Walden Frost and Blue Crow (Art Stories Series: #2 - H. Koppdelaney) Part 1

Walden Frost is a work horse residing at Birdsong Farm, which sits just beyond the edge of a tiny little town in northern-middle Tennessee. He's a beautiful horse, surrounded by beautiful scenery and a melancholy farmhouse which hasn't been painted since 1850.

---

This town, named Dark Hale, is overflowing with farmers, car factory workers, and methamphetamine dealers. Dark Hale is quite a bit stranger than most every other town in the state. This is a bold statement, and it sounds rather false, but if you spend 20 minutes down at the Piggly Wiggly on a Friday evening during any given week of the year, you'll find yourself believing me as you nibble on some four-day old dill pickle chips.

Harvest by Hartwig (HKD)

If you were raised in Dark Hale, your future was written in stone. You were never going to leave. Ever.

---

Maybe (if you can afford it) you might be able to take a trip down to the Florida panhandle in July or August, when the muggy Tennessee heat is just too much to bear and the power of a box fan isn't nearly enough to satisfy a body's need for a roaring sea during the dog days of summer.

Most people will agree that Tennessee's lack of an ocean is a spectacularly overwhelming annoyance, especially in the summertime. It's particularly uncomfortable for horses, especially work horses.

To put it mildly, Walden Frost was the saddest horse you'd ever find yourself meeting. He was, however, also the most hopeful horse you'd ever meet. Never a moment passed that he wasn't daydreaming about some beautiful day in the future when he might escape the grasp of this farm.

Carriage ride in mist by Hartwig HKD

It was demanded of him to pull the plows in the fields for most of the daylight hours. Sometimes, he was given a day off, but that occurrence was rare, and usually only happened when Farmer Taylor was too drunk to roll out of his bed and find his walking cane.

---

Once a week, Walden and another horse pulled the carriage into town. He was burdened with many other tasks, but the worst moments of all came when he was forced to carry the Farmer Taylor's wife across the hay fields and through the winding woods down to the creek, and then back up again. It was nearly unbearable.

The farmer's wife was not a small woman. She was much heavier and wider than any poor horse should ever have to carry, and she always smelled like peppermint. Horses aren't fans of peppermint aromas. Walden never complained, as he was "broken" when he was just 6 months old.

Broken. It's such an appropriate word for Walden. Humans acknowledge the fact that they're dooming horses to a life of slavery simply by using the word. Broken. Walden lived up to the label.

Walden was a broken horse.

Early one evening as Walden settled into his stable in the barn, a peculiar thing began to happen. He smelled smoke. Soon after that, he could hear the roaring flames which were exploding outward from the east side of the main house.

As one can imagine, this was terrifying to Walden. He knew there wasn't even half a chance in the world that anyone would come running down to the barn to check on the animals.

Walden cried for help as he struggled to push down the door to his stall.

Meanwhile, not far away from the burning farm, a blue-tinted crow sat perched upon a tree branch and watched the golden flames reach their damning arms upward into the blackened sky. He knew that Walden was alone in the barn and needed help.

Tears of the Crow by Hartwig HKD

---

Walden had never noticed Blue Crow during his daily runs, but the lonley bird was very enchanted with Walden and all of the other horses on the farm. He would have introduced himself long ago, but it just wasn't commonplace for a raven to try to communicate with a work horse.

Now, however, he was worried for Walden and the other helpless animals on the farm. What could he do? As the flames grew closer, the crow flew down into the barn through a hole in the rotting roof. What would happen next? The crow didn't know, and neither did poor Walden.

---

Hugin the Crow by Hartwig HKD

To be continued...

Bottom of the blog notes:

Author: serena matthews (@paintingangels)

All of the artwork in this story is by H. Koppdelaney (Hartwig HKD) and is available from the creative commons catalog at flickr.com. (Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)

---

Art Stories is a new project I'm working on. I may or may not keep going with it. For now I'm into it. I will be sharing images that I have found to be of great interest to me and I will be creating stories from them..

These are NOT the actual stories behind the pictures as imagined by the artists. They're just my ponderings.

---

My first art story is below if you'd like to read it:

Alice in the Window. Adam in the Cellar. (Rocardo Lago) Part 1.

---

Thank you for reading!
♥ - serena