Thursday, February 14, 2013

Mrs. Festini's Hat Box, parts 1222 - 1225


1222. Once upon a time there was this artist who lived in a garret in Paris and he decided to do the most detailed and exact painting ever done. He said to himself, “I’ll do a still life, and not only will I paint the color of the wood, but the gloss, and the dust on the wood, and the fingerprints on the dust, and the light as it plays on the very edges of the dust!


1223. There was a cello in his painting and after three months of constant work, when he was half way done with the neck of the cello he took a break and went to look at pictures in a picture gallery. In the gallery he saw another still life painting, with a guitar in it and the entire guitar was quickly painted with about ten rapid strokes of a fat bristle brush loaded with paint. It was one of those virtuoso paintings where everything is simple, quick and perfect.


1224. Our painter friend looked at it and felt himself go numb. Walking home he declared to himself, “No matter how long I spend on the details of this picture of mine, it will never be as good as that picture I have just seen which has no detail at all.


 1225. And meanwhile I sit holed up in my studio for months and months slaving away, and that painter dashes something off in a few minutes, better than I can ever do and then probably waltzes off to the cafe where he sits having coffee with his artistic friends and talks about art, it isn’t fair!

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