Art Explained By A Writer: Melancholy (1895)

What happened?
Too much to tell within a few sentences but this is a comment to Nuded in Red

Dylan, what has made you so melancholic? What have you been up to this time? The name Midas of the Rivers and Lakes headlines most newspaper articles—fear is well and truly ingrained, the whole country shaking and trembling.

Confessing naked is of little use if you keep repeating yourself without putting a single stroke on the canvas. Are you aware of that? What would your dear mother say if she saw what you’ve become? Are you still standing atop that rock, staring out over the river with good hope that the woman in the boat and child will show up again? Well, forget it—a coin’s been taken away for both of them and paid to the ferryman.
And as for that message in a bottle you mentioned? I had it checked. Those bottles have vanished into thin air, just like everyone you’ve ever known. I’m the only exception, and that’s only because no one knows I live forever. Honestly, I’m fed up with this hocus-pocus, with you acting the drama king as if nothing in the world matters more than your theatrics.

In future, you’ll make an appointment with my secretary. If you come whining again about the good old days you spent with that man whose life you ruined, which made him put a noose around his neck and jump off the kitchen stepladder, then your last Musikstund will be here. Take note of that. Did you hear what I said? Stop this madness and get your snotty nose off my lap—social distancing wasn’t such a bad idea —stop whining. Stop whining! You have more in common with the old man with the machete than you care to admit. Your lack of painting talent isn’t something you got from a stranger.

Tick-Tock! When will the orchid painting be finished? You’ve wasted enough time staring at the palette and canvas—the ones I paid for in advance. If you need to be inspired... I want to see it before the week is out, and the clock strikes midnight, because the brew I’ve prepared will spoil if you keep procrastinating.

But Mother Holle...

Enough is enough! As I said, I’ve more important things to do. Wrap that sheet around yourself and keep your hands to yourself on the way to the back door. There was a raid on the theatre—your friends vanished like a shot. Did you pocket the loot from that series of ATM ram raids or were you dancing Nuded in Red on stage when it happened?

She looked at him with disdain, and he felt himself shrink under her gaze. Had he truly gone too far, he couldn't imagine it. Wasn't all fair in love and war, hadn’t they made a deal—she took the corpses, he took the inspiration to paint?

He thought of the woman on the beach, the one with the cat, he could have sworn it was called Devil. What had she picked up? Had she looked at him as he stood on that rock, or was his imagination playing tricks? His thoughts often ran away with him. It wasn’t that he only thought about those four points, on the contrary. Mostly he thought of his easel, of how to work the canvas with something of his own, something felt, something every gallery demanded...

"It doesn't matter what is on it, whether it is perfect, as long as it is a reflection of feelings", the gallery owner had said and that was exactly what he was doing. Creating a whirlwind of feelings and showing them on the canvas to the art critics and colleagues who looked down on him like that stupid Magnus. A better name for that worthless painter, with his unpredictable nature, would have been Ekel.

Blue eyes were not pretty—there was nothing special about them; they bulged too easily from their sockets. A little geometry in his paintings wouldn’t be a bad idea. Cheerfully, he stepped outside, wrapped in the sheet like a mad Nero, ready to set Rome on fire —not that he cared. Inspiration was all he wanted. Magnus could be of excellent service to him. First, he’d stop at the offy for a few bottles of red wine.

... and yes, of course, there was sex, drugs and rock-and-roll.

_{6.4.25

Painter: Magnus Enckell

Painting: Melancholy (1895) - public domain

Prompts: unpredictable nature - inspired - tick-tock - @freewritehouse}
_{#story #diary #art #review #enckell #melancholy #steemexclusive}