Congratulations to two 2024 Best of the Net Finalists: Andreas Trolf’s “75 Simple Steps to Positive, Growing Change” and Catherine-Esther Cowie’s “Heirloom.”
We’re also excited to announce Anney Bolgiano’s “Junior Steaks” and Sihle Ntuli’s “Blues for King Kong” are included in the 2024 Best of the Net anthology!
All finalists and selections were originally featured in Aquifer: The Florida Review Online.
Catherine-Esther Cowie, Heirloom, Mixed Media Collage
Catherine-Esther Cowie, Auntie G. My Dahomey. My Amazon., Mixed Media Collage
Catherine-Esther Cowie, Hello Again, Blès, Mixed Media Collage
Catherine-Esther Cowie, The Queen of All the Dirt, Mixed Media Collage
I work in collage for its accessibility, for its infinite possibilities beyond working solely in paper but incorporating ink, watercolor, textiles and 3D elements. This series features cut-outs from fashion magazines, images of orchids and magenta India ink. I seek to map the emotional landscapes of my subject matter, women, immigrant women, Caribbean women and the complexity of emotions/states that simultaneously exist: shame and pleasure, loss and strength, beauty and ugliness.
The portraits in this series began as a form of play: I wanted to see how paper and ink could work together. They represent fears, griefs, memories, self-perceptions etc. The piece titled, “Hello Again, Blès” explores how I experience trauma. A sneaky buried wound…then a trigger…through a body now. “Blès” means internal wound in St. Lucian Kwéyòl.
Naming this collection “Heirloom” gestures to a writing project that I am working on that explores what we pass on or give to another generation: ruin and/or redemption. What was carried in the bodies of my mothers: their fears, trauma, loves, afflictions, histories. How some of it is transmitted through story, through their bodies— their way of moving and being in the world. These portraits explore what I carry around in my body…what I may or may not pass on…