Portalage

Derek Owens’ work in fiction has frequently graced our pages; his varied interests and engagementsmay be experienced at www.derekowens.net. From this wunderkammer of fantastic art and and artistic prose, we have culled the following visions. The following headings, titles, and clarifications are Owens’ own.

“Portalage”: an archaic nautical and architectural term meaning “the construction of portals.” The canvas, the blank page, the laptop keyboard—all portals looking out into the everwhen while simultaneously offering glimpses into the hollow earth of one’s mind. As good a metaphor as any for this work we do.

From “The Essentialists”

—children in vintage picture books reimagined as lost archetypes with arcane powers.

From a series of “One Line Poems.”

From the series “Synaesthetic Mapping,”

an approximation of how Ryan Owens, who has synaesthesia, “sees” these songs:

From the series “The Four Elements.”