A Note from our Guest Editor
A city seems to have a life of its own. The artist is aware of this. And more. It is the more that this issue of StepAway Magazine is concerned with, especially in naming its connection to city life. A city cannot subsist by itself. It depends on that which sustains it. The artist, living and working in a city, probes at this perspective with words, sounds, lenses and anything else that helps with the making of art. As artists, we must create and show that which we experience in the city. It is in this vein that the artist is truly mindful of life in the city. Thinking of this behavior as it relates to my own life and that the lives of artists featured in this issue, the word filter comes to mind. In creating art while experiencing city life, the artist goes through a process where what is called into form—such as a poem, drawing, painting, or flash fiction piece (all featured in this issue)—is the direct result of noticing and feeling what is present and needs to be expressed in an effort to identify the more spoken of earlier and its connection to city life.
The artists in this issue identify the more as taking shape in a flower, a train rumbling across a city, bridges, a woman at a bus stop, a marathon, a garden that grows in a city, Chinatown, New York City, and various other locations and happenings. There are numerous sources of inspiration in a city. The artist knows this and reaches out to capture what not only sustains a city but also enables the artist to keep creating art—a fate intertwined with the noblest cause and that is not estranged from city life.
