…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, Things Hoped For, by Lisa Ferranti.
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 
This story in its essence parallels that of too many women I know. You’ve drawn those seeds of unrealized dreams beautifully. (K)
Thank you. I think that this picture shows how things reverberate outside their boundaries, good or bad, depending on the situation; and this story told here certainly is an example of that. Small things grow and expand, sometimes even by diminishing or disappearing.
Things Hoped For by Lisa Ferranti is a beautifully-told story about the unrealised desire for a child. The narrator likens her pregnancies to various seeds and the illustration complements that idea perfectly. I love the palette and the black ‘seeds’ flying away from the fruit. Glorious, thank you, Claudia.
Thank you. I like this bold color scheme of orange and turquoise and I use it often. It vibrates a little as you look at the combination and I think in this composition that quality is further emphasized by the black concentric circles as they break up and move outwards.
Before reading the story, my interpretation of your illustration was that it depicted a cell under a microscope or a flower head shedding its seeds. Having read the story, I understand that you have focused your art work on a key metaphor within the story and that actually both of those ideas are relevant.
I like this image a lot and for me it’s because of the colors, and of course the fact that there are so many circles. I especially like the little ones inside the blue/turquoise larger one; their scribbly look gives them a sense of vibrating, and I like that in combination with colors that I also think vibrate. Once again that sense of repetition of cycles and things moving out from a center attracted me to make this image.
Yes, there is a sense of vibration, of potential life, in terms of the story. The background brown complements the blue/turquoise so well.