Free!Issue 7

Serving The Creative Communities From Chicago To Milwaukee

“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.” – Jules Verne

A Soft Touch: The Lighthouse Quilter’s Guild Exhibit

Creativity as it is expressed through touch is notable in functional craft works such as ceramics and textiles. Often it is the very utilitarian requirement of these media throughout material culture that has allowed experimentation in form and color that some have compared to abstract art in the mid 20th century.

The art and craft of quilt making as practiced today by the members of The Lighthouse Quilter’s Guild of Racine provides a glimpse into the ways in which traditional quilt patterns or contemporary abstract or figurative imagery are used to generate engagement with form and color. This invitational exhibit represents a selection of works from over 122 members of the Lighthouse Quilter’s Guild, a non-profit organization formed in 1981 and accepted as a chapter in the National Quilting Association in 1998. The artists will be present at the opening reception.

For more information on upcoming events, visit www.carthage.edu/art gallery

Gallery Hours:Tuesday - Friday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.Thursday Evening 6 - 8 p.m.Saturday 1 - 4 p.m.

Special Christmas Festival Reception: December 5th, 4:30- 7:30 pmFree and open to the public.

Exhibit Runs:November 6 to December 13, 2014(Closed Nov. 24 – Nov. 30 for Thanksgiving Break )

Opening Reception:November 6th, 4:30- 7:30 pm

Wisconsin Gas Building2014Raw Edge Fusible Applique, Matchstick Machine Quilting12" x 12"

Custom framing, gift registry, layaway,

complimentary gift wrapping, and unsurpassed

customer service.

The area’s largest collection of American arts and crafts.

NEVER ORDINARY.

check out the new thenorthernlightsgallery.com423 Main Street, Racine (262)635-0580

4  A Message From The Publisher / Left of The Lake

A Message From The PublisherBy Chet Griffith

Publisher: Chet GriffithGraphic Designer: Joshua FrazerEditor: Lisa Adamowicz KlessEditor: Peg Rousar-ThompsonManaging Editor: John Bloner, Jr.Contact Us At: editor@leftofthelake.com

08 Brandon Minga: The Vintage Future ByLisa Adamowicz Kless

14 Sometimes I Say Things I Can’t Take Back ByStacey Williams-Ng

16 NanoWriMo ByPeg Rousar-Thompson

18 Artificial Polyiandry ByDavid V. Holmes

21 Lichened ByDiane Levesque

22 Take a Stroll on Sculpture Walk ByJohn Bloner, Jr.

29 Steam Powered Giraffe ByJasmine Galindo

30 Steam Powered Fashion ByPeg Rousar-Thompson

33 Powder Blue ByBriar Anne Bixby

34 Untitled ByMatthew Holt

36 2FL: The Avengers ByJav Rivera

38 Steampunk Acolyte ByJoshua Frazer

Cover: Brandon Minga“Let There Be Light”

Left

of t

he L

ake

Issu

e 7

Produce, Cheese, Meats, Pastry, Fresh Mushrooms, Chips, Chocolate, Unique Arts & Crafts, Soaps,

Prepared Foods, Live Music, and More

Saturdays Oct. 18 thru Dec. 20, 2014

9–1

WHM

St. • Downtown Kenosha, WisconsinR C Aforthe

(Closed Months of January and February)Reopens Saturday, March 7, 2015

Visit Our Web Site: kenoshaharbormarket.com

Like Us on Facebook

Follow Us on Twitter

19th A n n u a lS T U D I O O P E N H O U S E

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Janet Ho�man Jerrold Belland Jim Sincock Jim Tavernese Judith Kaprelian Karen Broman Katrina Sustachek Kelly Lahl Kim House Laurie Kis Linda Schubert Lyle Peters

Maggie Lukow Maggie Venn Marie Lee Marilyn Ward Marj Meyer Maureen Fritchen Rick Geller Sally Miller Sarah Andersen Susan M. Sorensen Tony Macias

Ashley Marie PhotographyBlack-Eyed PressDale’s Upstairs GalleryMiss E. Vintage & DesignPinStripes Studios

Racine Business Center1405 16th Street

Racine WI11:00am - 4:00pmFREE ADMISSION

Alice HazarianAnn Linstroth Aurora Contreras-HoweBrad LeeBridget Kelly Carlotta Miller Christopher K. Johns Dale Savin Dan Simoneau Diane Levesque Donald StewartGreg Helding Gwen Parysek Jane Rae Brown

For info on resident artistvisit www.16thststudio.tumblr.comFor info on available studio space visitwww.racinebusinesscenter.com

If you ask Brandon Minga, being an artist is a lifestyle: something that you never turn off and that you fully commit to. Talking to him on a recent sunny, late summer day, if there’s one thing that I came away with, it’s that Brandon is an artist, through and through, with no discernible divide between his creative life and his personal life.

A Kenosha native, he has his art studio in Milwaukee, and splits his time between the two cities. In Milwaukee, he‘s an artist-in-residence with Flux Design, is the newly  appointed curator for the Beulah Brinton House/Bay View Historical Society, as well as being part of many area gallery shows and other collaborative projects. His reach goes well past the Midwest though, as he’s  participated in exhibitions in Miami, FL and in Southampton, UK.

By Lisa Adamowicz Kless

BrandonMinga

Left of the Lake / Brandon Minga 9

Back home in Kenosha, Brandon is currently working as creative director for Mike‘s Donuts & Chicken, a unique new business that will be opening in downtown soon. Treating me to an extensive tour as renovations are being made for the opening, he shared the creative vision for the business, right down to design sketches, fabric swatches, and light fixtures and vintage signs that he‘s hand-picked. His enthusiasm was palpable among the construction dust and the drying paint, and I could sense that he was in his element, meticulously piecing everything together with an outrageously cool final product in mind. This fits perfectly with Brandon’s background and personal art: mixed media, collage, and assemblage are combined with digital images, drawings, and paintings in much of his work. When hired, Brandon was told that it was his fine art that was  intriguing and what drew the owners to bring him on as creative director. Dancing a fine line between commercial art and fine art—and having a great time in the process—may be what Brandon is doing these days, but it took a little bit of evolution to get there.

Having a focus and being able to bring  elements together into a cohesive body of work was part of growing as a visual artist, he explains. He’s had the distinction of being a finalist in the Pfister Artist-in-Residence program in Milwaukee twice, and he credits that experience with helping him to home in on creating an angle for his work. With it, he took away an ability to create a brand for his art and to market it. “The Vintage  Future” also rose from this, a collection of work that Brandon calls “an organic evolution of my artistic vision…through innovative uses of collage and assemblage, I seek to explore the parallels between technology, the human environment, and the mortal condition.”.   Incorporating Victorian, Nouveau, and Deco 

elements alongside contemporary images, he looks back over the past century of American history in this work, and calls his resulting art a “linkage of old and new, past and present, timely and timeless.”

During his time as a student at MIAD,  Brandon worked with Tom Noffsinger, head of the illustration department, who had a huge  impact on him. “Until I started working with (Tom), I had no focus as an artist…once he introduced me to collage and I fully engaged with it, I found a way to bridge the commu-nication gap between myself and my art. On any given day, you may find me picking up an object from the street and putting it into my backpack. (But) I don’t just pick anything—I pick, cut out, and/or collect things that  vibrate and stand out, almost speaking to me,” Brandon explains. Looking at pieces of art from “The Vintage Future” collection, one sees 

10  Brandon Minga / Left of the Lake

what he means by this. All of the pieces come together to form a narrative, telling a snippet of story through the items that Brandon has carefully chosen to add to the story.

“Many artists say that they’re inspired by their environment, and I could say the same, but I literally pick it up and put it into my work.” That work, whether it’s a new business that will prominently feature his design or a piece of his constructed art, allows people to not just see Brandon’s work, but to share the role of the artist, experiencing it in a tangible way where they can interact with and feel it with that same nearly vibrating energy. This brings to life one of Brandon’s artistic experiments: 

how the aesthetic of time and place factors into the machine of existence. So when it’s installed somewhere, his art becomes part of a cycle that is both timely and timeless.

To learn more about Brandon Minga and his work, you can find him online at www.brandonminga.com, on Twitter at http://twit-ter.com/brandonminga, or look at prints and products available for purchase over at http://society6.com/minga and www.mingadigm.big-cartel.com. 

“Honoring our Past” Summer Pops Friday, June 27, 2014 – 7:00 pm Festival Hall, 5 Fifth Street (Doors open at 5:30 pm)

“Music for a Summer Evening”“Sophisticated Swing” – Special Event

Saturday, July 19, 2014 – 5:00 to 8:30 pm The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread

“Great Orchestral Film Music Festival” Summer Pops

Friday, August 22, 2014 – 7:00 pm Festival Hall, 5 Fifth Street (Doors open at 5:30 pm)

“Composing our Future” Masterworks Concert

Saturday, October 11, 2014 – 7:30 pm Racine Theatre Guild 2519 Northwestern Ave

“Holidays Past……and Future” Holiday Pops

Friday, December 5, 2014 – 7:00 pm Festival Hall, 5 Fifth Street

“New Voices” Masterworks Concert

Sunday, March 8, 2015 – 3:00 pm UW-Parkside, 900 Wood Road Frances Bedford Concert Hall, UW Parkside

“A Composition in Time” Masterworks Season Finale

Saturday, April 25, 2015 – 7:30 pm Racine Theatre Guild 2519 Northwestern Ave

Free Community Concerts

Young Artists’ Competition – Sponsored by Kiwanis Club of West Racine

Sunday, February 8, 2015 – 1:00 pm First Presbyterian Church 716 College Avenue

Concert for Fifth Grade Students – Sponsored by Educators Credit Union

“Compose Yourself!” by Jim Stephenson Tuesday, March 17, 2015 9:15 and 10:45 am Grace Church, 3626 Hwy 31

R a c i n e S y m p h o n y O r c h e s t r a 2 0 1 4 - 2 0 1 5

Honoring Our Past – Composing Our Future

Tickets are available by calling 262.636.9285 or online at www.racinesymphony.org

12  A Message From Anne Hambrock / Left of The Lakewww.kenoshasymphony.org • (262) 654-9080

Friday, September 5, 2014 • 6:00 - 9:30 pmPennoyer Park, 7th Ave & 35th Street

Friday, August 22, 2014 • 6:00 pmKenosha Country Club, 500 13th Avenue, Somers, WI

KSO 75th Anniversary Diamond Gala

KSO 1st Annual Shindig On The Shore

Saturday, October 18, 2014 • 7:30 pmReuther Auditorium, 913 57th Street

Ode To Joy

Sunday, December 14th, 2014 • 3:00 pmReuther Auditorium, 913 57th Street

Symphonic Sweets

Saturday, April 18, 2015 • 7:30 pmReuther Auditorium, 913 57th Street

Our Town, Your KSO

Saturday, February 14, 2015 • Time and Location: TBAPizzicato Promenade • Valentine’s Celebration

Honoring our sponsors and donors

Free concert of pops and movie music

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

An afternoon �lled with Christmas joy

Dance the night away with the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra

A celebration of our cultural history

Saturday, June 13, 2015 • 7:30 pmUW-Parkside Bedford Hall, 900 Wood Road

Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy

Gershwin tunes and hit movie music

Melissa Cardamone, Soprano • Allison Hull, Alto • Alan Taylor, Tenor • Philip Kraus, BaritoneVOX 3 Collective, Guest Choir • Guest artists sponsored, in part, by the Kenosha Community Foundation and Carthage College

Featuring music from Pirates of the Caribbean and Jurassic Park

Featuring the music of the iconic American composer, Aaron Copland

Choirs from the community join KSO in a glorious “Hallelujah!” Special guest: Santa Claus

Sway along to a Strauss Waltz and step to a light-hearted polka

Featuring vendors, concessions, KSO shirt sales and KSO musicians, bringing the party to the park

Eat , drink and be merry at our gala event. Heavy hors d’eouvres served.

Guest artists: Tremper Chorale, directed by Mrs. Polly Amborn

VINTAGE SIGNS—

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www.kenoshasymphony.org • (262) 654-9080

Friday, September 5, 2014 • 6:00 - 9:30 pmPennoyer Park, 7th Ave & 35th Street

Friday, August 22, 2014 • 6:00 pmKenosha Country Club, 500 13th Avenue, Somers, WI

KSO 75th Anniversary Diamond Gala

KSO 1st Annual Shindig On The Shore

Saturday, October 18, 2014 • 7:30 pmReuther Auditorium, 913 57th Street

Ode To Joy

Sunday, December 14th, 2014 • 3:00 pmReuther Auditorium, 913 57th Street

Symphonic Sweets

Saturday, April 18, 2015 • 7:30 pmReuther Auditorium, 913 57th Street

Our Town, Your KSO

Saturday, February 14, 2015 • Time and Location: TBAPizzicato Promenade • Valentine’s Celebration

Honoring our sponsors and donors

Free concert of pops and movie music

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony

An afternoon �lled with Christmas joy

Dance the night away with the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra

A celebration of our cultural history

Saturday, June 13, 2015 • 7:30 pmUW-Parkside Bedford Hall, 900 Wood Road

Summertime and the Livin’ is Easy

Gershwin tunes and hit movie music

Melissa Cardamone, Soprano • Allison Hull, Alto • Alan Taylor, Tenor • Philip Kraus, BaritoneVOX 3 Collective, Guest Choir • Guest artists sponsored, in part, by the Kenosha Community Foundation and Carthage College

Featuring music from Pirates of the Caribbean and Jurassic Park

Featuring the music of the iconic American composer, Aaron Copland

Choirs from the community join KSO in a glorious “Hallelujah!” Special guest: Santa Claus

Sway along to a Strauss Waltz and step to a light-hearted polka

Featuring vendors, concessions, KSO shirt sales and KSO musicians, bringing the party to the park

Eat , drink and be merry at our gala event. Heavy hors d’eouvres served.

Guest artists: Tremper Chorale, directed by Mrs. Polly Amborn

14  Stacey Williams-Ng / Sometimes I Say Things I Can’t Take Back

16  NaNoWriMo / Left of the Lake

I did it on a dare. It was 2007 and my writing partner handed me Chris Baty’s book, No Plot, No Problem. “Let’s do this on Monday,” she said. It was Friday and I don’t take direction well. But, she was my writing partner and it was just a tiny, two hundred page book. By Sunday afternoon, I was an expert on National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, as we affectionately call it. I knew Chris Baty began this madness in 1999 because he wanted to write a novel and he didn’t want to do it alone. He harassed twenty-one of his closest friends, convincing them this was a good idea, bought chocolate and stockpiled caffeine, and together they each set out to create the first draft of a 50,000 word novel in thirty days.

Did I mention that I had never written fiction before? Not a word.

I had, however, always been a reader and knew the importance of writing in community. I knew that with my overwhelming and obvi-ously crazy task, support can make or break you.

I showed up on that Monday. Chris Baty and his notorious book assured me that I didn’t need anything but a pencil, paper, and a vague, working knowledge of the English language. No Plot, No Problem, he said. I was skeptical but committed.

There are some basic rules to NaNo that I  recommend trying before you break them. First, NaNo is about quantity, not quality. It’s pure, right-brained activity. Editing is forbid-den and grammar and spelling are optional. Working from new material is recommended – dredging up a novel you half-started during the Reagan administration will cause you to lose momentum mid-month.

For the next thirty days, I wrote by the seat of my pants. 1667 words per day. I made stuff up, drank copious amounts of caffeine, and crossed that finish line with 61,000 words. Some of them were even good.

Over  the  next  few  years,  I  unofficially  participated in NaNoWriMo. Between novels, I read up on character development and plot-ting and honed a hatred for adverbs. I learned to never, ever show anyone your first draft. I joined Milwaukee’s NaNo writing commu-nity. It was, in fact, the first time I heard the term steampunk. I learned that I could create a story from a photo, a single line in an article, or even a piece of clothing. And in 2010, I signed on with the national organization as our regional Municipal Liaison (ML) for Kenosha and Racine.

So, I know you’re thinking: Why should  anyone attempt this when they could be play-ing in traffic or snacking on ground glass? NaNo will help you create a writing habit and show you that there is time in your schedule for daily writing. NaNo will introduce you to the local writing community and most impor-tantly, NaNo will give you a deadline – and deadlines have magic power. After all, NaNo taught me that not all dares end in regret.

Always thought about writing a novel? Join us! NaNoWriMo officially begins on Novem-ber 1st.

For more information, visit the NaNoWriMo website: www.nanowrimo.org

Friend us on Facebook:The Big Write-Kenosha/nanowrimo

NanoWriMoBy Peg Rousar-Thompson

18  David V. Holmes / Artificial Polyiandry

From Rust Bowl Press

"Belland makes art about the big issues: vanity, manipulation, cruelty, desire, and aging." Patricia Briggs in Scene Unseen

“Belland’s incorporation of image and word defies classification, but the images speak and the words illustrate and that is a kind of magic.”

Dan Nielsen: author of “Radiator Water.”

"... (he) challenges the distinction, as most contemporary comic work dies, between high and low art." Nicholas Michael Ravnikar

"... (his) characters and subject matter range from serious and sad to clever and absurd." Lee Roberts

Jerry Belland's Greatest Hits is a compilation of his zaniest (and most thought-provoking) work from his recent foray into the cartoonist's art. The oversize book allows for full-size reproductions, all in full color. Included is an introductory essay by the artist, explaining how this body of work completes a cycle of art-thought that began while he was still in high school. The book is printed in a limited edition of 100 hard covers and 200 soft covers.

Available at Artworks Gallery & Frame5002 7th Ave Kenosha WI (262) 652-5911

New RAM Professional Artist Development SeriesGrow your creative career, further details at ramart.org

RAM’s Wustum Museum of Fine Arts2519 Northwestern Avenue, Racine 262.636.9177

Presenters include: Reggie Baylor and Vesna Jovanovic

Left of The Lake / Behind The Scenes 21Diane Levesque / Lichened 21

22  Take a Stroll on Sculpture Walk / Left of the Lake

If Rip Van Winkle awoke in Kenosha after a 50 year slumber, he would not recognize the city. 

The auto manufacturing buildings that once loomed over the lakefront have been replaced with a picturesque neighborhood and public places, filled with pedestrians and people on bikes and skates. Two museums stand where cars were once constructed. The sounds and fragrances of an outdoor market fill the air, and colorful historic streetcars clack by.  A marina is dotted with sailboats and tall sculp-tures decorate the the harbor. Like the protean waters of Lake Michigan, these works of art seem to change with the angle of the sun’s light. They dazzle and dance. Some arc like flowers, soaking in the day.

What Van Winkle would recall is the Kenosha Community Foundation, a nonprofit which 

has served the area for 100 years. The Founda-tion’s Arts Fund is charged with encouraging and enhancing cultural life and public art. To that end in 2011, it launched Sculpture Walk, the largest public art project in Kenosha’s his-tory. Sculpture Walk starts at the harbor en-trance and runs inland, parallel with the harbor wall, incorporating several existing sculptures in its westward journey. The Walk plays an integral part in the renaissance of Kenosha, emphasizing its quality of life and demonstrat-ing that art can drive commerce.

“There is more to creating spaces than just  architecture  and buildings,”  says Natalie Strohm of the Arts Fund Executive Com-mittee. She knows what she is talking about, having served as public art administrator for the Milwaukee County Percent for Art Program. “I feel incorporating public art in neighborhoods and cities promotes creativity 

By John Bloner, Jr.

ON SCULPTURE

WALK

TAKEA STROLL

Left of the Lake / Take a Stroll on Sculpture Walk 23

and shows diversity. This can attract different businesses and visitors to a city and assist in the economic development of growing neighborhoods.”

Clara Tappa, chairwoman of the Arts Fund, comments, “People enjoy it. They can get up close and touch the sculptures or they can view them from their cars, driving the length of the Walk.” 

Every two years, the Arts Fund accepts applications from sculpture artists. The work must brave all weather conditions and not pose a hazard. A jury reviews the entries and the Arts Fund awards a $2,000 stipend for each selection. For the 2013-15 program, the following sculptures are being exhibited:

Free To Fly Bruce Niemi, Bristol, WITall Ship II Bruce Niemi, Bristol, WI

Vortex Michael Young, Chicago, ILMi Pi John Adduci, Chicago, IL

Little Rootie Tootie Ted Sitting Crow Garner, Chicago, ILBountiful Bench Christina Murphy, Chicago, IL

Yes, Ma’am Leslie Bruning, Omaha, NAConscious Of Her Shores Jayson Lowery, Detroit, MI

On Balance Paul Bobrowitz, Jr., Colgate, WIHeels Overhead Paul Bobrowitz, Jr., Colgate, WI

24  Take a Stroll on Sculpture Walk / Left of the Lake

“The artists appreciate the location of the walk,” Strohm adds. “A few commented that it is a beautiful and different setting than they are used to. They feel the active HarborPark gives exposure to their sculptures that other simi-lar programs do not.”Beginning in November 2014, the Arts Fund will welcome artists to submit applications for the 2015-17 exhibit. Information is be available at kenoshafounda-tion.org and its blog at kenoshacommunityfoun-dation.tumblr.com.

Sculpture Walk is funded through private  donations. If you would like to support the project, please  contact the Kenosha Com-munity Foundation at (262) 654-2412 or artsfund@kenoshafoundation.org.

Contributions are important. This project has a potential to expand to other areas of the city, bringing public art and its amenities to a wider audience.

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HARBORPARKWALKSCULPTURE

ExperienceKenosha’s HarborPark

Sculpture Walk14 world-class sculptures along

Kenosha’s beautiful lakefront.

­is larger than life exhibit will run through September 2015.New sculptures will be exhibited for 2015-2017.

www.kenoshaartsfund.org

HARBORPARKWALKSCULPTURE

ExperienceKenosha’s HarborPark

Sculpture Walk14 world-class sculptures along

Kenosha’s beautiful lakefront.

­is larger than life exhibit will run through September 2015.New sculptures will be exhibited for 2015-2017.

www.kenoshaartsfund.org

Jasmine Galindo / Steam Powered Giraffe 29

30  Behind The Scenes / Left of The LakePhoto Credit: RyanBlomquist.com

Left of the Lake / Steam Powered Fashion 31

Steampunk, explained Stephanie Schultz of Silversärk Clothier, is the Victorian’s imagined view of the future. Although the term itself dates back to the late 1980s, we’re only now seeing its components in mainstream visual art, film and literature, but also home furnishings and fashion. While there really are no rules, steampunk is a blend of Victorian sensibilities melded with the industrial age: mechanical bits and pieces, period items like parasols, driving goggles and timepieces, and are often paired with post-apocalyptic concepts such as gas masks or weaponry.

It’s easy to call Stephanie a clothing design-er. Completely self taught, the garments she  creates are one-of-a-kind, well-made, and comfortable. Her work has been featured in countless magazines and she is a familiar face in the Milwaukee steampunk community. But at her core, Stephanie is an artist. Just as steam-punk integrates science fiction concepts with turn of the century ideals, Stephanie’s work blends the things she is passionate about. Her clothes reflect her love of fine art and travel and just as a painter’s masterpiece hangs in 

a gallery, Stephanie’s creations are meant for the human form.

Stephanie’s eye for detail extends to the profes-sional models and photographers she collabo-rates with and also to expert hair and makeup that complement each gown. She works closely with both a milliner and a jeweler to complete the unique Silversärk look.

 As a featured designer at the steampunk conference, Teslacon, this year, Stephanie is currently working on her fall collection, Ob-sidienne. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of her ten stunning pieces, all black, with a Tudor influence that integrates texture with her love of history and classic artwork. Each gown is a show-stopping work of art.

To see more of Silversärk’s designs, visit her Etsy store at www.etsy.com/shop/Silversark

Don’t miss Stephanie’s Fall Collection,  Obsidienne, when it premiers at Teslacon on November 6th. For more information, visit www.teslacon.com

By Peg Rousar-Thompson

STEAM POWERED FASHION

32  Steam Powered Fashion / Left of the Lake

Briar Anne Bixby / Powder Blue 33

Months, days of quiet tinkering will be rewarded.So precise.Some copper, a new knob,Pressurized air.To open this up and to switch.A puff of vapor, poof, yes, it’s all in sync.Hushed tiny pistons up and down the handle did work.My aim, my point, so discreet.His life I shall end,But mine I shall begin.

Longtime I have waited, patiently waited,The right evening now here,creating such a twist.The night of loud-he to be silenced has come.No more grab of my wrist,no more twist of my waist.Last time I’m disgraced, no more slap of my face.I can’t live life at his pace, loud-he and his space.Time now past,Backbone I’ve grown,Abundance of self love has been sewn.

Powder blue parasol was all that I needed,One twitch of my thumb,One slight push of the switch,A quiet puff of vapor,lightning crack,laser buzz.Just one deft move,He shall fall to the floor.

Briar Anne BixbyPowder Blue

34  Matthew Holt / Untitled

36  2FL: The Avengers / Left of the Lake

Back in 2008, Marvel took a big chance on a not-so-well-known character: Iron Man. He may be internationally known today, but back then Iron Man/Tony Stark wasn’t exactly a household name. Producer Kevin Feige and his team had plans. After the success of the first Iron Man movie, starring Robert Downey Jr., Feige and Marvel unveiled their plans to unite several superheroes in a way that had never been done before. They teamed up sev-eral characters in one action-packed film titled The Avengers.

But why are all these Marvel Avengers   movies making so much at the box office? Why do they have such a huge fan base? Why are critics so impressed ? The reasons vary, but I’d like to address three of my theories.

In only six years time, Marvel has completely changed the way franchises are made. Since 2008, Kevin Feige has produced: the Iron Man trilogy, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the television series, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which is tied in with the films.

Reason 1: Marvel comics are well known by fans to have more interesting characters. Their heroes are flawed, conflicted, and very human. Their powers are usually a curse that they’ve 

learned to use for the benefit of others. Often, these powers are basically heightened flaws/skills from their own personalities. In a way these characters are an interesting study in psychology. They write heroes and supporting characters who are people you can relate to and truly care about.

Reason 2: Marvel and Kevin Feige make bold choices. They’re not afraid to connect  

By Jav Rivera

unexpected directors to their films. No one would have ever thought to pair Jon Favreau with Iron Man. Favreau is most famous for writing comedy films including Swingers and Elf. But Feige recognized something in  Favreau that made both the film property and director match perfectly. Every Avengers film has a similar story as far as directors. And like their choice of directors, most people weren’t  prepared for their choice of actors. In hind-sight, of course, it all makes sense. Marvel isn’t afraid to take chances; in fact, they thrive on them.

Reason 3: Kevin Feige has produced every Avengers film and is the driving force behind Marvel’s innovation. He’s one of the greatest reasons these films are working, and it has to be because of his encyclopedic knowledge of 

the comics. He has said on several occasions that he is a fan first. He listens to the fans and does his best to make a film that reaches to both wide audiences and the fanboys.

Marvel’s success isn’t bound to my three   reasons. I could get into other aspects such as Marvel’s merge with Disney, its respect to the source material (comics), the special effects and general production value, etc. It’s not a fluke that Marvel’s Avengers films are superb. If you aren’t already following these films, it’s time to do so. Not only are they unique, but they’re fun for the whole family (reason #4). One last thing: make sure to stay in the theatre after the credits start rolling. Every Marvel Avengers film (minus The Incredible Hulk) has bonus scenes after the credits. 

38  Joshua Frazer / Steampunk Acolyte

Left of The Lake / Submissions Information 39

Submit Your Work To Left Of The Lake

Left of the Lake Magazine is published quarterly and accepts work continuously.  We welcome submissions from both new and established artists and writers, nationally and internationally, but first consideration is offered to the creative people in our region of Southeast Wisconsin and Northeast Illinois.  

General Guidelines:•  All work must be original and not previously published•  No simultaneous submissions

Submissions Welcome:•  Poetry (maximum of three pieces)•  Fiction or Non-Fiction (400 words or less)•  Visual Art, Photography, or Comics (maximum of two pieces)

How-To Submit:•  We prefer electronic submissions, either as an attachment or in the body of an email.  Send work to editor@leftofthelake.com and please include your name, address, and a short bio of 30 words or less.

Questions? Contact us!editor@leftofthelake.com

Left of the Lake Magazine is Printed in The USA. © 2014 Left of the Lake.

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