels as she is being captured in the fisherman’s net. We should try and relate to such feelings of confinement and struggle and imagine these struggles without a choice to speak up nor a voice to do so. Let’s fix our mistakes and give these confined animals a voice and their respective freedom.“ - Michael Gray
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Nathalia LOPES a.k.a Jeronymo (project assistant)
Nathalia Lopes (preferred to known as Jeronymo) is an emerging artist in Miami Florida. Her work can be described as very feminine and romantic with a morbid twist. Jeronymo graduated from Miami International University of Art and Design with a bachelor degree in Computer Animation; She studied and enjoyed Computer Animation but found she was more prominent with traditional art forms. She is currently working as in-house photographer for a jewelry company, as well as an intern for the peace mural gallery in south beach with Huong. Her latest project was Assisting Michael Gray with the “Lolita” PeaceMural project. Jeronymo’s overall goal is to provide awareness to the public that our decisions today are the foot prints of yesterday and the foundation to our future. The artist wants to remind the public that we are equals not only to each other as humans but as animals, and to every living creature on this planet. www.jeronymoart.com
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Lolita
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KATRINA Johnston Katrina Johnston is the winner of the CBC/Canada Writes True Winter Tale (2011). Works of short fiction may be found at several on-line sites and a couple of print issues. She lives in Victoria, BC, Canada. The goal of her fiction is to share a human journey.
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Once Upon a Time on Elizabeth Avenue It’s over as I step down to the curbside. The police officer waves and looks up. He asks me kindly if I want to proceed. “Yes.” He halts the traffic and gestures that it’s safe. I leave the sidewalk and begin my careful walk across the street. Only moments prior, when I was still a long distance back, and as I emerged from behind the architecture of the sprawling Memorial University, I had duly noticed the panoramic view. And then, down here at the roadside, I become aware of the urgency and unusual activity upon the intersection. Crowds of people line both sides of Elizabeth Avenue at Portugal Cove Road. An ambulance arrives spinning a flashing amber. No crushed metal and no evidence of mangled cars; no shattered glass or twisted bicycle frame. The victim must be a pedestrian – like me. They’ve already loaded a stretcher; a slim individual lying secure under a gray blanket. His, or is it her? – head rests upon the pillow as if asleep. Alive; a face in sweet serene repose. Concern seeps into my gut. As I pass, I wish silently for minor scrapes or abrasions, or perhaps a few light bruises – nothing more. I hope. But a pang of wretched worry clenches my innards. I gulp and swallow shock, taste sympathy and upset. I hurt. We are strangers. Does it matter? Yes, I know. The ambulance departs. No siren song. Across the street, the gawkers hunger, like the vultures they really are. I deem myself far superior as I continue walking. Voyeurism is tactless and intrusive and cruel, especially at a time like this. I note my own soft gratitude. Not me on that stretcher. Not me carted off without a siren wail. But still, a connection stirs and I am wounded and diminished by the occurrence. Even here at the middle of the street there is little of evidential consequence; no broken glass, no marks of skid or dust and no sign of debris. As accidents go, it’s no big catastrophe. Here at the middle is one lone firefighter. He’s fully garbed in coat and helmet and boots. He sprays the cement with care, using an aerosol fluid of white soap or some dispersant cleaning agent. Red paint; I hope it’s red paint that he sprays away so patiently. But it is not red paint.
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STEPHEN Sonneveld Stephen Sonneveld won the Kennedy Center Outstanding Playwright Award, has freelanced for publications as diverse as the LGBT-themed Windy City Times and MAD Magazine, and written and produced various independent film and publishing projects. He has won writing awards from Warner Bros. (the Short Romantic Story Competition, judged by Rob Reiner), as well as collegiate and local competitions. His screenplays have placed in fests such as the New York Television Fest, and the Austin Heart of Screenwriting Festival. www.s-sonneveld.tumblr.com
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Greye of Scotland Yard (excerpt strips from full stories)
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“I’ve always loved the comic strip format, from Dick Tracy’s grotesqueries to Alex Raymond’s Renaissance-quality Flash Gordon, among many others. I wanted to challenge myself with the demands of the format: tell the story in 4-5 daily panels, be visually interesting, present cliffhangers or story hooks that keep readers reading. In tribute to the newspaper origin, the art was created on white paper with black ink and a small selection of warm gray markers. Growing up, I read the Sherlock Holmes stories, and today love David Suchet’s portrayal of Poirot. This is my take on the idea of the English super-detective who, as the story progresses, begins to unravel toward breaking - clues don’t add up to the right conclusion, his obsession ostracizes him. It was also important to me to break out of the country estate parlor room and confront the byzantine modern issues such as human trafficking and geopolitical terrorism. Our hero struggles because he can solve a crime, but can he solve the greater problem?” - Stephen Sonneveld
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Jordan GILBERT Jordan Gilbert was born in the small town of Chickasha, Oklahoma, where he spent the first 18 years of his life. He recently graduated with an MFA in poetry from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma and now resides in Yukon. His work has appeared in The Orange Room Review and T(OUR) Literary Magazine, and is forthcoming in Conclave: A Journal of Character.
Homo sapien homosexualis It is difficult to mate for life when abnormal swings from your name, chimpanzees on display at the zoo. Deception becomes ritual— cosmetics, UV rays, Botox— to manufacture a peacock arrangement of feathers. Strutting in shadows lighted only by strobes. Otherness is night ravens dance with. Some animals eat afterbirth. Others, eat young who will not survive.
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What Nanny Taught Me Truth billows from your mouth, whirls toward regurgitated green ceiling. It thumps cochlea before worming into temporal lobe— tongues Limbic, gnaws Pre-Frontal Cortex. You taught me to dance, to tango with empathy so often Medulla knows more intimately than Pituitary knows intercourse.
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TAMARA Silva Santis Tamara Silva Santis was born in Santiago, Chile in March of 1988. She graduated with honors from Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación. During her time in college Silva mainly focused on performance, specifically vocal technique and violin. Once achieving a Bachelor in music, she worked in Chile as a performer and music educator. In 2012, the artist moved to the United States, where her focus of study shifted to the analysis of Music as a social and cultural phenomenon; subject in which she has carried out independent studies. Currently Tamara’s main goal is to begin graduate studies in musicology.
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Music as a result of sociocultural contexts: a comparison between Chile and the United States For a large part of my life I lived in a post-dictatorship country. Everything I experienced in my childhood, adolescence and even my time in college was colored by this particular social context. As a young girl, it was disheartening to see concert halls patronized by only a handful of people or recitals being canceled due to low attendance. It became clear that music was a discipline that existed parallel to society and not within its core. It was not until I lived in a foreign land that I was able to recognize these cultural disadvantages, as this was the first time I was able to compare the culture of my country to that of another. Therefore, I have allowed myself to utilize my own experience as a Chilean musician, in the search of understanding how sociocultural contexts might have shaped this musical contrast between Chile and the United States. My academic music education in Chile was always under the shadow of its occupational futility. I understood at an early age that music was considered a mere entertainment and a nonessential activity, which did not represent any kind of tangible benefit to our society. In light of this, I was not surprised when I realized that there was a noticeably low occupational demand for musicians. In order to be financially stable, these professionals have had no option but to work in fields other than the one they have chosen. Upon my insistence to become a musician, I was fortunate enough to count on the support of my family; a disposition that is unusual due to all the facts previously mentioned. However, outside of my closest circles, I was often criticized for committing to a profession that was socially considered useless and hard to bear over time. Fruitless remarks that were not entirely unrealistic, since being a musician in Chile does not only require the demands of any profession, but it also involves a struggle against an invariable sociocultural perspective. For instance, one year ago I worked as a music teacher in a non-profit organization in Chile, for a period of 6 months. This organization provided affordable music lessons to low income families; but interest was limited and attendance was scarce. Perhaps since I was always immersed in this particular musical context, I adopted a passive attitude towards this kind of neglect and abandonment of music. However, when coming to live in a place where music holds an essential cultural and economic role, my perspective became far more critical. My inclination to compare the musical context of Chile to that of the United States began when I realized that behind these contrasts there was a dramatic difference in attitudes and ways of thinking. Once I finished my undergraduate degree in music, I traveled to Boston with the purpose of improving my musical skills; however, once in the United States my purpose shifted into a more analytical one as I found a culture in which music was appreciated not only by musicians, but by society as a whole. A significant amount of people are related in some way to this discipline, which makes music an important part of the metropolitan culture. As a matter of fact, I have
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had the opportunity to observe that musical activities ranging from costly to free of charge are in high demand. The experiences of my colleagues and my own have shown that families that can afford private musical lessons seem to consider them an unquestionable investment. Moreover, I have had the opportunity of witnessing low-cost musical activities, in which children are able to interact with music by dancing, singing and even exploring a story to a tune. In every occasion, these sessions have been crowded. But what drives people to give importance to children’s exposure to music? In my experience, proper conditions have given the people of Boston the understanding that the task of playing a musical instrument, singing or even dancing to the rhythm of a musical style, strengthens not only the intellectual, psycho-motor and social abilities, but also the ability to face failures, triumphs and new challenges; skills that are useful for the development of any person or any kind of activity. The qualities and flaws of music education in a specific place have an impact on every aspect of its musical culture. If kids in Boston have a consistent and accessible music education, by the time they are adults they will be aware of the benefits provided by their musical interaction. Therefore, musicians will be immersed in a society that not only appreciates them, but also needs and demands their services. At the same time, this demand encourages people with the desire to engage in a musical career. This leads us not only to a great variety of musicians and a musically educated society, but it also gives the country the opportunity of strengthening its economy through the export of its music all over the world. In Chile, music education for children is addressed from two sides. The first is the music education in schools: music is included in the elementary school program as a mandatory subject along with Math, Language, Science and History, among others. The Chilean Department of Education states that “its contribution regarding the student’s emotional development is essential for a complete education’’. Based on this, one might think that the subject of Music in Chile is considered as important in the development of a child as the other subjects mentioned above. However, in a significant amount of cases, the subject of Music is not approached as one of importance but rather one that’s recreational, in which learning is not evaluated with the same rigor than the rest of the subjects. In my opinion, the fact that Music is mandatory in elementary school programs is nothing but a statement of good will, and generally not taken seriously. In fact, in my personal experience as a student, the hours invested on musical education seemed like a waste of time demanded by the school’s curriculum. The second side from which music education is addressed is through private lessons. In contrast to the private lessons given in Boston, Chile presents a reduced amount of people who demand this kind of setting. Predominantly, those who demand private lessons are not parents who are concerned about their children’s relationship with music, but teenagers who are interested in this discipline as a professional career. Nonetheless, the cost of these private lessons are not affordable for everybody, especially low-income families; in other words, this second way of approaching music education is financially exclusionary. This is one of the factors that conditions a great part of Chilean society to distance itself from music as a discipline. The consequences of this inadequacy in Chilean musical education, are noticeable in all aspects of its musical culture. People in Chile ignore the benefits of musical interaction. Concerts and recitals that go against the mainstream provided by radio and television have low attendance, since Chilean audiences seldom show an appreciation for music beyond what media advertises. Those who are interested in becoming musicians rarely find a place in which they can strengthen their skills; instead, they stumble upon the occupational desert of a society with few opportunities for musicians.
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As I portray the musical scarcity of my country, I find myself in the need of bringing up a period of time in which music was fully integrated as a unifying, representative and crucial element of Chilean culture. The 1960’s were a decade that brought out not only a musical blossom, but also an artistic collective movement in Chile. This outbreak of artists tried capturing Chilean tradition in the most truthful manner. Songs and poems, among other forms, made a wide range of the population feel represented by these forms’ depiction and reflection of Chilean tradition. And a broader impact came when these artists became internationally known as the greatest exponents of Chilean identity. Although this period of time is charged with political thought, the passage of time has shown that these artists remain immovable at the core of the nation’s identity, as they have provided us with a major synthesis of Chilean cultural tradition. It is my belief that this artistic movement is transcendental to a certain political leaning. This golden age of Chilean art and music came abruptly to an end by the hand of the Chilean coup d’état in 1973. Among all aspects of Chilean society that were damaged by the brutality and long lasting repression of the military dictatorship, art was not an exception. The denial of freedom of speech, the prohibiting of gatherings and the book burnings, among other forms of repression, forced artists to be exiled from Chile to other countries where they could continue with the development of their crafts. This left Chile in the poorest cultural condition. I cannot disregard the irony that appears when mentioning the Chilean coup in a comparison of musical contexts between Chile and the U.S., since it was the economic support and the use of foreign intelligence provided by the latter that had a large influence on the execution of the coup and the implementation of the dictatorship. When instituting a political system, consequently and inevitably a cultural system is established. If the culture of a country is crushed by an imposed culture, the possibilities of true artistic creation from within the country’s tradition and identity, in a nation where its artists have been forced to emigrate, are scarce. These consequences make such an event one of particular importance, as we seek the factors that may have shaped the musical contrast between these two countries. However, it is impossible to know what the Chilean musical culture would be like had the military dictatorship never occurred, and any kind of supposition is nothing else but that. Furthermore, I cannot say that the military dictatorship is the only factor responsible for the many issues plaguing Chile’s musical culture, especially when twenty-five years of democracy have passed. What I can say though, is that from that moment on the Chilean musical context changed. Up until this day, despite the efforts to re-encounter tradition and to create from within, we still live the separation between people and music as a remnant of the dictatorship’s oppression. To find the exact reasons that have shaped these musical contexts requires a further investigation into a variety of factors and the influence they might have had on these realities. Therefore, it demands deeper and more extensive research. However, my goal in this comparison is not just the understanding of both cultures and the way their socio-political contexts have molded them, but also, if I may, to provide an incentive to become active musicians in the strengthening of those weaker aspects I have described here; weak aspects such as the lack of musical interaction in our day-to-day experience and the poor implementation of music as an educational tool in our society. I have had the opportunity to recognize the musical disadvantages of my country through the discovery of a new context; one that seems inclined to properly use art to its benefit. This should encourage us musicians to dig into the foundations of our musical realities and find an essence closer to our identity, so we can build from within that identity and strengthen the ties between people and music.
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MAJA Lukic Maja Lukic is a writer/attorney in New York City. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prick of the Spindle, The Brooklyn Quarterly, and Small Print Magazine. When not writing, she is playing with a camera and developing recipes for her food and cocktail blog www.veggiesandgin.com.
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Rail Station Bohemia The first image, A gray beret. The last, a train Departing a station. White smoke rising. Faces on a platform Call your name, And you fear the Platform will collapse Under its weight. The train pulls Away, pushing into A vast nothing---The same reliable train Your ancestors once Boarded to flee---Ironing out the tracks As it winds through The flat expanse. The last car passes And the rails detach, Soaring to a gray sky.
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Gaia, part 1
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RESA Blatman Resa Blatman received her MFA in painting from Boston University in 2006, and her BFA in graphic design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1995, and she taught advanced level graphic design at MassArt since 1997. Resa received several grants and awards, including a nomination for the 2010 James and Audrey Foster Prize at the ICA, Boston. Her work is included in private and corporate collections, including Fidelity, Twitter, the Hilton Hotel, and the WH Ming Hotel in Shanghai, China. Her work is reviewed and featured in numerous magazines, journals, books, and online blogs.
www.resablatman.com
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Gaia, part 1
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“Lush representations of nature were the central focus of my paintings for some time. Although still lush, my current work speaks specifically to a warming planet/environmental issues, their effect on our landscape and natural resources, and how we perceive the changes in the environment. To reflect this concept more directly, the paintings’ subjects and surfaces are heavily layered and sometimes the surfaces are split apart, with laser-cut forms that mimic tree branches, coral, and flora. This creates a physicality and metaphorical sound like the poetic violence of an iceberg cracking. As we become even more aware of the precarious nature of our habitat, the new work speaks to the vulnerability of the earth that we so easily take for granted.
Tempest
The cut-edge paintings are made on ¼-inch panels and/or Mylar sheeting. I design the patterns on the computer and then have the panels and sheets professionally laser-cut. Back in the studio, I layer the pieces on top of one another, sometimes cutting them up and making smaller panels, to create one whole painting. When the surface format is complete, I begin the painting process. The cut edges, layered surfaces, and shadows expand the subject matter of the paintings and help to conceive a beauty that is both chaotic and dystopian.” - Resa Blatman
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Split
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Unfrozen North 1
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Unfrozen North 3
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SUSAN Gundlach Susan Gundlach has published articles on topics ranging from family history and puppetry, to the Great Wall of China and the Nile River. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Dark Matter, A Midnight Snack, Lingerpost, *82 Review, and in the walkway of the Evanston Public Library. Her work can also be seen in The Best of Vine Leaves 2012, and in the January 2014 issue of Cricket magazine, which features some of her children’s poems. Currently, she is working on collaborations with artist and musician colleagues. She lives in Evanston, Illinois, with her family, human and canine.
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Winter Villanelle: February Chill “Hope” is the thing with feathers –
Emily Dickinson
The February winds sing out so cold, Raw music of these endless winter days, Faint hope that hopefulness can yet take hold. Last summer’s grass, ice-bound and stiff and old, Sends forth a noiseless chant from some dark place While February winds sing out so cold. Houses are closed up tight, secrets untold, and time hums their quiet stories and sadness away, No hint that hopefulness will yet take hold. As little snowdrops silently unfold The sun’s reflection sets the snow ablaze Though February’s wind still blows so cold. A woodpecker taps out his hollow code, An unseen sparrow utters one shrill phrase-- Small, distant traces of hopefulness to hold. This bleak and frigid season of earth and soul Begins to turn away from winter’s face. Late February winds sing out so cold, But hopes for hopefulness might yet take hold.
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www.facebook.com/latomateragaleria
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Después de 5 meses de trabajo en el diseño, exploración, experimentación y montaje, La Tomatera Galería Café abrió al publico en noviembre del 2013 en el bario san Antonio de la ciudad de Cali, Colombia. Nos complace anunciar que, a partir de esta edición, Middle Gray Magazine incluirá una selección del arte actualmente en exhibición en La Tomatera. La Tomatera Galería Café, es un espacio pensado y diseñado para los amantes de la ilustración, la fotografía, el diseño, el arte y la buena cocina. El objetivo es ofrecer un lugar para la exposición y promoción de artistas locales, brindándole al publico obras que se ajusten a diferentes presupuestos -- bajo un modelo rentable para los artistas -- así como una oferta gastronómica variada, con el fin de ofrecer experiencias diferentes en la ciudad. “En La Tomatera estamos comprometidos con la diversidad y creación constante de nuevas opciones para nuestro público. Para esto siempre estamos en búsqueda de nuevos artistas, fotógrafos y sabores.” explica el fundador Iván Salazar. The Middle Gray y La Tomatera seguirán trabajando juntos buscando formas de beneficiar y acercar a nuestras respectivas comunidades. After 5 months of design, exploration, experimentation and set-up, La Tomatera Gallery Café opened its doors on November 2013, in the historic neighborhood of San Antonio, in Cali, Colombia. We’re pleased to announce that, starting with our current issue, Middle Gray Magazine will include a selection of the artwork currently being shown at La Tomatera. La Tomatera is a space designed for enthusiasts of illustration, photography, design, art and good food. They have built a place dedicated to showcasing and promoting local artists, providing their audience with artwork for every budget in a model that’s profitable for the artists. This, in addition to a diverse food offering, aims to offer a new experience to their community. “At La Tomatera we’re commited to diversity and to bringing new options to our public. We’re always in search of new artists and new flavors.” explains founder Iván Salazar. The Middle Gray and La Tomatera will continue to work together, seeking new ways to benefit our respective communities and to bring them closer together.
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