VISUAL ART
ISSUE 5 / SEPTEMBER 2023
Two Days Sober by Abby MacLeod
Free From Fear by Abby MacLeod
Whistle by Fálki
Fálki is delightedly sober. She's a wisdom seeker, intuitive mover, healer, and baby artist living in a tiny camper with 2 cats and her partner, Steve. Her art simply reflects where she's at in relation to the dancing, creative energy around her in any given moment. Lately, illustration, haiku, haiga, and comics make her heart sing. You can find out more about Fálki at her website, falconandacorn.com
Whistle is a digital image that began life as free-flow writing - my Morning Pages for a day in May, 2023. The little tweet slowly emerged and happily told me to get off my rear and get started with my day.
Small Boat by Fálki
Small Boat is an early experiment with Haiga, an illustrated form of haiku. In this case, the image preceded the words. I began layering colors over words over textures, and eventually a tiny boat on a great sea came to life. Someone needed to watch out for the little vessel. Who better to do that than Moon?
Shark by Fálki
This Haiga began with words. Sharks are one of my favorite animals and have been since I was a young child. There's nothing deeper going on here than my love of these amazing creatures.
Two Tone Summer by Ian Jones
I just moved to the west coast and am just getting back into to the swing of things.
Sluggo Puggo by Ian Jones
This is about duality and yin and yang. The ever present challenges of pursuing balance.
Womb by Ian Jones
With the steps backwards with regards to women’s rights in this country I wanted to make a piece supporting the fight against the patriarchy.
Cup of Gold by Ercilia Medeiros
Ercilia Medeiros is a painter in Santa Cruz County, California. With ancestry from the Portuguese Azores Islands, Ercilia was raised in California with an upbringing shaped by the deep traditional folklore of her parents’ culture and the landscapes of the Central Coast.
Ercilia is interested in the ways the natural environment influences identity, invokes ancestral knowledge, and shapes individual spirituality.
Originally a watercolorist, Ercilia has expanded her work into acrylic on canvas.
Cup of gold is a reflection on motherhood and identity.
Oxalá by Ercilia Medeiros
Oxalá is a reflection on courage in the face of anxiety. During the pandemic, I was working from home and parenting with a young child at home learning remotely via computer. The stress and anxiety of that period felt crushing at times, but hope and courage fluttered in my chest like the brave little chickadees I'd watch at my feeder while sitting at my computer while working from home.
Untitled I by Anna
I use art as a tool to occupy my thoughts and hands since getting sober, it’s definitely part of my therapy and is essential for my recovery.
Untitled II by Anna
Untitled III by Anna
Litha Sabbat Necklace by Lost Flower Designs
During early sobriety I looked toward my garden as a place for healing and finding myself again. Well for the first time if I am being honest…Which led me to learning more about spiritual herbalism and celebrating pagan sabbats.
I used orange, yarrow, thyme, violets, strawberries, wild strawberries, wild rose petals, snapdragon & daisies in these creations so you can carry that positivity and joy all year long.
Summer Solstice marks the beginning of Cancer Season so I thought these sea glass beads would be the perfect water element to add to these creations. Sea Glass is a symbol of renewal and healing making it the perfect addition
Litha Sea Glass Necklace by Lost Flower Designs
I wanted to create a piece of nature to carry with me wherever I went so each creation reflected the beauty and diversity of the natural world. The herbs and flowers used in these creations were grown in my garden or foraged in nature.
Ostara Sabbat Necklace by Lost Flower Designs
I wanted to create a piece of nature to carry with me wherever I went so each creation reflected the beauty and diversity of the natural world. The herbs and flowers used in these creations were grown in my garden or foraged in nature.
Solace by Christine Hogg
I'm a designer based in Fort Collins, Colorado focusing on 2D media. Through experience in the visual arts, language learning, art history, travel, and a career in education, I developed a love for people, open dialogue, and breaking bread together.
I find serenity in living in the present, drawing, cooking, writing, and being around other species or outside.
I also celebrated 3 years of sobriety on July 14th, 2023!
Narrative available here.
~ 48 x 55 inches
Soft pastel (black), paper (cream, acid free, medium tooth)
April 2023.
The Centering Rod by Christine Hogg
Narrative available here.
~ 34 x 40 inches
Soft pastel (black), paper (cream, acid free, medium tooth)
May 2023.
The Shift from People-Pleasing by Christine Hogg
Narrative available here.
~ 40 x 42 inches
Soft pastel (black), paper (cream, acid free, medium tooth)
May 2023.
Return to Center by Maggie Reuter
My abstract analog collage work is an exercise in conjuring beauty from found materials such as old books, magazines and photographs, that I primarily find at estate sales and thrift shops. I’m drawn to upcycling materials already in existence, because it’s a reminder to me that you can take whatever you have been given and create something beautiful.
8 x 10 hand cut analog collage.
Presence is the Portal by Maggie Reuter
8 x 10 hand cut analog collage.
Softer Still by Maggie Reuter
8 x 10 hand cut analog collage.
Meditations by Abbey Bricker
My name is Abbey and I am self taught artist with an interest in exploring fiber art, collage and digital art. As a sober person, I use art and writing as a way to work through addiction.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Citrus Notes by Abbey Bricker
In my first year of sobriety, I struggled a lot with feeling like I had not hit a hard enough bottom. I realized though, that it’s okay to come in before you lose everything.
Ghosts by Abbey Bricker
Negative thoughts like a ghost. Shifting shapelessly among the day to day activities of our lives, curling their fingers and taking root. Don’t nourish these ghosts, or else they will move in for good.
ELLA by Lisa Wilcox
I love creating art with my camera. I created a collection of works entitled “Feminine Strength.” I named each piece after an important female in my life.
Ella is a piece from my collection entitled Feminine Strength. There are 50 pieces in the collection all named after women in my life. Ella is the daughter of two of my dearest friends from college. She was born the day my mom had her double mastectomy and I remember my friends calling me in the waiting room to say Ella had been born. She is a senior in high school now.
MOLLY by Lisa Wilcox
Molly is a piece from my collection entitled Feminine Strength. There are 50 pieces in the collection all named after women in my life. Molly is a spiritual part of my life. A connection I will always need. She is a beautiful part life.
HEATHER by Lisa Wilcox
Heather is a piece from my collection entitled Feminine Strength. There are 50 pieces in the collection all named after women in my life. Heather is the friend that felt like safety. She mothered me and she accepted me and she made me laugh like no one else. I grieve and miss her friendship every day. I am getting closer to being brave enough to ask her to forgive me.
Falling by Jocelyn Ulevicus
Jocelyn Ulevicus is an American artist, writer, and poet with work either forthcoming or published in magazines such as SWWIM Every Day, The Free State Review, Humana Obscura, and elsewhere. Ulevicus is a Best Poets, Best of the Net, and Pushcart Prize nominee. Her debut poetry collection The Difference Between Breathing and Swallowing was recently released by Sunday Mornings At The River Press. You can follow her work on Instagram.
Acrylic on hand-stretched Barcelona linen, frame.
80 x 100 cm.
Girls Are Strong by Al Stone
Al lights up when she's behind her film camera & buried in the stacks of magazines. Both mediums, film photography & collage she finds to be very democratic & accessible. An old film camera can be found at an estate sale and magazines are everywhere. Although the time and energy and the film itself are costly, these art mediums force her to slow down and get in touch with her creative side.
Mixed media collaged on paper.
Take Your Time by Al Stone
Mixed media collaged on paper.
Look Up by Al Stone
Mixed media collaged on paper.
Temperance by Stevi-Lee Alver
Stevi-Lee Alver is an Australian writer, tattoo artist and muralist. She lives in the middle of Brazil with her wife. She loves bush walks and waterfalls but misses the ocean.
Temperance represents balance, moderation, patience and serenity. Her connection with the snake represents her sheddible layers. Her feet, dipping into the ocean, represent the stream and flux of life.
This illustration was born from a fusion of two of my favourite quotes:
"We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves" ~ Patti Smith
"Enlightenment is when the wave realises it is the ocean" ~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Liz McQueen
I'm a landscape artist based In South West Scotland. It's the landscape that surrounds my home that inspires me to paint. By exploring the hills and moorlands on foot I find expressions and correlations of my inner emotional landscape; in the weather, in colours and textures in shapes and contours. By extension, my sober journey has now become embedded within my paintings.
The poem, ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, by Robert Frost, is about the impermanence of life. It describes the fleeting beauty of nature, of time and the changing season seasons - symbols which resonated deeply with me. I used gold leaf in this piece which tarnished as I applied paint, it seemed to capture the spirit of the poem.
Still Waters by Liz McQueen
This painting of captures a quiet moment of contemplation. The surface of the water is calm, the landscape dark as night falls.
Muir by Liz McQueen
'Muir' is the Scots word for Moorland. In Autumn the grasses turn golden. Looking out over the moors, you can watch the changing weather fronts rolling in.
First giant from the Sun by YLG
A a dirty pour of white & blue and green & gold paint on a black canvas
I‘ve Been Trying to Find My Passion by Bridget Martinez
My name is Bridget Martinez and I am an illustrator based in Chinatown, NYC. I make colorful comics about navigating relationships, sobriety, and identity.