…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, The Girl in the Corner Smoking a Cigarette, by Karen Jones.
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 think we’ve all been in that place, even the ones who appear from the outside to always belong. I like the suggestion of a hand in your art. (K)
Thank you. And I agree. I wonder sometimes if anyone ever feels quite secure in this world of relationships.
I like all of the visual textures in this piece. It actually looks very tactile. And I like the way the purple spatter connects visually to that swirled orb on the edge of the composition that I read as being the narrator of the story. I enjoyed the story and the way it played with inside/outside.
Yes, I liked the story too, finding it very relatable all right. I think it is interesting to look at this image as a small society of paint colors and shapes, and that they have relationships with each other, just as a group of people. I have to say that in fact I do often think of the image in this way, sort of a map of interactions.
The Girl in the Corner Smoking a Cigarette by Karen Jones is about not belonging and told through the motif of the body. I feel the artwork can be read as the narrator being represented on the right hand margin of the painting but also we have a reminder of her vulnerability in the violet marks above. For me the central blocks represent the (impenetrable?) group one hopes she’ll walk away from. Fabulous, Claudia, thank you.
Thank you. In every artwork there are of course relationships of shapes and colors and so on, and they make up a little environment as elements themselves, no matter what they are depicting, even (if the image is a more representational one showing real objects). You can always figure out how and why the picture affects you if you observe the balance of the elements and their similarities and differences, and how they influence each other. Just like groups of people, as in this story, I think.