…is the name of today’s story on Fictive Dream.
Throughout the month of February 2021 I will be showing you illustrations I did for Flash Fiction February 2021 at Fictive Dream, an online short-story magazine. For more information about FFF21 and my artwork process, look here.
Here’s the image editor Laura Black chose for this story, Long Light, by Michael Cocchiarale.
And here is the artwork with the banner. Take a look at this image. And then…
Read the story at Fictive Dream.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
I very much like the contrast between the bold colours and the rich darkness of the background. I also love that vibrating line of orange-red. It reads like a pulse, maybe the flash of memories.
I like the color scheme of this one very much, too. That dark blue color is becoming a favorite of mine because it almost absorbs all the light, but there is a blue glow that makes for a darkness that is so different from black. And of course, orange ink, I love it. Nothing more to be said. Because it always comes through for me.
Yes! I have been trying to put my finger on what I like about that inky, velvety colour and that is what it is: it is somehow both very dark but with a luminosity to it.
Yes. It’s an odd color but very beautiful and very useful (I also use it mixed with other colors).
Now that I am reading posts daily instead of frantically trying to catch up (which never seems possible in blog land) I can now take the time and read the short story that goes with your illustration. That short story was fantastic and the author captured so much emotion in just a few paragraphs. I thought your painting went well with the story. It was nice to navigate to Fictive Dream and see a whole bunch of your illustrations!
Thank you. I am enjoying FFF21 this year so much – it was a very free process in doing these images this year, which made it easier with all the changes and problems of the past 12 months. By the way I am going to be taking a class in making a fabric journal from the Smithsonian starting next week, your fabric will be in action! Your gift that has kept on giving!
In Long Light by Michael Cocchiarale the protagonist has seen the light and is on the point of moving on with her life. This illustration with its contrasting colours engages vey well with the story. I feel the foreground, and the orange line in particular, represent not only movement, but also enlightenment. Thank you, Claudia for another great piece of artwork.
Thank you. In the context of the story, I also saw the line as motion, and I think the color contrast for me represents the break between the old and new life that is happening. This story has a lot to say to us in our current circumstances where we are all trying to leap over the break and move on, I think.