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Jonathan Harvey
I’ve always made art for the sake of amusing people. Whether they laugh or they smile, just being noticed for it makes me feel better about myself. With each new piece I see improvements, and I know I’m closer to secured recognition. Whenever people enjoy my art, or share it on social media, I get more attention. That people are drawn to something I’ve made almost makes me feel as though they’re thanking me for a gift I’ve made for them. And if my art isn’t perfect, then other beginning artists can see how well I’m doing and strive to keep creating themselves.
My personal favorite submission is in this edition of Flumes is “Jewel- Crowned Gem Seeker.” The visual submissions were my favorite ones to review, and Lee Dawn’s piece really drew my eye to a lot of fantastic details. I noticed a lot of similarities between the piece and the works of artists that I follow online. It isn’t exactly my style of art, but I could see techniques in it that I’ve used myself before.
Kristina Heflin
I honestly don’t know what it is that drives me to do what I do. I feel like if I’m not writing, if I’m not making stories of some kind, I’ll either go mad or wither away inside. It’s an impulse as old as time and familiar as life itself. In ancient generations, there were designated storytellers, people whose job it was to create, remember, and share the collective imagination of a culture. Perhaps these people were chosen for their roles because, like me, something marked them out from an early age with undeniable passion to find those characters and events which explore what it means to be human.
I see something of that curiosity, that passion for the odd and the unusual in Mena, the little girl whose story is told in Lara Gularte’s “The Legacy.” Not allowing herself to be tethered to her mundane suburban life, Mena is drawn to the quirky, fascinating woman in the Victorian house across the street. There she learns that sometimes the stories we create for ourselves are the best gifts of all.