July 2026
An invitation to submit visual art, including photographs and cartoons, poetry, and nonfiction prose, for consideration regarding inclusion in oxygen12.
Some words to contemplate:
Vale David Hockney
'And yet, in an art world heavily overburdened by theoretical nonsense, David cut through with simple, not simplistic, propositions. Art was an act of love. Drawing and painting are designed to bring people closer to the world that surrounds them. It's about joy and celebration but also looking harder, noticing more.'
'According to Hockney three things are needed for art — the eye, the hand and the heart. Two are not enough.'
Andrew Marr on David Hockney, The New Statesman, 13/6/26
'Historically, artists have been employed by leading institutions to bring emotional truth to established principles. Yet in our new global society, no institution has the wide acceptance to create values and direction for the majority of people. Markets in free societies are rapidly replacing governments and religious institutions as regulators of the highest authority, and markets perform without values; they do not converse in a human tongue.'
'Revolutionary shifts in the operational structures of our world seem to call for new definitions of who we are and what we are here for.'
'Art, after all, is about rearranging us, creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal.'
Rosamund Stone Zander & Benjamin Zander, 2002, The Art of Possibility, Penguin Books, USA.
'I stand in the Rothko Room at Tate Britain, in front of the monumental painting Red on Maroon.'
'As a painter I know about layers, and Red on Maroon captures layers of paint delightfully. But my dominant thought in response to this masterpiece is not of layers but of sacrifice. This is a work of what I call “essentiation”, rather than abstraction. In order to find the essence, a journey away from self-expression, there is sacrifice.'
'Rothko's Red on Maroon offers a tear-filled sacrifice, but as a redemptive portal, toward a feast at the edge of the abyss.'
Makoto Fujimura, Afterword: Mark Rothko, A Painter of Ideas, in The Artist's Reality, Mark Rothko, 2023, Yale University Press.
Remember that words in a poem are only shadows — it is
how you use them that reveals meaning. Concision can
carry more meanings than expansion. Detail can ground a
poem, while abstraction can cause it to evaporate like a
cloud on a sunny day.
Nonfiction prose is also art. Knowing what to include and
what to leave out is a skill. Prose takes the reader on the
journey with you. Poetry doesn't necessarily do that. It
can leave the reader to their own particular wonderment.
Remember that the decision not to include work submitted
is quite impersonal. Just as it has nothing to do with you
what kind of weather comes with each day, whether sunny
or cloudy, rainy or windy, the weather is indifferent to you
personally.
Poems must be submitted in hard copy by post. Name and
address on each page. A stamped, self-addressed
envelope must be included with the submission.
Prose can be submitted as an attachment by email.
Art must be submitted by email.
Cheryl Howard
PO Box 614
WOODEND VIC 3442
poetry.clh@gmail.com
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