Lorraine Huddle

Yellow Palms

Digital art printed on archival paper in Perspex
20 x 25cm

Online: www.heritageintelligence.com.au

>> Photographs of beautiful locations, things and characters give Lorraine great joy and she seeks to share this joy with others, through exhibitions. Recently she has begun an exploration of integrating photography with digital art.

Yellow Palms

by Steven Paulsen

The palms were a gift from my daughter, before she was slaughtered in the food riots. They’re all I have to remember her by, but now they’re yellow, brittle to the touch, because I don’t even have spit or tears to give them.

There’s no water in the taps, not for a long time. I’ve been surviving on bitter, metallic black-market dribble. But now that’s drying up too.

Outside, the sun blazes relentlessly, glaring off the mirrored towers of the city. But today they’re also reflecting plump, fluffy clouds. The first in forever.

Perhaps there’s rain on the horizon…

Listen to Steven’s story:
 

>> Steven’s bestselling children’s book The Stray Cat, illustrated by the award-winning artist Shaun Tan, has seen several English and foreign language editions. His speculative fiction short stories, described by Isobelle Carmody as beautifully written and subtle, have appeared in publications around the world. The best of these are collected in Shadows on the Wall (IFWG Publishing Australia, 2018).

Online: www.stevenpaulsen.com

Lorraine’s response to Steven’s text:

A grim outlook
with a tinge of hope. The writing picks up on my concern that our environment will be overwhelmingly artificial but it can be beautiful, with hope, which is essential for life, and there it is — in the reflection.

A poster by Bridget O’Brien for text by Steven Paulsen