…is the name of today’s story at Fictive Dream.
Throughout the month of February 2023 I will be showing you illustrations I did for Flash Fiction February 2023 at Fictive Dream, an online magazine devoted to the short story.
Here’s the image editor Laura Black chose for this story, Mirror Park, by Thaddeus Rutkowski.
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 loved the painting even before I read the story, which occupies a visceral place for me. My daughter’s high school softball team often played games in that wonderful neighborhood park along the river. There was a huge fight about the way it was being “fixed”–and the “raze it” faction won. All those trees! Just destroyed. (K)
It’s very interesting for me (and satisfying) when a reader engages with a story at such a personal level. I live in England so the area is an unknown to me. That said, the emotions in Thaddeus Rutkowski’s work transcend such boundaries. I find the illustration as haunting as the story itself. I love the palette, perfect for a landscape but one in which you don’t quite have your bearings. Wonderful, Claudia, thank you.
Thank you. To me these colors are hot and dry and the gray at the top presses down. There is a feeling of things stripped bare. When I was young we lived in a place where farm fields were becoming suburban neighborhoods. Bulldozers cleared the lots and they looked like this to me – scraped clean.
I agree about the way the illustration looks.
I’m always happy when February rolls around to see the combinations of Claudia’s work and the stories you have chosen–thanks!
Thank you. I agree with you. I never understand how people feel it’s ok to clear-cut trees like that. Sometimes I wonder if trees are too messy for some people what with their leaves falling and so on – so let’s just plant grass and mow it ? I don’t get it.
It’s certainly easier to just get rid of them than work with them–I remember that from housing developments, it always amazed me that they would just cut everything down and leave all that empty space instead of building the houses to fit in with the trees.