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Archives for May 2021

May 1, 2021 By Cheryl Wilder

Editor’s Note | Issue #9

May 2021

Editor’s Note

cheryl wilder smiling outside closeup

I see a piece of art as a timestamp. With that in mind, the process of making art could look like working with a pan balance—before and after on either side of the fulcrum. The timestamp is a refined moment, a crisp reflection. And yet, the artist is never at rest, the scales in constant motion. The past, present, and future are in play.

This month’s issue marks the end of what we at Waterwheel Review call Season 1. We chose to publish nine months out of the year to ensure we get a break. Time to rest by a favorite body of water this summer. We also wanted the opportunity to reflect on our latest season and prepare for the upcoming one.

As editors and publishers, we’re finding our own balance: letting go, reassessing, and building; the pandemic adding a blurry lens to the process. It’s apropos that our May authors are doing the same.

The past comes alive in full color, texture, and flavor in Lisa Creech Bledsoe’s “While Looking for Eating Utensils in My Uncle’s Kitchen.” Belongings are memories and a family history that says, “All saved, passed down.” How do we decide what to keep and what to throw away? What if what remains are tools useful only to the craftsman?

Charlotte Friedman’s “Alams for Cleaning Out the Painter’s House” uncovers that oftentimes, it’s the past we want instead: “visit me tonight / I want to taste color / in my dreams.” But, at some point, we must move on.

“Like no one was ever here,” says a voice in Tamara Best’s “Snake Fence,” a piece that honors a story of which the speaker knows nothing, except what was left behind. And that is enough. Something was built. The past reflected onto the present.

May 1, 2021, is a timestamp. Each of our issues is a work of art, but the last issue of our first season provides closure. With each second, Season 1 is further in the past. The pandemic made it difficult for me to revel in the creation of each issue. So, before I move on, I’m going to hold the scales balanced and cherish the moment.

Cheryl Wilder

Filed Under: From the Editors

May 1, 2021 By Cheryl Wilder

Who made it? Issue #9

Who made it?

May 2021 | Issue #9

With “Alams for Cleaning Out the Painter’s House” by Charlotte Friedman

abstract landscape painting in progress with paint palette and paintbrushes
Mary Linnea Vaughan painting-in-progress by artist.
artist's studio with abstract apintings, paint palettes, masking tape, desk and chair
Mary Linnea Vaughan studio in Santa Rosa, CA, by artist.
“Fly Lullaby” by Suzanne Farrell Smith.

With “Snake Fence” by Tamara Best

“Harvest Hastings: Splitting a log for a cedar rail fence” by Louise Livingstone.
snake fence
“Untitled” by Billy Piton.

With “While Looking for Eating Utensils in My Uncle’s Kitchen” by Lisa Creech Bledsoe

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” by Bill Monroe.
arrowheads in blue pottery bowl by jar of marbles
Arrowheads in blue bowl by jar of marbles, by author.
Wood wall with ladder up to cupola, by author.

Acknowledgments

Butterfly at rest by Charles J. Sharp via Wikicommons.

Background photo of the O’Hara Mill Homestead via O’Hara Mill Homestead and Conservation Area.

Filed Under: Who made it?

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