I continue with my illustrations for Flash Fiction February 2020, twenty-nine days of flash fiction stories at Fictive Dream, an online fiction magazine featuring short stories.
For the event I created a small abstract painting for each selection – in fact, I did more than one painting per story. I am showing you all the images, day by day, throughout February. I’m also including a short write-up as to how I went about turning the authors’ words into pictorial representations.
I hope you’ll take a look at my art, then go to Fictive Dream, see which image editor Laura Black chose for the magazine, and read the story!
Thank you to Laura for her faith in my work and to the authors for such wonderful material to work with.
Today’s story is:
The Drowned by Cath Holland. Read it here at Fictive Dream.
Here are the artworks on their own:
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- Image 51
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- Image 52
and here they are with the banner.
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- Image 51
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- Image 52
Comments:
This story focuses on an everyday incident, the kind of thing that happens all the time, that is of no importance, and yet affects everyone in the immediate area. – the repaving of the street – and how it is interpreted by the residents and influences the future in one small area. The story is very descriptive of the changes to the street.
Image 51 – In this image I depicted the initial actions for the repaving. The yellow represents the truck and apparel of the workmen. The middle section depicts paving stones and additionally the gray rainy day. Finally, the black section represents the new asphalt with a single leaf.
Image 52 – This picture is the asphalt after some time, as described in the story. It sinks in, leaving a slight depression that catches water and leaves and forces people to step around it into the gutter. This image is a portrait of the amended street, the one the people have come to accept and live with.
Read the story at Fictive Dream.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
I like both artworks, especially the pops of colour against the monochrome. I think the first piece communicates the sense of passage of time and, in doing so, connects to the idea presented in the story that people adapt and eventually accept even unwanted and negative changes.
Thank you. I was really happy with both of these images because I like the color scheme from the story so much, and the urban theme seemed to lend itself to the simplicity of shapes and forms.