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Think of something you may find irritating, ugly, or without purpose. Now take a step back and see the object from a different perspective. Force yourself to erase all preconceived notions and find an aspect of beauty or purpose, no matter how small. Write about discovering that beauty, or the object's quest to prove its worth, or the hardship that may arise if the object was stripped of its purpose, or...well, you decide. You're the artist, so get writing!
I awoke to the tinning of the pipes from the boiler five stories below pushing the tepid water up through the century old iron crusted pipes turning the clear water blood red before it ran from my taps while the thought of getting up, to yet another day, and facing the red ooze that first comes from the shower head and drips down the walls, like spilt paint turning them pink, kept me there. From my bed I looked over the top of a small worn out wooden chair that acted as my closet to the large canvas painting hanging on the wall which I had started weeks before. It was of a young woman standing in front of her home once magnificent and grand, now tattered and torn by the ravages of war. Her eyes, hollow and pale, stared out into the empty landscape. Her long dress, a faded blue-green Brocade silk, hung from her once well portioned body and stood out against the drab colors in the scene. The color of the dress had bothered me for a time and I felt and uneasiness each time I looked at the painting. Laying there, with the mornings light just coming through the window , listening to the thumping of the water pipes for the thousandth time, I thought……What if I scumbled the dress with the iron red ooze that came from the shower head?….what if?
ReplyDeleteWeeks later I read in the Daily Critic
ON THE BEAT with Kyle Kingsley
Rutherford Gallery, Soho
This week The Rutherford Gallery is exhibiting the new works of Tom Martin. Martin’s latest work chronicles the war in Bosnia and is both poignant and disturbing in its treatment of the subject matter. A must see, the centerpiece of the exhibit, is a painting titled Madame Hoiseaux. Martin not only captures the pathos of war, but his treatment of Madame Hoiseaux dress is both eerie and dorianesque to the point that one cannot forget it. It will indeed linger in you for a while so be prepared.
VCS