Image Descriptions (Issue 4/Fall 2022)
Ethan Bundy, Pinup Girl Series, Front Cover, Back Cover, 3: Grotesque, faded sketches of a woman wearing a bikini, modeling on a beach. I created this mixed media series to explore my own understanding of the history of pornography in American culture. The images depict the ‘seedy underbelly’ of soft-core, calendar/pin-up style erotica from the 50s and 60s by combining the titillating aspects of the models with physical abnormalities and an overarching style that is meant to undermine arousal with unease.
Ethan Bundy, “Archer”, 8 : a sketchy, expressionistic drawing of a sexless figure holding a bow, biting a dead bird which has been shot through by an arrow.
Cristine Gostinski, “Blood Pearls”, 9: A black and white illustration of a nude woman sitting. She has an arrow going through her chest, her blood is shaped like strings of pearls, they hold unto the arrow almost forming the shape of a spider's web.
Rhiannon Davis, “Fever”, 15: a modern art collage rendering featuring renaissance style portraits and red textured blocks.
Carolina Campos, “Flesh in Purgatory I”, 16: A messy jumble of bodies drawn with a black ink pen: a bare chest, arms and legs crossing each other across the page and hands emerging to grip them (referenced from Bernini's The rape of Proserpina and Goya's Saturn devouring his son). Abstract bundles of black lines and shapes scattered and one at the top with a mouth, gnashing on bloody red flesh gripped by two of the hands. Rays of color in acrylic paint (white, red, blue, gold), some geometric and some more fluid, emanating from the center, which matches the point between two legs.
Regina Valmadrid & Kyra McAllister, “The Floor is Stronger Than You Think”, 25: Conceptualized by Regina, this photo shows Regina crouched on the floor, dressed in a kimono, and masked with a face of makeup.
Rachel Coyne, 26-27, 32-34: Sylized flowers with eyes gazing heavenward, menstruating female form crowned with eye and flanked by black rats, woman sleeping in a cold field entwined with many eyed snake radiating warmth, pale white snake climbing through flowers with eyes that gaze at the viewer, three yellow birds with red eyes on their wings singing to a talk red stalked plant with white flowers.
Kimberlee Frederick, “I looked everywhere for you”, 38-39: At the center of the image is a view through four doorways, arranged to look like a view down a long hallway. Three skeletons bending on their knees and holding their hands in a prayer position are arranged at the doorways, with the first one looking closest to the viewer and the third looking farthest away. The first two skeletons are gazing up at nooses just above their heads. The third also has a noose above its head, but is looking toward the viewer. At the end of the hallway of thresholds is a view into a sky full of stars. Behind the skeleton and doorway scene, there is a distorted image of a large collection of hands reaching into the air. On the left hand side of the image, there is a clearer image of a hand, pointing toward the skeleton scene.
Kimberlee Frederick, “I'm tired of vying” 49: In the background, a dark sky dotted with stars. A dark rock fixture in the upper right portion of the image. A cloaked/hooded woman, on her knees, reaches slightly upward with her left hand, palm up. The angle of her hand and face point toward the upper part of an image, where a disembodied eye, surrounded by leaves and mushrooms, looks off to the left of the image. The cloaked woman's face has been cut out. Behind it, bright blue mushrooms bloom. To the right and slightly behind her, a cloaked skeleton is in a crawling position and pointed toward the woman. A snake wraps around both of the figures.
Sadie Maskery, “Selkie”, 68: layered picture of a human face (drowned?) a seal, the ocean, blues and greys, blurring the mesh of a net and a seaweed and limpet encrusted ladder reaching up into a harbour, floating text reading
you saw me naked in the sea
and stole my skin away from me
Sadie Maskery, “Jump”, 69: a layered picture of skewed railway tracks, the broken face of a doll repeated, fractured undergrowth and thorns across a grey sky with woodland on the horizon, floating text reading
jump they said
and she fell
time hanging still
silent a pause
before the
repeat
o not
again
i didn't mean
but
too
late
Kimberlee Frederick, "I dreamt I awoke on a bed of moths”, 70: A woman with a red colored tent lies down, apparently sleeping at the bottom of the image. Her face is obscured by a moth and a tongue being held and cut by surgical scissors. Her image is reversed at the top of the image (although her actual face is nearly visible instead of covered), decolorized and distorted to look wavy. Between the two iterations of her is a group of moths, as well as a disembodied hand reaching into an open wound on the version of the woman at the bottom of the image.
Kimberlee Frederick, "In my dreams my teeth are cracking”, 73: An antique anatomical illustration shows a head-on view of a vulva, the entrance to the vagina, a pregnant belly, and a visual of the inside of a womb. The flesh of the very bottom and very top parts of the thighs are present, as are the upper parts of the thighs attached to the depicted groin area. However, the legs of the figure have been chopped off, as evidenced by a cross section of muscle/tendon. The vagina's entrance is filled with two rows of teeth, and individual teeth of different shapes are overflowing from and falling out of the vaginal opening. In the cross-section of the pregnant belly, ripped open muscle fills the space that would otherwise be the womb. A black and white illustration of a baby sits within, too large to be contained there, and kicking outward toward the viewer.
Kimberlee Frederick, “I think I'm afraid that my heart is between my teeth”, 87: A photograph of a woman with shoulder length red hair with several alterations made. There's a hole in her chest filled with a series of abstract images that create the look of an open wound. Teeth are visible along the edge of the hole. The woman's mouth is covered by a black and white image of an open mouth receiving dental treatment. An illustration of a skeletal arm and hand is arranged on the left side of this black and white mouth to look like it's pulling outward. A similar illustration of a muscled hand and arm is doing the same on the right side. There are cutouts in both of her eyes and one on her forehead that are filled with more abstract imagery that resembles bone marrow or bodily organs. Several dirty teeth in black and white sit at her hairline.
Sherry Shahan, “Marilyn” 88: Marilyn and the polar bear are blinded by what's going on in the world. Maryiln is crying blue tears for Eukraine next to a yellowish leaf—these two colors represent Eukraine's flag.
Ashley Parker, “Winter Crow”, 95: A crow perches in a leafless black tree. The tree's branches are sinuous and twisting. Ink blots and shadowy mists lurk behind the tree, blurring its edges out raggedly.
Maria L. Berg, "Tethered", 98: This black and white bokeh shape photograph depicts half of a stylized face floating in a light-grey shape on a darker-grey background. The face appears to be tethered by a strand of spiderweb to a branch of Japanese barberry.
K.G. Ricci, “No. 14”, 106-107: a black and white picture with an older man as a central figure looking intent over a puzzle of some kind on his desk - a cathedral interior looms behind him. The text reads ~upside down or right side up~.
K.G. Ricci, “No. 76”, 108-109: Text is ~We were hidden figures~ against a black background and anentrance to a strange building a solitary man looks out into the tree stump in the darkly obscured background.
James Filcarah, “Leoncarian Spearman”, 117: A black and white woodcut-style image of a medieval foot soldier holding a spear while standing on rolling hills. The primary image is surrounded in a black border with white diagonal lines ornamenting it.
Richard Fox, 118-119: The images are digital collages, produced in Adobe Photoshop. The sources of the images are primarily from the New York Public Library's digital collections in the public domain.
Precious Bassey, “Time phobia”, 164-165: art tries to depict the limitations of our time here on earth and our constant fear of not meeting up with our desires within the short time we have as humans.
Precious Bassey, “High-praise”, 166-167: expressive art, where the person (the Christian boy) in a bid to give praise and feel happy in the picture is seen letting go of his caged bird (worries, depression, sadness and tragedy).
Deanna Faye, “summer”, 174-175: a black and white shot of a child's swing, and its shadow.
Deanna Faye, “summer, revised”, 176-177: a black and white shot of the edge of a merry-go-round.
george l stein, “13a 'Robyn, Post-Suspension”, 202-203: This is a photo of Robyn after she was suspended by steel hooks placed into her body. The whole process is very painful so getting through the process successfully is a huge release of tension.
george l stein, “13005 American Dynasty III”, 208: This is a surreal photo of a New Jersey backyard dominated by an American Flag hanging from a pole over a garbage can with a pair of white legs sticking out of it.
James Diaz, ”Miracle Freeway”, 210: A girl stands, blindfolded, with her arms extended over a fire with a sewing pin stuck in it, near a rail road crossing, with a truck on the tracks, a bird in the air, and a bull's skull hanging from the Rail Road Crossing sign.
James Diaz, ”Where I come from”, 211: A girl warms her hands by the fire next to stacked car tires circling a sign that reads "We buy car$" with a deer at her side, a run-down truck behind her, and a bird in the air...
Phil Temples, “America Vet Fading”, 216-217: A badly faded sign over a Boston store front that reads, "AMERICA still is #1 THANKS to our VETERANS”.
Kenneth May & Michael Melson, “Heated Prayer” 213: ghost members of the KKK being burned in hoods in robes between a fish and maggot.
Kenneth May & Michael Melson, “Some Other Spring”, 214-215: Skull behind a see-through mask with the lower part of a woman's face surrounded by flowers.
Zach Turner, “I’ll Take Comfort”, 209: The photo shows a dumpster in front of a small apartment complex with the words "Do Not Panic" printed in large black letters on it. leading up to the dumpster is a trail of red. It looks like something was dragged to the dumpster. The ambiguous redness seems to climb the tree next to the dumpster. One might get the sense that something horrible happened here, but the dumpster let's us know, "all is well, this is okay, do not panic."
Zach Turner, “This Wretched Flesh", 234-235: Taken looking up at the back of the statue of "Ugolino and His Sons" residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the black and white photo captures the details of the muscular back of Ugolino straining from the extremity of his hunger and the back of one of his children's heads. The title of the piece is taken from Dante's "Inferno" where Ugolino recounts his child telling him, "you are the one/Who clothed us with this wretched flesh: we plead/For you to be the one who strips it away.”
Zach Turner, “Mary”, 236-237: The image is a portrait of the Pietà taken up close looking into the eyes of Jesus in Mary's arms. With the photo desaturated of most color, the death stare of Jesus and the blurry Mary in the background convey a profound sense of grief in what is later claimed a triumph.
Ethan Bundy, “Eating Loop”, 245: a cartoon of a worm, on a hook, being eaten by a fish, which is being eaten by a man, which is being eaten by a bear.
Ethan Bundy, “Archer”, 8 : a sketchy, expressionistic drawing of a sexless figure holding a bow, biting a dead bird which has been shot through by an arrow.
Cristine Gostinski, “Blood Pearls”, 9: A black and white illustration of a nude woman sitting. She has an arrow going through her chest, her blood is shaped like strings of pearls, they hold unto the arrow almost forming the shape of a spider's web.
Rhiannon Davis, “Fever”, 15: a modern art collage rendering featuring renaissance style portraits and red textured blocks.
Carolina Campos, “Flesh in Purgatory I”, 16: A messy jumble of bodies drawn with a black ink pen: a bare chest, arms and legs crossing each other across the page and hands emerging to grip them (referenced from Bernini's The rape of Proserpina and Goya's Saturn devouring his son). Abstract bundles of black lines and shapes scattered and one at the top with a mouth, gnashing on bloody red flesh gripped by two of the hands. Rays of color in acrylic paint (white, red, blue, gold), some geometric and some more fluid, emanating from the center, which matches the point between two legs.
Regina Valmadrid & Kyra McAllister, “The Floor is Stronger Than You Think”, 25: Conceptualized by Regina, this photo shows Regina crouched on the floor, dressed in a kimono, and masked with a face of makeup.
Rachel Coyne, 26-27, 32-34: Sylized flowers with eyes gazing heavenward, menstruating female form crowned with eye and flanked by black rats, woman sleeping in a cold field entwined with many eyed snake radiating warmth, pale white snake climbing through flowers with eyes that gaze at the viewer, three yellow birds with red eyes on their wings singing to a talk red stalked plant with white flowers.
Kimberlee Frederick, “I looked everywhere for you”, 38-39: At the center of the image is a view through four doorways, arranged to look like a view down a long hallway. Three skeletons bending on their knees and holding their hands in a prayer position are arranged at the doorways, with the first one looking closest to the viewer and the third looking farthest away. The first two skeletons are gazing up at nooses just above their heads. The third also has a noose above its head, but is looking toward the viewer. At the end of the hallway of thresholds is a view into a sky full of stars. Behind the skeleton and doorway scene, there is a distorted image of a large collection of hands reaching into the air. On the left hand side of the image, there is a clearer image of a hand, pointing toward the skeleton scene.
Kimberlee Frederick, “I'm tired of vying” 49: In the background, a dark sky dotted with stars. A dark rock fixture in the upper right portion of the image. A cloaked/hooded woman, on her knees, reaches slightly upward with her left hand, palm up. The angle of her hand and face point toward the upper part of an image, where a disembodied eye, surrounded by leaves and mushrooms, looks off to the left of the image. The cloaked woman's face has been cut out. Behind it, bright blue mushrooms bloom. To the right and slightly behind her, a cloaked skeleton is in a crawling position and pointed toward the woman. A snake wraps around both of the figures.
Sadie Maskery, “Selkie”, 68: layered picture of a human face (drowned?) a seal, the ocean, blues and greys, blurring the mesh of a net and a seaweed and limpet encrusted ladder reaching up into a harbour, floating text reading
you saw me naked in the sea
and stole my skin away from me
Sadie Maskery, “Jump”, 69: a layered picture of skewed railway tracks, the broken face of a doll repeated, fractured undergrowth and thorns across a grey sky with woodland on the horizon, floating text reading
jump they said
and she fell
time hanging still
silent a pause
before the
repeat
o not
again
i didn't mean
but
too
late
Kimberlee Frederick, "I dreamt I awoke on a bed of moths”, 70: A woman with a red colored tent lies down, apparently sleeping at the bottom of the image. Her face is obscured by a moth and a tongue being held and cut by surgical scissors. Her image is reversed at the top of the image (although her actual face is nearly visible instead of covered), decolorized and distorted to look wavy. Between the two iterations of her is a group of moths, as well as a disembodied hand reaching into an open wound on the version of the woman at the bottom of the image.
Kimberlee Frederick, "In my dreams my teeth are cracking”, 73: An antique anatomical illustration shows a head-on view of a vulva, the entrance to the vagina, a pregnant belly, and a visual of the inside of a womb. The flesh of the very bottom and very top parts of the thighs are present, as are the upper parts of the thighs attached to the depicted groin area. However, the legs of the figure have been chopped off, as evidenced by a cross section of muscle/tendon. The vagina's entrance is filled with two rows of teeth, and individual teeth of different shapes are overflowing from and falling out of the vaginal opening. In the cross-section of the pregnant belly, ripped open muscle fills the space that would otherwise be the womb. A black and white illustration of a baby sits within, too large to be contained there, and kicking outward toward the viewer.
Kimberlee Frederick, “I think I'm afraid that my heart is between my teeth”, 87: A photograph of a woman with shoulder length red hair with several alterations made. There's a hole in her chest filled with a series of abstract images that create the look of an open wound. Teeth are visible along the edge of the hole. The woman's mouth is covered by a black and white image of an open mouth receiving dental treatment. An illustration of a skeletal arm and hand is arranged on the left side of this black and white mouth to look like it's pulling outward. A similar illustration of a muscled hand and arm is doing the same on the right side. There are cutouts in both of her eyes and one on her forehead that are filled with more abstract imagery that resembles bone marrow or bodily organs. Several dirty teeth in black and white sit at her hairline.
Sherry Shahan, “Marilyn” 88: Marilyn and the polar bear are blinded by what's going on in the world. Maryiln is crying blue tears for Eukraine next to a yellowish leaf—these two colors represent Eukraine's flag.
Ashley Parker, “Winter Crow”, 95: A crow perches in a leafless black tree. The tree's branches are sinuous and twisting. Ink blots and shadowy mists lurk behind the tree, blurring its edges out raggedly.
Maria L. Berg, "Tethered", 98: This black and white bokeh shape photograph depicts half of a stylized face floating in a light-grey shape on a darker-grey background. The face appears to be tethered by a strand of spiderweb to a branch of Japanese barberry.
K.G. Ricci, “No. 14”, 106-107: a black and white picture with an older man as a central figure looking intent over a puzzle of some kind on his desk - a cathedral interior looms behind him. The text reads ~upside down or right side up~.
K.G. Ricci, “No. 76”, 108-109: Text is ~We were hidden figures~ against a black background and anentrance to a strange building a solitary man looks out into the tree stump in the darkly obscured background.
James Filcarah, “Leoncarian Spearman”, 117: A black and white woodcut-style image of a medieval foot soldier holding a spear while standing on rolling hills. The primary image is surrounded in a black border with white diagonal lines ornamenting it.
Richard Fox, 118-119: The images are digital collages, produced in Adobe Photoshop. The sources of the images are primarily from the New York Public Library's digital collections in the public domain.
Precious Bassey, “Time phobia”, 164-165: art tries to depict the limitations of our time here on earth and our constant fear of not meeting up with our desires within the short time we have as humans.
Precious Bassey, “High-praise”, 166-167: expressive art, where the person (the Christian boy) in a bid to give praise and feel happy in the picture is seen letting go of his caged bird (worries, depression, sadness and tragedy).
Deanna Faye, “summer”, 174-175: a black and white shot of a child's swing, and its shadow.
Deanna Faye, “summer, revised”, 176-177: a black and white shot of the edge of a merry-go-round.
george l stein, “13a 'Robyn, Post-Suspension”, 202-203: This is a photo of Robyn after she was suspended by steel hooks placed into her body. The whole process is very painful so getting through the process successfully is a huge release of tension.
george l stein, “13005 American Dynasty III”, 208: This is a surreal photo of a New Jersey backyard dominated by an American Flag hanging from a pole over a garbage can with a pair of white legs sticking out of it.
James Diaz, ”Miracle Freeway”, 210: A girl stands, blindfolded, with her arms extended over a fire with a sewing pin stuck in it, near a rail road crossing, with a truck on the tracks, a bird in the air, and a bull's skull hanging from the Rail Road Crossing sign.
James Diaz, ”Where I come from”, 211: A girl warms her hands by the fire next to stacked car tires circling a sign that reads "We buy car$" with a deer at her side, a run-down truck behind her, and a bird in the air...
Phil Temples, “America Vet Fading”, 216-217: A badly faded sign over a Boston store front that reads, "AMERICA still is #1 THANKS to our VETERANS”.
Kenneth May & Michael Melson, “Heated Prayer” 213: ghost members of the KKK being burned in hoods in robes between a fish and maggot.
Kenneth May & Michael Melson, “Some Other Spring”, 214-215: Skull behind a see-through mask with the lower part of a woman's face surrounded by flowers.
Zach Turner, “I’ll Take Comfort”, 209: The photo shows a dumpster in front of a small apartment complex with the words "Do Not Panic" printed in large black letters on it. leading up to the dumpster is a trail of red. It looks like something was dragged to the dumpster. The ambiguous redness seems to climb the tree next to the dumpster. One might get the sense that something horrible happened here, but the dumpster let's us know, "all is well, this is okay, do not panic."
Zach Turner, “This Wretched Flesh", 234-235: Taken looking up at the back of the statue of "Ugolino and His Sons" residing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the black and white photo captures the details of the muscular back of Ugolino straining from the extremity of his hunger and the back of one of his children's heads. The title of the piece is taken from Dante's "Inferno" where Ugolino recounts his child telling him, "you are the one/Who clothed us with this wretched flesh: we plead/For you to be the one who strips it away.”
Zach Turner, “Mary”, 236-237: The image is a portrait of the Pietà taken up close looking into the eyes of Jesus in Mary's arms. With the photo desaturated of most color, the death stare of Jesus and the blurry Mary in the background convey a profound sense of grief in what is later claimed a triumph.
Ethan Bundy, “Eating Loop”, 245: a cartoon of a worm, on a hook, being eaten by a fish, which is being eaten by a man, which is being eaten by a bear.
