About the Artist
Sarah Fligel is a Durham Region artist and illustrator, who graduated with a Bachelor of Illustration degree from Sheridan College in 2019. She creates strange worlds and characters that relay personal emotions, dreams, and experiences with surrealistic narrative-based imagery. Her medium of choice is acrylic paint on paper, but she dabbles in a variety of traditional media.
Sarah’s goal moving forward is to make work centered around advocating for people with disabilities and the neurodivergent community.
About The Wild Nellies
The Wild Nellies is a growing collective of women creatives who share a passion for the healing power of creative self-expression. We gather to perform and exhibit our work, and to celebrate our sheroes — the women who inspire us. Our events raise awareness and funds for charities that support women in escaping domestic violence and finding their own voice.
The Beast crouched in the darkness. It had resided there more and more lately but it was so vast, how could someone like her fight it? It luxuriated in the darkness, pushing her to the fringe. “Come to me,” it whispered and she flinched and said “no” so softly and then, there was a flash as Fox poked in his nose. The Beast became more insistent, “COME.” Fox tilted his head and she could begin to see more, texture and space. “No.”
Her alarm went off and she opened her eyes.
As her fingers moved, the magic of her ancestors flowed through her. The histories of their people were hers to wield. Tirelessly she toiled, using the craft she’d learned from her mother and her mother’s mother. The stories came to her in dreams, and through the weaving, they stayed true.
“Tell our stories, little one,” they said. “Never let them forget,” they requested. Their voices filled her with such purpose. The songs filled her heart with unbridled joy. Every strand and fiber was filled with love. Every loop and dovetail completed the visions. She would never give up her quest.
The Thinning of the Veil
By David Jones
This is the most sacred of times when the veil between worlds is thinnest. This year adds the power of a blue moon, sometimes known as the betrayer’s moon. My spirit animal, the fox, is known as the trickster and deceiver but also governs nocturnal activities and dreams. My name, Bawaajige, means Dreamer. I am anxious to commune tonight with my spiritual guide via this thinnest of shades.
I sit in the moonlight staring into my small fire studying the flames and the smoke. The flames become the fox’s face. In the smoke I see a message from the other side.
Sahkiwewin
by Lisa Reynolds
She had a whispered way of speaking
as though the words that passed her lips were woven from delicate prose
gifted from starlight in their brilliance yet, gentle like a soothing caress in their delivery.
Those seeking kindness in a world where guttural language crushed spirits
found comfort in her presence.
Day and night, she welcomed them with tender affection.
Sahkiwewin, they called her; woman who expresses love through actions.
* Sahkiwewin – an Indigenous word meaning: to put love into one’s actions.
Pronunciation of Sahkiwewin is:
Sa-key-way-win
Entries are now Closed for November. Go to our December Story Starters to enter this month’s contest!