Our cover features work by British-born, Italy-based Shaun McDowell, who makes his own frames for his ellipse-shaped abstract paintings. Also inside: in her first editorial statement, Molly McCully Brown on how mystery speaks to us; a conversation with Gerald Early on what makes an honest critic; Arthur Aghajanian on what Paul Pfeiffer’s media-spectacle-driven art teaches us about desire; Sarah Stone imagines the garden of Eden; Murzban F. Shroff on a mother’s grief; Jessica Handler on rock fandom; Sarah Lee paints hope in the darkness; multimedia artist Terry Maker’s theology of matter; Courtney Craggett on embracing Halloween; Joel Cuthbertson on Christian Wiman’s experimental modes of testimony; Shane Neilson on poet Spencer Reece’s poetics of immanence; Miriam Camitta and Karla Pahel on living with a family member’s mental illness; poems by Lance Larsen, Kami Enzie, Waldo Williams (in translation from the Welsh by David Lloyd), Stella Wong, and more.

Get Image delivered: www.imagejournal.org/subscribe

On the cover: Shaun McDowell. On Dancing Planets (detail), 2024. Oil on birch ply, linseed-oil primed, artist-made frame. 37 x 25 inches.