Edited by: Jonathan Russell — Spring 2021 Editor’s Note
Designed by: MacPhoenix Design

Spring 2021 Featuring:

Cover artist: PLUGO
New York born, PLUGO has now spent half his life making a living in the San Francisco Bay Area, providing illustration & design work for comics, kid’s lit, magazines, text-books, album covers, and countless t-shirts. Some of his work is available on Redbubble.

Back cover artist: Melissa Barrett
Melissa is a graphic designer who is curious about way too many things. Lover of art, design, fantasy, games, beer, and oddities. She has some of her designs on Threadless.

Spring 2021 Contributors:

  • Christopher Fahey contributed the painting, “Atomic Skull”.
    Chris’s company, Crucial Designs, creates positive images, posters, and clothing that brings smiles to people faces and brings us together. He loves to create and share his work with you.

  • Donald Swenson contributed the painting, “Always”, and the short story, “Outside the Window”.
    Don’s latest work has been exploring themes of isolation with the subjects in his paintings being lost or disconnected from their environment. A number of his paintings center on a small, lonely robot. The often blank expression of this robot allows the viewer to bring their own emotional context to the paintings.

    “These paintings started during a period of my life where everything was changing. I was newly married, newly unemployed, and soon to be a new father. Feeling a bit un-tethered, I went to my easel which was a place I had avoided for almost twenty years.”

    In addition to his personal work, Don started Free Art Friday Hammonton. For over 2 years artists from the Hammonton area have donated their art to lucky “art hunters” in the community. To date Free Art Friday Hammonton has placed over 150 free pieces of art into the world. Don is also the President and one of the founding members of Art Club Hammonton, a group dedicated to bringing attention to the fine arts in Southern New Jersey. Started in March of 2020, Art Club Hammonton has curated several gallery shows, and hosts both a monthly live streaming show dedicated to the arts, as well as bi-monthly drawing sessions.

    Don’s work has been seen at PhilaMOCA, ArtWORKS Trenton, Noyes Arts Garage, and Moerder Tattoos & Gallery.

  • Erick Wilson contributed the painting, “Eclipse 2021”.

  • JP Hooper contributed two hot sauce reviews, JP’s Hot Source.
    JP is the Lead Paranormal Investigator and one-half of the pair of Metalheads, in search of the truth behind the urban legends.

  • Kimmeth Powell contributed the photograph, “Echos”.
    Kimmeth, of dyessdesign, provides distinctive design, and expertly executed mechanical services is her specialty. Interior design resources and fabric design are her sideline retreats.

  • Michele Wilson contributed the essay, “Michele’s Musings… Music”.

  • Morgan Bissell contributed the short story, “Gasoline”.
    Morgan, or Excessive Mascara as she is affectionately known in the digital world, is one part writer, one part anime enthusiast, one part cosplay, one part artist, and one part impulsive butterfly. She is passionate about human rights and the LGBTQ+ community about as equally as she is about the darker parts of life. Morgan tries to provide trigger warnings on her work as it delves into these subjects. All works are creative in purpose and at no time is anyone injured. Morgan also reminds her fans that self love is number one, you are amazing for being you, and remember to get out of bed, eat something, and hug something fluffy.

  • Painted Birch contributed his animal oracle for Spring and a poem, “What Is Humane”.

  • pthelo contributed photography for the Ollie Burger fan art collage.

  • Rory Braun contributed the digital painting, “Break and Bounce”.

  • Racheal Halupa contributed a photo composition.
    Racheal loves photography, all of it. She does everything from still life, to pets, to newborns, to weddings. She has placed in top 10% in Shoot and Share two years in a row, in the categories of children and couples. She has had backdrop companies use her images to feature their product. She also has headed several published portraits in various magazines.

  • Tobias Hobbes contributed the drawing, “Bloody Chocolates”.
    Tobias Hobbes works in Medium/Low-Fi tech art. His hand-drawn works inspire and are also inspired by the music of his alter ego Dudley Ghost. All are connected. Auto-da-fé.

  • Vincent Prator contributed the digitally altered photograph, “Jewels of the Glass Peacock”
    Visually speaking, he sees the world bigger than he had imagined, and all it took was picking up a camera.

Thanks

Besides the fabulous contributors, who went above and beyond to help with this project, Jonathan would like to thank Katherine, Allan, Rich(e)rich, AJ & UB, Dani, Marylou, Jennifer, José, Thom, Tom, Dave, Amy, K-lyn, Josh, and Hannah for their financial support and encouragement. Also, thanks to Alan and Chuk for their helpful feedback. Thank you, too, to KaiTheGreat and Jim S for donating through Ko-fi. I’m astounded and humbled by your generosity.

Colophon

Principles

  • We believe in the Oxford comma and single spaces after a period.