Mia Cross is a Boston-based artist who in a very short time has gained a great deal of interest and attention from the community. Mia launched her career in 2014, following her graduation from Boston University with a double major in Painting and Sculpture. In 2016 she received the “Emerging Artist Award” presented by the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA. Cross has been the recipient of multiple grants, including the Blanche Colman Grant and a Mass MoCa Match Grant. Her most recent residency stints include spending two weeks in 2017 at the Vermont Studio Center through a Boston University alumni grant, and a month in 2016 as an artist in residence at the Goetteman Residency at the Rocky Neck Art Colony in Gloucester, MA. Her work has been featured in numerous galleries and exhibits throughout New…
In a Stone Garden: Masayuki Koorida’s Sculpture
Japanese sculptor Masayuki Koorida was born in 1960 in Kyoto, Japan and today lives in Shanghai. He is considered a major talent and dedicated figure in contemporary sculpture. Celebrated for partially carved and polished boulders like “Existence” (seen below and permanently sited in The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden), Koorida has broadened his stonework repertoire with highly polished geometric pieces in a variety of materials and exquisite, large-scale drawings. This year, for the first time, he staged two exhibitions in the United States, one at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the other at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, which is ongoing until February 24, 2019. “Existence” Working with a small group of assistants from his studio in Shanghai, China, Masayuki Koorida uses stone as his primary medium to…
The Poetry of Wayne King
Editor’s Note: The featured image is Wind in the Maple by Wayne King. “Wind in the Washline” and “The Prevariating Day” Copyright 2021, by Wayne D. King, Published by Moosewood Publishing Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. Wind in the Washline Peace Comes on a Breeze Spirits Rise, Hope is Reborn The Washline Dances The Prevaricating Day Summer in the North Country A warm breeze, briefly noted. Through pine and hardwood, Crossing fields of corn and Unmown grass portending hay Cutting, courting, cunning Teasing, testing, trimming As if intending to remain, Yet only taunting. June days, behind us now, Beckoned us out, out Out to shake off winter Stubbornly liberating spring A month of April showers, Ours for but a pair of days, Dried to hard baked soil by May Constraining wildflowers Still pushing, prodding, poking…
I Understand the Game by Howard Williams
I UNDERSTAND THE GAME by Howard Williams My boyfriend deals drugs. And the entire life that we’ve built together has come at the cost of it. But after two years my perspective of the world outside our apartment is viciously sobering. We live in a spacious studio with exposed brick walls in downtown Washington, D.C. not too far from Georgetown University. When we first moved in I didn’t know how I’d fill the spaces, but I managed to transform the room into a home. On one of the walls I painted a huge graffiti mural of various black figures from Malcolm X and Martin Luther King to Audre Lorde and James Baldwin all compiled in the continent of Africa. The rest of the walls have paintings hung on them created by some friends of…
How I Lost Control And Found Tranquility by Richard David Bach
Editor’s Note: Richard Bach dedicates this short story to all the authors who fear that their characters are taking over and dictating their narrative. This is the story of one such author fighting to regain control. HOW I LOST CONTROL AND FOUND TRANQUILITY I opened the window to let out the lingering fragrance of cannabis and the lingering perfume of the young woman who turned and blew me a kiss as she walked down my driveway to the Uber waiting at the street. It had been a recreational evening and I hated to see her go, but I resolved to get back to work. Nights are best for me. I’m at my most imaginative, most creative, most productive, after dark. But I hadn’t possessed any of those talents of late, and I hoped that…
Friday Night is Gumshoe Night Again: “Saratoga Noir”
Ruby Fink, our Audio Arts Barista, and I were talking recently about great detective podcasts and we both agreed that “Saratoga Noir” was one of the best ever. And since it’s Friday night, our traditional audio arts/podcast evening, we’re rolling that tape again. Here’s the first episode of ZBS’s “Saratoga Noir,” featuring one of the world’s greatest, most humorously cynical and yet endearing gumshoes, Danny Boyee. Please click on the arrow below to listen to Episode 1 of “Saratoga Noir.” If you want to listen to the entire story, they’re all here at the Café: https://www.fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-2018s-first-audiobook/ https://www.fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-podcast-episode-2/ https://www.fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-five-new-episodes-tonight/ https://www.fictionalcafe.com/5-audiobook-episodes-saratoga-noir/ https://www.fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-episodes-8-14/ https://www.fictionalcafe.com/saratoga-noir-thrilling-conclusion/ Enjoy, with another big thank-you to our friends at the ZBS Foundation! Please visit their site. It’s a treasure trove of audio delights.
“Deluge,” A New Novel by James D. Best
Jim Best lives in Kansas, where lately raging rain has caused rivers to rise and towns to be flooded in epic proportions. So perhaps his latest novel, Deluge, is prescient. Taking a break from his phenomenally successful Steve Dancy westerns, Deluge is set in the present, but its antecedents are in 1862, when a sixty-five-day downpour pummeled the western United States. California suffered the brunt of the storm. Almost a third of the state was under water, roads were impassible, telegraph lines down, rivers overflowed, hundreds of people died, and hundreds of thousands of animals drowned. Sacramento remained under water for six months, forcing the state government to move to San Francisco. Geological evidence shows that a flood of this magnitude hits the western United States every one to two hundred years. Well, it’s been a…
“Moon Knight,” A Brand New Fan Film!
Editor’s note: We’re delighted to present a stunning new fan film. The Marvel Comics character “Moon Knight” is the superhero transformation of Marc Spector, and if you want to know absolutely everything about him, check out this page. A fan film is a work of video created to show respect, interest, reverence, and appreciation for the original work. Or, to quote Charles Caleb Colton, “Imitation is the sincerest [form] of flattery.” We’re grateful to Ian Adama for his work creating, providing FC with the finished “Moon Knight” fan film, and for the production notes that follow. Ian was the post production supervisor and director, AND the actor who portrayed Spider-Man. Another big shoutout to Chris Moore, one of us Fictional Café coffee fanatics and the sound designer and post-production audio engineer for this film. Ian is…
The Intoxicating Art of Nicole Duennebier
Editor’s note: Beginning today, August 29th, and running until September 11, Nicole Duennebier’s art is on display at the 13FOREST at 444 popup gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Gallery co-owner Marc Gurton says, “Since 2007, 13FOREST Gallery has been working with some of the finest artists in the Boston area to bring recognition to their work and to link them directly with the public. Last summer our pop-up exhibition at Gallery 444 in Provincetown allowed us to connect with visitors from all over the country, and this year we look forward to forging more connections within the art community of Provincetown with this two-week exhibition.” Receptions will be held on August 31 and September 7, 6-9 pm. Artist’s Statement Natural phenomenon—dermoid cysts, fungus, invasive flora/fauna—and my love of candied, old-master opulence have a constant presence in my work. Through…