…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, Then, Thenner, Thennest, by Francine Witte.
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 like the way your composition echoes the structure of the story. The blocks also suggest being enclosed and stifled (or possibly pages of a book in the narrative of a life) but I like those warm squares in the centre that suggest windows within the cells or the possibility of finding hope within.
I like to work with a grid, as you know, or boxes or otherwise some kind of enclosures. There is something about how it makes the composition manageable for me; I have always been a person who works best with smaller choices and less info coming at me at a time, and that is how I feel about making an image like this. I love the colors here too.
Then, Thenner, Thennest by Francine Witte is the story of a life unlived. Laura notes that the illustration’s composition echoes the structure of the story and this is exactly why I chose it. The heavy squares represent the stages of the narrator’s life which had been constrained throughout. Text and art sit beautifully together. And I love the palette. Thank you, Claudia
Thank you. I loved this story with its very defined segments and the lessons, experiences, etc. contained within. And I was interested that the author presented three vignettes, as that to me is the number I find myself dividing art compositions into, quite often. I prefer odd numbers in art (and pretty much everything else, no idea why) and I feel three is a balanced number and provides variety and yet a sense of stability. I also like to work with grids as I feel they break down the open surface of the artwork as I am starting out into a structure that will guide me. I guess we as humans divide our lives into chapters or grids or whatever to make sense of them, and I feel that happening in this story as we progress through it.