I Believe in Ghosts: A Tragedy

November 6, 2017

I asked her to show herself to me. Please. I needed her to show herself to me. "I’m all alone," I said, "I swear I won’t be afraid." Sometimes it made me cry when she didn’t show. When not so much as a light would flicker or an object on the dash would move. There was no sign at all. I cried or I shouted or I grew very afraid.

Lit & Fashion: Miss Havisham and Her Haunted Dress

November 5, 2017

...Miss Havisham’s dress has become her shroud...

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8 Billie Holiday Songs That Will Crush You

November 2, 2017

Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016) and the editor of A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017). Joanna received a MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, a managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and CCM, as well as an instructor at Brooklyn Poets. Some of their writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Brooklyn Magazine, Prelude, Apogee, Spork, The Feminist Wire, BUST, and elsewhere.

My Aimee Mann Liner Notes

November 1, 2017

The first time I heard the sound of Aimee Mann’s voice was on the television. It was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode titled "Sleeper" featured Aimee as a guest musician at the famed, fictional hangout The Bronze. Buffy was famous for bringing in real, sometimes established musicians to play on the show. Aimee, however, had a speaking role too. She played the songs "This is How it Goes" and "Pavlov’s Bell" from her 2002 album Lost In Space. Her line? "Man, I hate playing vampire towns."

The Spookiness & Nostalgia of Loreena McKennitt & Halloween

October 31, 2017

On a brisk December evening in the early 90s, my aunt took me and two of my cousins to stand in a stranger’s yard in rural Maryland and sing to a dead tree.

Zodiac Diptych by Alex Iona

October 31, 2017

To express the tragedy of a legend through a single gaze, to evoke emotion through posture, to shape an identity in the classical veil of mythology.

9 Reasons Why the Canadian Horror Film “Curtains” Deserves a Remake

October 30, 2017

Curtains, although one of my favorite Slasher films, I believe is the perfect candidate for a remake. Why you ask? Hear me out:

Gustav Klimt Makeup Tutorial for the Art Witch Inside Us All

October 30, 2017

BY ISABELLA STRAZZABOSCO

When I was little, my mom had huge coffee table books full of art piled around the house and I was always transfixed by what was inside. I brushed past the descriptions and biographies, looking for the pictures that caught my eye. Although I never lingered at Rockwell or Renoir, I would always stop when I got to Klimt. Feeling a little bit like Alice, I became totally engulfed in the gold-leafed wonderland of his paintings. They reminded me of Greek Gods and Goddesses, beautiful, surreal, and a little scary. His paintings seemed to breathe, the shimmering textures and lush colors of his pieces made them feel alive. They were magical.

Even after I grew tired of my mom’s books and looked for art in new places, Klimt’s influence stayed with me, manifesting itself in a love for jewel tones, metallics, the surreal, and the majestic. My first tarot deck was the Golden Tarot of Klimt, and my connection with the deck came easy, because I already had a strong and intuitive bond with the images on the cards.

When I decided I wanted to make a makeup look inspired by art history, it’s hard to think of an artist better suited than Klimt. This look is great for when you want to get a little dreamier, a little darker, and a little more glittery. As much as I would love to walk down the street streaming golden tears and draped in velvet every day, this is probably the closest I’m going to to living like one of the characters in a Klimtian fever dream.

First, prime and prep your skin. I opted for a heavier coverage foundation and matte powder, because I wanted a smooth and even base to add color back into later. I also contoured my cheekbones with a cream contour. I wanted my eyebrows to be very defined (à la Klimt’s muse, Adele Bloch-Bauer), so I filled them in with a pencil and then brushed them into shape with a gel.

My favorite aspect about the people that Klimt paints are their cheeks. They all have a dreamy blush that flushes over nearly the entire face, like they just. To make it wearable, I opted for a rosy beige with a cream formula, which lets you really work it into your skin for an *ethereal glow*. It also lets you be in control of building up the amount of color you want, to make sure you lean more towards Marie Antoinette's cheek rouge than sunburn.

I used a berry lip stain, followed by a darker lipstick in the middle of my lips, and avoided any harsh lines by smudging my lip line with a q-tip. I dabbed my fingers on my lips to pick up some of the color, and then pressed the leftover lipstick onto the tops of my cheekbones over the blush I already put on.

For the eyes, I drew inspiration from two very Klimt-esque pieces, "Larme d'or" (Tears of Gold) by Anne Marie Zilberman, and Nan Goldin’s Joey at the Love Ball. The first time I saw Nan Goldin’s photo at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, I was hypnotized by the same elements that had always drawn me to Klimt. It instantly became my favorite photograph, and its beautiful colors and textures have been floating around my head ever since.

Using the same berry lip stain from earlier, I blended it all the way from my lash line to my brow bone (Warning! Red pigment can be irritating to some people’s eyes, so if you decide to do this step, proceed with caution), and then took a shimmery grey-brown and blended it over my lid. I drew a thick line with gold liquid eyeliner, flicked it out at the ends, added some mascara to my bottom lashes, and ta-da! I was done.

To finish the look I took some glitter and placed it on my cheekbones, cupid’s bow, and the end of my nose, to mimic the kaleidoscopic, bejeweled feeling of Klimt’s work.

By this point you’re left glowing and glittering like a post-impressionist angel. You can totally play up any of the features in this look to up the dramatics, or to play it down if you want to rock the gilded goddess look on the day-to-day.

PRODUCTS USED

Skin
Nature Republic Cell Boosting BB Cream in shade 01
Maybelline Dream Wonder Powder in shade 03
Glossier Cloud Paint in shade Dusk
Lime Crime Diamond Crushers in shade Choke

Eyes
NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in shade Copenhagen
Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette, shades Mugshot and Darkside
Jordana Cat Eye Liner in shade Future
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara

Eyebrows
NYX Auto Eyebrow Pencil in shade Black
Glossier Boy Brow in shade Black

Lips
NYX Soft Matte Lip Cream in shade Copenhagen
Bite Beauty Creme Lipstick in shade 001

Isabella Strazzabosco is an artist, witch, and triple air sign from Chicago. She currently resides in New York City, where she is studying visual and global studies at The New School. Isabella has been an artistic associate and core creative at Free Street Theater since 2014, and a member of the Goodman Theater slam poetry team in the 2016-2017 season. Isabella loves Nick Cave, Gemini season, and the strawberry cheesecake pancakes from IHOP.

janwillemsen flickr — janwillemsen flickr

5 Books You Should Read That Are Magical & Witchy

October 26, 2017

Joanna C. Valente is a human who lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015), Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016) and the editor of A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault (CCM, 2017). Joanna received a MFA in writing at Sarah Lawrence College, and is also the founder of Yes, Poetry, a managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine and CCM, as well as an instructor at Brooklyn Poets. Some of their writing has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Brooklyn Magazine, Prelude, Apogee, Spork, The Feminist Wire, BUST, and elsewhere.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

October 26, 2017

Because Pauline? She was dead. And it couldn’t have been her daughter because she had stopped by the day before she left and dropped off the secret recipe to Pauline’s strawberry rhubarb jam. That jam had been our family’s favorite for years, but until now, the only way we could have any was when she brought it to us in the summertime herself.

'Through Foxglove Nebula' - acrylic on board, 2016, by F. E. Clark

Purpurea, a Flash Fiction by F. E. Clark

October 25, 2017

The second time she drifted in magenta her blood flowed dark and the purple-blue mist rose before her eyes. It was then, there on the ground beneath him, grit grinding into her shoulder blades, that she remembered that the magenta have visited her once before.

Hungering

October 24, 2017

Let’s say that, as your mother’s story goes, you were born hungering. Let’s say you came into this world gooey-hot with blood and slick and before the howling inside could make its way up the ladder of your throat, to find grounding in your tongue, you conjured a boulder to block the chasm of your lips. To close out the vulnerable shadow of light. Let’s say your mother’s myths are truth, that your first act in this life was to shut up and look around: quiet, quizzical-eyed.

What Wonder Woman Means to Me

October 23, 2017

When I was a little girl, my favorite women were women with dark hair. I liked strong female characters with dark hair: Sporty Spice and Xena the Warrior Princess, but mostly I loved Wonder Woman. Her hair was dark like mine and I admired her ability to fight for truth, justice, and compassion. There were never any Wonder Woman movies, only cartoons that came and went. Over time, I became a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan too. I gravitate to women who move mountains for the betterment of humankind. Aside from shows like Buffy, the representation of such strong women was sparse. Most women are portrayed as detrimentally broken and that’s how they came to be strong. And that’s okay, but I often wondered then, as I do now, why couldn’t women just be strong because they are?

Things My Illness Took from Me

October 20, 2017

When I ride the subway I become so many ages, I carry so many different years, and they appear in layers inside of me in a way I wish I could erase