Cover art: Rebecca Skinner, Empty

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David Denny, Holly Oak (acrylic on canvas).

THE JOURNEY ITSELF IS HOME

by Christine Brooks Cote

Over a lifetime of personal experiences — some of which we embrace, some of which we run away from, some of which we learn to tolerate — we build our idea of home. (more)

Christine Brooks Cote founded Shanti Arts in 2011 to celebrate art, nature, and spirit. Cote edits and publishes Still Point Arts Quarterly, sponsors art competitions and exhibitions online at Still Point Art Gallery (stillpointartgallery.com), and publishes a wide array of beautiful and meaningful books. Cote was born in Wisconsin and raised in southern California, but now calls Maine her home. She enjoys the natural environment of Maine with her camera, her husband and friends, and two energetic Irish setters.

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THE TIME FOR HOME

View Exhibition

Online Exhibition Dates:
November 1, 2018 - January 31, 2019

MJ Edwards

I find myself fascinated by the endlessly repeating patterns found in the works of people and nature, from the macro to the micro, and I celebrate this interconnectedness of all things with my photo juxtapositions of a world in flux.

Edwards lives on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada.
Her portfolio is called Weathered and Worn.

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Myles Gallagher

My process as a photographer involves both chance and intention. It requires a careful balance.

Gallagher lives in Michigan.
His portfolio is called Chance and Intention.

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Rebecca Skinner

Each location has a story to tell, and I hope to immerse the viewer in the scene, intertwining them and the location in a single narrative of nostalgia and respect for the suspended moment.

Rebecca Skinner is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and a core artist member at the Fountain Street Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the owner and photographer of Rebecca Skinner Photography. Her studio is at the Mill Contemporary Art Studios in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Her portfolio is called Transient.

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Zinnias WC PD

Tending Zinnias

by Scott Ragland

She timed plantings so that something would be in bloom year-round — daffodils and forsythia in the spring, petunias and lantana in the summer, mums and pansies in the fall, Lenten rose and camellias in the winter. “There should always be color,” she’d say.

Scott Ragland has an MFA in creative writing (fiction) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Before taking a writing hiatus, he had several stories published, most notably in Writers' Forum, Beloit Fiction Journal, and The Quarterly. More recently, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Conium Review, NANO Fiction, Ambit, The Common (online), Fiction International, and Cherry Tree, among others. He lives in Carrboro, North Carolina, with his wife, two dogs, and a cat. His three kids have left the nest.

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MARELBU, The Grotto, Herrenhausen Gardens, Hanover, Germany WC CC

In the Grotto:
Gathering in the Fractured Self

by Nancy L. Penrose

ART WILL SAVE US. This was announced to me as if a voice had spoken it aloud, but there was no one else around. Should I have been surprised to learn this was the room named Spirituality?

Nancy L. Penrose, of Seattle, Washington, has had essays published in Shenandoah, Zone 3, Ekphrastic Review, 1966: A Journal of Creative Nonfiction, Drash: Northwest Mosaic, Travelers’ Tales, and the anthology Burning Bright: Passager Celebrates 21 Years. She is the co-author of A Dream and a Chisel: Louisiana Sculptor Angela Gregory in Paris, 1925-1928 (University of South Carolina Press, 2019).

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Musical Fun and In the Living Room

by Ann Copeland

“Musical Fun” and "In the Living Room" are excerpts from Ann Copeland’s recent book, Keeping Time: A Life Making Music (Shanti Arts, 2018).

I could hear my mother’s footsteps coming up the stairs. I was needed to accompany. How the invitation did puff me up — I was needed by adults! With lovable simplicity, Mr. Kenney would stand by the piano and sing, usually a familiar ballad, like “Danny Boy.” Such moments generated a particular kind of pleasure, a musical living-room pleasure that, coupled with their Scotch, certainly made that world of the war and its aftermath a bit warmer. Being able to accompany Mr. Kenney thrilled me.

Ann Copeland has studied classical and improv piano during a long career as a teacher and fiction writer. Her books have won major awards in the United States and Canada, and she has taught in colleges from coast to coast; she was the first Hallie Ford Professor of English at Willamette University. Meanwhile, she has studied with a harpsichordist, an organist, and jazz performers; composed the score for a college musical; led a girls’ choir; and shared a keyboard with a series of challenging partners. She now makes music with friends and family around her Steinway in Salem, Oregon.

LOOK UP

by Melissa F. Kaelin

Watching other patrons take in this painting is every bit as illuminating as looking at it. It has created an opportunity for communal reckoning, a facts of life moment that’s designed to take place in public, even among strangers, some of whom have already received this lesson, have already lived with this lesson for some time.

Melissa F. Kaelin is a writer, painter, and photographer, residing in Eagan, Minnesota. She holds a bachelor of arts in journalism from Miami University. In 2016, she self-published Hope in the Hoarfrost, a collection of poetry illustrated with her photographs. She is currently seeking publication for her first novel, a quest inspired by the folklore surrounding the Northern Lights. Melissa has written for many publications including City Pages and Minnesota Monthly magazine. She is a member of the Minneapolis Writers Guild and the Loft Literary Center.

European Southern Observatory (ESO)/A. Fitzsimmons, 2013. WC CC

Edward Munch, Morning, 1884. WC PD

Chasing Home

by Charlene Langfur

As a kid, I dreamt of a house with a yard. I didn’t care where it was or what it looked like. It was imprinted in my mind — as it is in the mind of so many other kids — as if the house itself would bring me into a more complete family and sene of belonging, a place where we could come together, the magic of a permanent caring relationship in a single place.

Laura Bernstein-Machlay’s poems and creative nonfiction have appeared in many magazines and literary journals including The American Scholar, Concho River Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, New Plains Review, Oyez, Redivider, Soundings East, and upstreet. She recently completed a six-essay series for The American Scholar’s Daily Scholar. Her first full-length collection of creative-nonfiction essays, Travelers, was published recently by Sonder Press.

Memento Vivere

by Andrea Lani

The Latin phrase memento mori means “remember you will die” and refers to art and decoration that proliferated from the Middle Ages through the Victorian era — skeleton-adorned jewelry, skulls etched on tombstones, daguerreotypes of deceased relatives — intended to remind the wearer or viewer to prepare for the afterlife. In contrast, Goldsworthy’s work, says to me memento vivere, “remember you are alive.”

Andrea Lani writes at the nexus of family and the natural world. Her work has appeared in Zoomorphic, The Maine Review, SaltFront, Snowy Egret, and Brain, Child Magazine, among other publications. She has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program and is an editor at Literary Mama. Lani lives in Maine with her husband and three sons.

Striding Arch sculpture by Andy Goldsworthy on Colt Hill.
Photograph by Leslie Barre, 2008. WC CC

François Barraud, L'Atelier, 1928. WC PD

STUDY IN GREEN AND BLUE

by Eric D. Lehman

He sat down on the museum bench, his face full of wonder at the painting. “We can’t ever reach these heights, Elise. These are the giants of time and space.”

Eric D. Lehman teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Bridgeport. His work has been published in dozens of journals and magazines. He is the author of twelve books, including The Foundation of Summer: New England Stories, Homegrown Terror, and Becoming Tom Thumb. His novella Shadows of Paris was a finalist for the Connecticut Book Award, won a silver medal in romance from the Foreword Review, and was judged the novella of the year by the Next Generation Independent Book Awards.

SHAKER TABLE

poem by James B. Nicola

James B. Nicola is a poet, director, composer, lyricist, and playwright. His poetry books are more than collections; each one takes the reader on a particular journey with a beginning, middle, and end. Lately Nicola has been conducting both theater and poetry workshops at libraries, literary festivals, schools, and community centers all over the country, most notably the Kennedy Center / American College Theater Festival. Nicola makes his home in New York City.

Shaker Table, Meeting House, Pleasant Hill, Kentucky WC CC

RhinoMind, From Vestereng, 2014.  WC CC

poem by Wally Swist

and the tree break, amid the flyway
and foxes in the meadows, among what has

found its way into my heart and what has
streamed forth from within me.

Wally Swist's books include Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012); The Daodejing: A New Interpretation, with David Breeden and Steven Schroeder (Lamar University Literary Press, 2015); and Invocation (Lamar University Literary Press, 2015). His poems have appeared in many publications. Garrison Keillor has read his work on the national radio program The Writer’s Almanac. Swist makes his home in South Amherst, Massachusetts.

THE HARVEST

poem by Shakur Picasso (Timothy Jones)

The sun shines down,
a rainbow of rays
reflecting on our labor,
delivering wheat to the barn.

Shakur Picasso (Timothy Jones) lives and writes poetry in California.

Albert Edelfelt, Laundresses, 1893. WC PD

THE ART OF DOMESTICITY

by Naomi Beth Wakan

It is a responsible art, an ethical art that fulfills the Buddhist recommendation for right living. The art of domesticity is not just about designing a usable and well-run home, it is about living a useful life.

Naomi Beth Wakan is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo (2013-16) and the inaugural Honorary Ambassador for the Federation of British Columbia Writers. She has published over fifty books. Shanti Arts will soon publish the third book in her series about Japanese poetry — The Way of Haiku. The previous books in the series are The Way of Tanka and Poetry That Heals. Wakan is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada, and Tanka Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island, Canada, with her husband, the sculptor Elias Wakan.

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THE TRESTLE TABLE

by Dwight E. Watson

I found the pieces. Well, at least, all that were saved. The trestle’s frame — the lower and upper supports — were still in the basement. The section of the tabletop that had made its debut on the stage now rested with other remaining and unused sections in the lumber bin. I gathered it all to take home for reconstruction.

Dwight E. Watson is Professor Emeritus of Theater and LaFollette Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Wabash College.

Beatrice Ethel Lithiby, The Cookhouse for the Officers’ Mess, Rouen,
First World War. WC PD

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