From Martha Leduc: I like symmetry, I like things to feel connected. Maybe being an only child, I longed for connection. My paintings explore order and chaos, tension between shapes and colors in order to then unify them. Expressive lines and ambiguous images appeal to me. In some cases, the work looks chaotic but there is always an underlying line or shape striving to unify the elements.                     * * * Martha Leduc is an artist living in New York. You can see more of her work on her website. She’s also a friend of Fictional Café member and former Featured Writer/Artist/Musician Phil Demise Smith. She does small illustrations of New York in pen and animal paintings on paper. She really enjoys doing both realistic little…

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In the French village of Dourdan, the sculptor Sophie Vincent carries on a tradition of making ceramics which dates back to the first century BCE, a period when France was known as Gaul and part of the Roman Empire. It was a time when clay kitchen and tableware changed from being purely utilitarian to becoming more expressive and decorative shapes and figurines – in a word, art. And thus Sophie, working in her studio in Dourdan, just south of Paris, brings this ancient Dourdan tradition into the twenty-first century. Here is a sampling of her work, with titles in their original French. Please click on the images for a gallery view.             * Sophie says, “After four years of training and nice meetings with other artists, I opened my own ceramics studio in Dourdan. Since then, I spend most of my…

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The folk tale of Little Red Riding Hood has a long and varied history in its telling, which does nothing to diminish the charm of the following photographs, which have a distinctive mood and charm all their own. Thanks to our friend J. Stirling for sharing these images. Enjoy.   Please click on the images to enlarge them.    If you go off to the woods… Be sure you take some lunch with you…   My apple was delicious! I’m so glad I brought some along.  The woods are a wonderful place for memories and secrets…   But now it’s growing dark. Time to go home before the Big Bad Wolf finds me. Besides, I’m getting tired and I miss mommy and daddy!    

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We’re pleased to bring you more work from Woodsybug aka Nicole Beauchaine. You may remember her guitar art from last year. Well, her stop motion films are another of her super-fun creative outlets. Here are just a few of the videos she has to offer on her Youtube page. Some are spooky, Halloween-y films, while others are sweet and touching, while others are just plain cool! Enjoy. * * *                         * * * Nicole Beauchaine is a Boston-based guitar designer. She says, “Art is the tool I use to discover myself, and the confidence I gain from knowing who I am. Thanks for checking out my work, commissions are welcome anytime! www.woodsybug.com”

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We’re delighted to have Daniele Maguet and her wonderful Galerie ZonZon in Brest, France, as an art partner with the Fictional Café. Every so often, Dany will suggest an artist whose work is going on display at her gallery for us to present here in the Café, and it is our pleasure this month to welcome Isabelle Zutter. She lives and paints in Montpellier, France, which is 10 kilometers inland from the Mediterranean Sea. Although the city has roots back to the 1300s, it is a very hip place, home to three universities and a vibrant community of the arts. Isabelle has shared her artist’s statement with us: “My Mediterranean is in Montpellier, but it might as well be in Athens, Casablanca and Barcelona. The light and contrasts I play with rely on odors, sounds that we share…

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