I dreamt that I was walking down the halls of an unfamiliar school. The school may have been unfamiliar but the way that I carried myself in my pupil days was not. I’ve always had a big spirit, but growing up I didn’t always know that or know my purpose or how valuable it was….
Category: Artists
Roses are red, water is cleansing
She walked along the riverbank Heart drenched with sorrow Eyes searching for a savior Mind wandering through flashing life memories She wore white for this occasion As if she were arriving for a baptism Only she was preparing for her ending She was over it This thing called the human experience The more she thought…
My truth, your truth, whose truth?
The truth will set you free or hold others in captivity. Hear me out. We journey through life experiencing all of these beautiful lessons. I say beautiful because each experience is a lesson that leads to our expansion. That growth and expansion could be mental, emotional, physical, and/or spiritual. Nonetheless, growth is beautiful to experience,…
Bath house
Bath House. Private. Hidden sanctuary that only the lost souls can find. The map is their sorrow, their tears a stream of tranquil waters and their longing for healing keeps them afloat. Bath house. Private. Hidden sanctuary that only the broken souls have the password for admission. When they arrive at the gate, the whispers of…
Blue Light
In case you care — thoughI doubt you will — I want to sayI forgot what I wanted toGoogle when I woke upthis morning. I’d lain awakea few times last nightobsessively wondering but notwanting to expose my eyesto blue light. I awokethis morning, tired and sore,kept up by my mindas usual wanting to know,when learning…
On Seeing Cezanne’s “Pines and Rocks”
branches fracture sky
Finishing the Hat
by Jessie Lynn McMains Since Stephen Sondheim died, I’ve had “Finishing the Hat” stuck in my head. “Finishing the Hat” is a song from Sondheim’s 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George, and in some ways it is the consummate Sondheim song; one of the finest examples of the way he blended music and…
Jesus of Western Avenue & The Apostles of Humboldt Park
by Jessie Lynn McMains All of Tony Fitzpatrick’s collages—from the largest to the smallest—are packed full. Each one is a visual list, a bright litany, of his loves and inspirations. In interviews and on his website, he mentions some of them: comics (two of his earliest influences were Dick Tracey and Mad Magazine), religious art…
Magic Gardens
by Jessie Lynn McMains On the north wall of the Nielsen, Madsen, and Barber building, at 1339 Washington Avenue, there is a mosaic mural. Whether you are driving or walking past, it is impossible to miss. Strange beings loom out at you—mermaids, creatures with fish where their arms should be, beings whose limbs and eyes…
The Transverberation of Frida Kahlo
by Jessie Lynn McMains Woman with dark hair full of flowers. Woman wrapped in thorns and vines. Woman draped in bangles, necklaces, earrings of jade and silver. Woman with magenta lips; with eyebrow perched above her knowing eyes like a blackbird, singing. Woman surrounded by dogs, monkeys, deer. Chicana. Communist. Rebel. I don’t give a…
Racine Writer-In-Residence Project 