art

Sandy Coomer–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

A few years ago, we expanded our kitchen to include a sitting area. We added lots of windows to two walls and the ceiling was elevated. I loved the light in that area, and the large free space above me. I decided to use one half of that sitting area for my “art studio.” I don’t use an easel, but work on a large bar-high art table instead. I put that table in the corner, added some storage cabinets, and voila, the perfect place to create! (And I’m very near the fridge and coffee maker – an added bonus!)

What kind of materials do you use? What mediums do you work in?

Recently I’ve started to work on cradled Gesso board and Clay board more than canvas. I love the harder surface, and the way I can better manipulate the paint. Plus, I’m finishing a lot of my work with epoxy resin, and I need the sturdier surface for that. I use acrylic paints, Golden heavy body. I also create mixed media art, using paint, pastels, ink, paper, and various embellishments to create an inspirational scene and message. I love hiding words in my art—leaving little secrets that require careful examination to find. Words like believe, blessing, dream, seek, love, dare, brave, and happiness. Also, I love birds. It’s not unusual for me to add a bird somewhere in the art.

What is your routine for art? Do you always sketch first?

I’m probably the most anti-routine person ever! I follow the muse, and most of the time I work backwards. I know in my head what I want to do and then I figure out how to make that happen. This means I have a lot of mess ups, but every mess up is a great chance to learn something. I’ve been working in the morning lately, immediately after waking, which is a switch for me. I used to work only in the afternoons. In many ways, I’m always thinking about art, and because I also write poetry, I’m always thinking about words. Any interesting color combination, design, texture, landscape, phrase, conversation, etc. is likely to become one of my many post-it-noted inspirational ideas for future use.

How long have you been making art? When did you start making art?

Selling art—about 3 years ago. Making art—forever. I used to draw as a child. When I had kids of my own, I was heavily into creating intricate pages for their scrapbooks. Then I started drawing birds with ink and using watercolor to paint them. Mixed media was my next addiction, and the basis for my first exhibit and art show. I love creating original covers for hard-back journals, and I sell a lot of those in art and craft shows. Lately, I’ve started exploring acrylic pour paintings and abstract landscape paintings. Obviously I find it hard to stick to one thing.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you make art for?

A lot of my mixed media art is geared toward children. The journals are for anyone who writes, draws, or keeps a diary. I make art for anyone who enjoys the creative nature of color and design.

What inspires you to create? If you are blocked, what do you do?

Nature inspires me. Language inspires me. Life inspires me. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with all the many things I want to create that it makes me anxious to think I won’t have time to do them all. I am a detail-oriented person, and I notice everything, and so many things lead to new ideas. I rarely feel blocked, but if I do, I like to go to Pinterest on my computer and search for interesting color combinations or a new technique for some random thing. Usually 10 minutes is enough to get me going again.

What other things do you do besides art? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I write poetry. I’m the author of 3 poetry chapbooks and the founding editor of an online poetry journal called Rockvale Review. I’m a poetry mentor with the AWP Writer to Writer Mentorship Program. I’m also an endurance athlete and an Ironman. I just competed in the World Championship race for the 70.3 Half Ironman distance in Chattanooga, TN after qualifying for the race last year. My new goal is to complete a 50 mile trail race, hopefully in 2018.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

Probably the idea phase. I love to think up a dozen things I want to create, jot down some notes and color ideas, and plan how I’m going to do them. Even right now, I’m looking at four rough sketches of landscapes complete with color notes that I want to create in the next couple of months. I also really like holding a finished piece of art in my hands, one I’m really proud of. That makes me indescribably happy!

What is your advice to aspiring artists?

Don’t follow the rules. I’ve never done anything the conventional way, and I like it that way. But I realize I might be a stubborn person for thinking like that, so let me say this instead: Don’t follow all the rules. Be free enough to take chances, to dare to color out of the lines. Believe in yourself enough to create the way you are made to create—from your own heart and the unique way you see and experience things. And put your art out in the world. You may be amazed at how many people respond positively to your creativity, and how your gifts might inspire, move, even heal someone else.

 

Check out Sandy’s work in Volume 4, Issue 1.

Volume 5, Issue 1 Theme

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

The issue will be available January 2019.

The optional theme is Lost and Found. See the Submit tab for details on how to submit. We accept photography, art, comics, creative nonfiction, fiction, flash fiction, experimental work, and poetry.

For poetry, I would love to see more Blackout and Cross out poems. For examples, check out these books: Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kleon, A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel by Tom Phillips, The ms of m y kin by Janet Holmes, Bukowski Erasure Poetry Anthology: A Collection of Poems Based on the Writings of Charles Bukowski by Melanie Villines, A Little White Shadow by Mary Ruefle, Mornings Like This: Found Poems by Annie Dillard, Nets by Jen Bervin, and Of Lamb by Matthea Harvey. Please submit the original and the typed version. And for fiction, creative nonfiction, and art, photography, and comics, please interpret this theme how you will, or see if you can do something new and unique with this found poetry method.

Volume 4, Issue 2 is Here!

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

The issue is available as a PDF: TMR Volume 4 Issue 2.

The optional theme is comics, be it drawn in sequential images or just plain funny.

Contributors: Gershon Ben-Avraham, Susan P. Blevins, Mela Blust, Charles W. Brice, Aria Callaham, Joan Colby, Holly Day, Darren C. Demaree, Adam Durso, Kelcey Parker Ervick, Sarah A. Etlinger, GTimothy Gordon, John Grey, Jack D. Harvey, Aloura Hattendorf, Henry Hitz, Diane Hoffman, A.J. Huffman, Phil Huffy, James Croal Jackson, Lonnie James, Gloria DeVidas Kirchheimer, Matthew J. Kreglow, Claire Martin, Megan Miazgowicz, Jennifer Davis Michael, Paul Mills, TJ Neathery, Simon Perchik, Steven B. Rosenfeld, David Anthony Sam, William L. Spencer, David Spicer, Chuck Thompson, Dennis Trujillo, Bess Vanrenen, Maryfrances Wagner, Michael Whelan, Theresa Williams, and Kelsey Zimmerman.

Reviews: Hold Me Gorilla Monsoon by Colette Arrand, Auri by Auri, Internet Yearnings by Gary Beck, Mnemosyne’s Hand: Poems by Charles W. Brice, Her Secret Husband by Abbey Faith, The Future by From Ashes to New, Burn Site In Bloom by Jamie Houghton, Rookland by Jesse Minkert, Beach Dweller Manifesto by Leah Mueller, Ghost Matter by Jade Ramsey, Heavenly Whispers by Roger Sippl, Permanent Change of Station by Lisa Stice, and i’m fine: A Haiku Collection About Mental Illness by Jamie Winters.

Winner of The Magnolia Review Ink Award: Theresa Williams, for “From The Diary of Lea Knight,” chosen by Dom Fonce.

Theresa Williams

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Theresa Williams lives and teaches in Northwest Ohio. Her current project is a Sketchbook novel called The Diary of Lea Knight. It traces the inner life of Lea Knight, who has recently lost a baby. Theresa twice received Individual Excellence Grants from The Ohio Arts Council and has been published in numerous journals, including Gargoyle, Hunger Mountain, and The Sun.

From The Diary of Lea Knight, Volume 4, Issue 2
Winner of The Magnolia Review Ink Award, selected by Dom Fonce
The year is strangely quiet, Volume 5, Issue 1

Megan Miazgowicz

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Megan Miazgowicz is a digital artist and illustrator, who recently graduated from Bowling Green State University with a BFA in Digital Art. Megan enjoys both digital painting and creating comics, and hopes to someday publish her own graphic novels. She is currently developing a comic series with her best friend and hopes to begin work on it this fall. Outside of comics, she enjoys reading, writing, character design, sleeping, and hanging out with her dog.

A Boat, Volume 4, Issue 2
Interview

Lonnie James

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Lonnie James attends BGSU for Film Production with a minor in Theater. James has been playing guitar for 17 years, and he is a touring musician. He now has a solo acoustic act under the stage name of Lonnie James, and he is currently in the process of writing the next screenplay and start filming over the summer. James’s film Temptation showed at the annual Ray Browne Film Festival, and the BGSU Film and Media Film Festival, and soon to be showing at the Glass City Film Festival on May 17th. His screenplay was chosen to be read at a live reading on October 2nd in the Donnell Theater at BGSU. James plans to make two films over the summer and graduate from BGSU next Spring.

The Depths of Darkness, Volume 4, Issue 2

Diane Hoffman

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Diane Hoffman graduated from Bowling Green State University with a Bachelor in Arts in May 2018. She majored in Film Production and minored in Creative Writing. Her most notable project during her time in college was the short film she wrote and directed, No One’s Little Girl, which ended up receiving Best in Show at the 2018 BGSU Film & Media Festival. Her interests include writing fiction, editing, painting, and directing. She plans to move to Manhattan to continue pursuing opportunities in film and writing.

Punk 4 a Day, Volume 4, Issue 2
Interview

Kelcey Parker Ervick

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Kelcey Parker Ervick is the author of three award-winning books: The Bitter Life of Božena Němcová (Rose Metal Press), a hybrid work of biography, memoir, and visual art; Liliane’s Balcony: A Novella of Fallingwater (Rose Metal Press); and For Sale By Owner (Kore Press). Her comics and short graphic narratives have appeared in Quarterly West, Nashville Review, Passages North, and elsewhere.

Love or Death, Volume 4, Issue 2

Trivia about Volume 4, Issue 2

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

5 artists submitted 5 comics, 2 creative nonfiction writers submitted 2 creative nonfiction pieces, 30 writers submitted 33 pieces of fiction, and 34 poets submitted 136 poems.

Volume 4, Issue 2 will be available soon.

Christopher Woods–Interview

by Suzanna Anderson Creates

Describe your creative space. Do you work at home, in public spaces, etc.?

Taking photographs takes me to many places for inspiration. Inspiration can be an instant thing as I come across images literally everywhere. Later, sometimes much later, I look at the photography bounty. Well, it’s not always bounty. As with writing, not everything is ready for prime time. At my desk, I often make changes in an image. Cropping is quite common. And given the vast array of editing tools available, I often make even radical changes to an original image. For example, a color image might actually be better if presented as BxW. Editing is an endless project, but at some point one must move on, to the next image, that is.

How long have you been making art? When did you start making art?

I began taking photographs nine years ago. I had always been a writer. I always enjoyed looking at photographs. Any visual art, really. But I always felt that, as a writer, I didn’t need an additional creative vice. Then my life took a turn when I was diagnosed with cancer and I began that journey. My wife, an equestrian photographer, gave me one of her old cameras. So, while in chemotherapy, I began taking pictures. That is how it began for me. We all have a reason for our creative impulses, and this was mine. I have never stopped taking pictures. They vary from pastoral to portraits to abstracts. “The Fire That Night,” which will appear in the Magnolia Review (Issue 7), is from the latter category. I also make picture poems, with text superimposed on an image. I like picture poems as they bring together my love for both images and words.

Who is your intended, or ideal, audience? Who do you make art for?

Hopefully for anyone who might appreciate it.

What other things do you do besides art? Do you dance or play golf, etc.?

I teach creative writing and have for many years. I find it inspiring to watch writers find their voices. I am also involved in pet therapy with my Great Pyrenees dog. We visit many places and people. This experience gives me valuable perspective on my own life.

What is your favorite part of the creative process?

Perhaps the initial concept, though this is not always the case. I know one thing for certain. When an idea comes, be sure to make a note of it or it might be gone. Many ideas come to us, and sometimes we must pick and choose. The criteria? What pleases us. What challenges us.

What is your advice to aspiring artists?

Press on. Don’t be afraid to fail. Be truthful to yourself. No matter the creative form of expression, these things matter most.

Check out Christopher’s art in Volume 4, Issue 1.