Empty Mirror

a literary magazine

Blanc Casse: visual poetry by hiromi suzuki

“I hope she'll be a fool -- that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925) It is a memorable line in The Great Gatsby. The heroine — Daisy — wants her daughter to be a beautiful little fool. This series title “Blanc Cassé” means the broken white in French traditional colour. There is no … [Read more...]

Everything is Zero Calorie: Watercolors by Yen Yen

My work is an imaginary world that starts from my obsession with food, especially sweets. Growing up in Taiwan, I remember going to supermarkets and bakeries with my parents and longing for all the colorful and eye-catching sweets and buttery pastries. I find it curious that even they don’t always taste as good as they look, I still desire for them. As a response to this … [Read more...]

geographies by Mark Young

The visual geographies are manipulated art works, sometimes derived from the actual place named, sometimes not. They're aligned with the text poetry produced under the same umbrella title, but reference Australia rather than the rest of the world, & are less concerned with depicting "some essential weirdness of the 'global' info-capitalist culture we're all trying to survive … [Read more...]

Ten Xerox transfers by Natalie Bradford

I explore the ideas of memory, absence, mortality, and the passage of time in my prints. Our memories are naturally inconsistent and fleeting; It’s impossible to remember everything in our lives clearly, especially as we age. Every time we recall a moment in time, the memory of that moment loses its “truth” as our brains start to fill in the blanks with other memories or … [Read more...]

Eight found-word collage poems by J.I. Kleinberg

These visual poems are from an ongoing series of collages (1900+) built from phrases created unintentionally through the accident of magazine page design. Each contiguous fragment of text (roughly the equivalent of a poetic line) is entirely removed from its original sense and syntax. The text is not altered (except for the occasional deletion of prefixes, suffixes, or … [Read more...]

Silvery Twines, Embracing: Eight Paintings by Cristina Querrer

My work explores the relationship between modern discourse and otherworldly spaces. With influences as diverse as Helen Frankenthaler and Frida Kahlo, new variations are crafted from both mundane and transcendent structures. I have always been fascinated by the theoretical expanse of the universe. What starts out as vision soon becomes debased into a tragedy of distress, … [Read more...]

Twelve artworks by Darrell Urban Black

Born March 25, 1964 in Brooklyn, New York, I am Darrell Urban Black, an American visual artist presently living in Frankfurt, Germany. I work in a variety of formats that include pen and ink drawings, acrylic paintings on canvas wood, and mixed-media objects. My creative process is a mixture of works on paper, acrylic paint, found objects and non-toxic hot glue. My technique … [Read more...]

Chocolate, Cigar and Orange Pekoe: visual poems by hiromi suzuki

I am collecting old postcards in tins. Tins are boxes emptied of souvenirs such as chocolate candies, cigars, and tea leaves. Old postcards are purchased at my secret store in Tokyo. By the way, I have never been to Bern, Rome or Yellowstone. However, I am enjoying a journey around the world by making collages with old postcards. And my collages have remaining scents of … [Read more...]

River Stories: collages by Selena Dixon

The title of this artist's book is River Stories. It visually considers the events that might flow in and through a life. Some images cover two pages while others are single pages. Each page has a story. Knowledge and relationships are a large part of the story. The river serves as the metaphor of flowing experience. … [Read more...]

Twelve collages by Bill Wolak

The joy of collage is finding the endless connections between seemingly unrelated things. In some collages, the juxtaposition of ordinary with the delirious diversity of dream imagery forces the mind to make contact with the marvelous. Each collage is an invitation to view the world differently. What is most unexpected suddenly becomes as familiar as an old friend’s favorite … [Read more...]

Three collages by Alicia Cole

An entirely self-taught artist, Alicia Cole works in collage, drawing, fabric/embroidery, mixed media, works on canvas, and sculpture. While many of her drawings, paintings, mixed media, collage works, and works on canvas were created in hospitals, mental health centers, or homeless shelters, documenting hospitalization, mental health, and the shelter system, this body of … [Read more...]

Eight pieces by C.R. Resetarits

I like edges and refuse. I like rebuilding things, and I like composition, patterns, palettes, visual rhythms. The right combos make me happy or relaxed or amused. I used to rehab houses and found that was a nice physical outlet, but I'm too tired for that now so I make collages to take me out of my head and put me down on a flat palette. I try not to get ahead of the intent of … [Read more...]

Six collages by hiromi suzuki

For me, making collages is the most fun. First of all, I will cut the pages from the 1960s fashion magazines and the Scientific American, and put them into an empty confectionery box. Then I take the images out of the box and edit my original stories. It seems to be making paper dolls and playing in fiction as same as my childhood. After studying literature at the college, … [Read more...]

Abstract Musings: Kelly Schaub’s mixed media collages

A theatre artist and administrator for over 25 years, two main influences from the theatre guide Schaub’s work in the visual arts arena. First, she has always been moved by the ephemeral aspect of a theatre experience. Each performance is different and will never be duplicated exactly ever again. Second is the collaborative nature of the theatre, where artists with a range of … [Read more...]

Certain People by Lita Kenyon

Lita Kenyon’s mixed media pieces offer hints at humanity translated through persistent, abstract shapes. Living and working in Tacoma, Washington (near Seattle), collage and drawing is a search for form and how to make forms with an element of surprise becalming the inexplicable, urgent and awkward. With a keen interest in process, particularly the process of exploring the … [Read more...]

sophie anne edwards: Ice Poems

These poems were co-created with ice along the Kagawong River. A sheet of ice had broken off the bank and dropped into the river, leaving an exposed, flat ice ridge. I stood on the separated ice shelf below, shifting with the moving river, and penned the words with water-based ink. The ice did its thing. … [Read more...]

Four collages by Janina Aza Karpinska

I began using collage --- scraps torn from magazines, calendars, auction catalogues --- as part of a group exhibition featuring 'Icons' about 8 years ago, where I discovered my Polish-Ossetian roots came through in the rich colours and composition. Working so intuitively has made the process even quicker as I've learned to trust it more, I barely have to look at what I'm doing, … [Read more...]

Silas Plum: Cardboard Primitives

The question of value underpins everything. A decent meal. A romantic partner. Expressing vulnerability in an unfamiliar way. The right brand of rechargeable batteries. In every consideration, from the mundane to the profound, a risk/reward ratio is calculated. My work expresses and quantifies the subtle and insidious nature of constant calculation. By the conscious … [Read more...]

Four collages by Kon Markogiannis

A series of collages inspired by great artists of the past such as Kurt Schwitters. Bits and pieces of newspaper, calendar pages, and other discarded ephemera take on new life by being combined, juxtaposed and superimposed; through playful improvisation and experimentation, they form mysterious alliances proving that even the (seemingly) worthless can have value and meaning. … [Read more...]

Beatnik: Collages by Rebeka Elizegi

The series focuses on the Beat Generation as a cultural phenomenon, more specifically in the women poets who participated in the movement and who historically have had less visibility than their male colleagues. It is a tribute to those women poets, who have remained in the shadow in the history of literature. Beatnik is the derogatory term with which the conservative American … [Read more...]

Two collages and a poem by Steve Dalachinsky

The BARD (A Perfect Day #2) (for Allen Ginsberg) the Bard is Dead yet 76 yr. old Marvin Shapiro "homeless" still walks around shouting "...Cyanide metal poisoning. Cyanide metal poisoning. The Surgeon General blew it in my face." it's a cold-for-this-time-of-year afternoon & tonight i'll make another attempt at looking for the be-bop comet   We … [Read more...]

Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine which publishes new work each Friday.

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