…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, “No Worries” Said the Woman, by Meg Tuite.
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 
The art you do for the banners is always so amazing! And sometimes if I am in the mood I go to that site and read the short story 🙂
Thank you. Well, the job of my art in this event is to support the writing, so…it seems to me that you are saying it’s doing its job.! I am glad it makes you want to read the stories. As an avid reader, it is really interesting to me to be involved with writers and to try to make a connection between their words and visual images.
How kind of you. I hope you’re finding much to enjoy.
Today’s story ‘No Worries’ Said the Woman by Meg Tuite is preceded by a quotation from writer Kate Braverman and it was this that influenced my choice of image. I feel that the illustration enables us to see the narrator’s world through the very mirror that she mentions, we see the the colours of bruises. This is a challenging story and the artwork equals its complexity. Thank you, Claudia!
Thank you. To me this purply-blue color has weight; there is depth to it and meaning. The heavy black line is another big presence. The white and green just emphasize this relationship, in my mind. I also feel that the grid arrangement of the squares is a structure within the structure of the image -but with irregularities and open spaces. I always like to have some kind of way to move around in my pictures and I feel like in this one, there are so many layers and routes and places to stop, or not. The challenge is to make it all hold together visually without turning to chaos.
You’ve caught the space between, which is where the story rests for me. (K)
You know, I always want everything neat and squared off in my living life, but in my art, I never ever go that route, I want to run free and have those spaces in between. I love that you said that. That is to me what this painting feels like.
It does!
I think the way you’ve chosen this range of purples to reference that motif in the story is perfect.
I love this color of purply blue. It is rich and deep, and can have many meanings depending on context, I think, but it is not a lively light feeling, ever. So I think it fits.