Shanna Leino lives and works in New Hampshire. Materials such as linen and handmade paper are often used, which results in the natural quality of the work. Leino describes her work as incorporating “…historical techniques and materials while bringing in my own love of tinkering and finding different ways to expand on the book as an object.”
Be sure to check out www.shannaleino.com and www.strikemetals.com.
Contact: info@shannaleino.com
Night School
“I can’t stay
for class tonight;
my eleven year old son has
been arrested for murder,”
matter-of-factly she murmurs,
pleasant of voice, expression,
as my eyes widen, widen
headache and hot-air balloon size
at just-another-distant-horror-story
that this time
has intersected my life,
breaking and entering
those insulating layers
of facelessness, namelessness,
and distance
that shelter my sanity
from the macabre dance
of the daily news.
The story is absurdly quick
and random: Night concert–
a father waits for his family.
Kids hit his car.
He gets out; they stab once.
He dies; they run,
while inside his daughter
coaxes her trumpet
to a joyous concert crescendo–
oblivious to her father,
dead,
outside.
Bruce Roberts is a poet, retired teacher, and past Synchronized Chaos contributor. He may be reached at brobe60491@sbcglobal.net.
Jack Androvich has been a photographer since the age of 13. Androvich is influenced by other photographers such as Minor White, Eugene Atget, Man Ray, Jerry Uelsmann, and Bill Owens. Over time, he developed an intense fascination with photo montage, mannequins, reflections, and the manner by which they often blur what we tend to perceive as reality.
Each of the images you see are entirely unaltered to best express the notion of simultaneous occurrences in the universe, alternative realities, shadow worlds and the like.
E-mail jack.androvich@sbcglobal.net for more information.
Owen Schuh graduated from Haverford College in 2004 with honors in fine arts and a minor in philosophy. He went on to receive his Masters of Fine Art from Tyler School of Art in 2007. He currently lives and works in San Francisco, California. He artwork is represented by Cain Schulte Contemporary Art, in San Francisco and Berlin.
Artist Statement:
“My work seeks to illuminate the entwining relations between embodied mind, mathematics, and the physical world. My artwork is structured by mathematical functions, which though relatively simple in nature yield outcomes of surprising organic complexity.”
– Owen Schuh
Contact: owen@owenschuh.com
Click here to see the artist in action!
THE VOWEL MOVEMENT
Their lips met in a titillating kiss, hearts throbbing, hands exploring. “Darling,” she whispered—the tender embrace ushering the eternity, her sweet breath on his, their lips locked, “My darling . . . ”
Just a minute. Apart from the obvious gawkiness of the piece, she just couldn’t talk while kissing, could she? No, that won’t do. Too bad. The Writer only had to wrap it up now, just the ending, just the riding into the sunset part. But the well was dry. Up to that point everything was going so well with this romance novel number ten. Nine love stories done, published and gobbled up by the tenderly disposed ladies. Number ten was assembled pakati-pakati-pak. A well-oiled machine. Two lonely people find each other in this cold and overwhelming world. He, Lance, a handsome brute, a bit over muscled yet exquisitely sensitive and irresistibly vulnerable after his four tours of duty in Afghanistan with the Green Berets, a loner and a hero favoring comfy armchairs, books by Washington Irving and Ralph Waldo Emerson, chamomile tea, earth tones, soft loafers and wool cardigans. She, Jane, a free spirited 5’10” beauty with wavy auburn hair, 130 pounds, size G bra and sparks of mischief in her large green eyes—the only heir to the Lockshman’s Kosher Dill Pickles fame—erudite and witty and longing deeply for the love she never knew.
A chance encounter. A stroke of fate. His attempted suicide fortuitously interrupted by her timely yet inadvertent appearance. Their first desperate love making scene (he was, of course, ALMOST too big for her), the passion, the upturned furniture and twenty eight earth-shuttering, spectacular and breathtaking orgasms later she is his forever. Then their getting to know each other stage, more out of this world lovemaking and lots and lots of intimacy, understanding and ultimate in tenderness and endearment—the true love. Then the tragic misapprehension—somebody said something to a wrong somebody, ill-intentioned or perhaps not, which came across the wrong way to and bam! The tragedy. Lovers driven apart, the love slashed and seared as if by a sharp knife (or, rather, by a dagger—a more interesting word—or a scalpel?), the sensitive souls anguished way beyond the tolerance threshold of mere mortals. Oh, the sweet agony of heartbreak suffering!
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“My name is Michael Priv. I was born in the Soviet Ukraine, escaped to the USA in 1979. A Civil Engineer by education and a Construction Business Consultant by trade, I am and have been since 1987 an avid student of Eastern philosophies, especially Tao, Buddhism, and Scientology–their modern reincarnation–especially as they apply to everyday problems and could actually be used to help people.” -Michael Priv
To read more short stories by Michael Priv, or to learn about his two novels, Friends of Fred and Forever Dead, visit his website at www.thetawire.com
To contact the author, send him an email at Michael@thetawire.com.
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Locus of Water
“Water is an essential element of living things, and a circle represents infinity, harmony, and unity. When a droplet of water falls on a flat surface, it creates a circle. In previous works, I have used circular elements as a metaphor for cells. In “Locus of Water,” I have used circles in a way such that they seem to be drawn together into clusters by some unifying force exerted by a condition of belonging. The clusters represent the location of the essence of life, and the way in which all living things are themselves an organization of smaller elements. The arrangement of the circles implies movement of water toward its locus.”
– Seiko Tachibana
From the artist:
“My paintings call upon a heightened experience of nature and a modern day social constitution. The characters of my paintings are at times detached and others confrontational, and together they create a discordant atmosphere despite their picturesque first impressions.”
-Leila Cartier
lcartier@post.com
Click here to see more of the artist’s work.