24 years of age, tall and lean. Bony hand and leg, lank face, no money in pockets. The person is an artist.
When the story begins, he is seen sitting in a chair. The way he is sitting, you would obviously think that he is extremely weak to even move. A half-burned cigarette is on his mouth. A Book in his hand. Seems like his only focus is stocked on that book.
Many won’t find any abnormal in this picture. But if you look closely, you will find something and that’s certainly has no explanation. That book is upside down.
Can someone read book like that? What is the meaning of this? Nothing but the person is not even reading the book. He eyes is also not pointed to the book. Actually, he is just looking to the book, nothing more than that. Not exactly looking at anything. Means he is thinking something. Actually, he is. He is thinking about an exhibition.
It was in today’s newspaper. This time it will be a very big event. No medium and an artist can decide what he/she wants to exhibit. That’s the two very big feature of this exhibition. As a result, artists can show their talents very much.
Our artist is now thinking about this exhibition news. It’s just another normal news for many public but he is getting excited about this. He was waiting for this kind of opportunity for a long time. He wants people to know how good he is in painting. He wants some recognition. He has not supernatural thoughts about his skills. He doesn’t even imagine that he would get any cash prize from this exhibition. He would be very happy just to see a testimonial from organizers. He doesn’t even believe that he will even get that too. But still he wants show people his painting, let them see what he’s got.
Also, can’t deny that he has a little bit of hope, maybe deep inside. You can’t say what can happen. Maybe newspaper will about this exhibition, maybe somewhere his name will be mentioned. Maybe some critics will say something good about his composition, color choosing etc.
Laziness is obvious in his body language, holding a book upside down, he is now thinking what will be the subject of his painting.
If he has any likes and dislikes about art, then I can say that he is devoted to realism. He wants to stick to reality like gum. Modern arts have a natural affection to show nature as disaster but he felt hurt by this. Serialism in arts is what he fears. Paintings with lines and shapes which is called “abstraction”, has no affect in his heart. He doesn’t feel it. He many friend talks about it a lot. Some of them are parlor critic, some of them are painters. They criticize him by laughing at his points against abstraction art. Says, “That’s some really ancient thinking you have on your mind. Look at the work of modern artists, try to understand the meaning behind it. You have to do it, there is no other way. How can you ignore these geniuses?” Then he tells him a pile of names. Those names are intricate. Hate to hear those names but doesn’t change his opinion.
It’s not like that he didn’t try to read books on modern painting. But picture in those books is so awkward for him that he had to stop reading. He can remember a picture a now. As soon as he saw that picture, he thought that someone unprofessional painted this. Seems like that artist drew an ancient Neanderthal man who is most likely to stay elephantiasis and his neck will be big like Giraffe. And what was the name of that painting? “Perfect Woman”. Would you believe it? For him, it’s nothing more than joke.
Next day, he started to paint. He is master at water color. So, he will paint it in water color. He already thought about what will be the subject of his painting. He decided that yesterday evening. It’s one of his favorite pictures from a play of Shakespeare. Lady Macbeth is walking in sleep – that’s what it will be. Name of the painting will be “The Somnambulist”. Means the woman who appears when dreaming.
He was never excited to paint, ever. He’s experimenting everything in order to choose which color will be perfect for his painting. After that, he started painting. There is no doubt this will be his best painting.
Took ten days to complete his painting. He didn’t much leave that room (messy and small) which he used as his studio. First time he painted with so much affection. You can tell him abnormal, considering how much patience, enthusiasm he put to paint this and how sloppy and untidy he is.
He did some post-painting things. At last, 5th January he completed his painting. At that time, sunset is about to happen. He stretched his legs and sit comfortably. His muscle is revealing his excitement. They want rest now.
Moments later, to understand the painting, he stepped back a few feet and looked right at his painting. Looked exactly five minutes. Eyes are unmodulated, head is a little bit tilted. The more he is looking at his painting, the more he is feeling good. Color, expression, composition – everything is telling him that he painted that exactly the way he wanted to.
Suddenly, he felt like he crossed himself. The painting he is looking at, he wasn’t even sure that he can paint like that. Now he is satisfied. He realized his hard work is valueless.
But no time to waste. Today is the last to send the painting. He will send it via post tonight. He wants critics to see what he sees in his painting. That’s more important. Took down the painting. Then started looking for thread and parcel paper.
When he got out of the post office, his eyes were twinging. His tendons were still flickering. This is normal when you work so hard. Feels like weight of his legs increases too much for him to carry. He started walking slowly. Now he will go the place where environment is lonely and empty. He needs to breathe the fresh air. He felt healthy. His tiredness gone when he returned home after some hours.
The next he felt completely healthy, like he is spring chicken or something. He was reading newspaper while breakfast. He noticed a flyer of Society of Fine Arts. Society is telling that they got lots of paintings this time. They have no doubt that this exhibition will be successful.
At one time, he thought now it’s time to clean his studio. So messed up. Then he felt lazy again. He starts thinking whether he will clean up or not. Then he decided he will do this later. That day when he again entered in his studio, the sun was already set down. He switched the bulb on. The studio is so messy right now. Color tube is everywhere. So are hair pencils. He had to work fast, that’s why he didn’t get enough time to place everything where it belongs. Some chopped clothes and paper were on the floor. Looking around his messy studio, he noticed a paper. That was right under isle. His heart pumped straight away with wonder and fear. He knows this paper. Bent down and took up that.
Then he felt dark, endless dark. Like he is the last person alive on this earth. Somehow, he keeps himself from falling. The paper he is holding is not ordinary paper, it was his best painting ever – The Somnambulist. A Women from Dream. The lady Macbeth who he painted with so much hard work and love, is now looking at his eyes with her sleepy eyes. He is the one who gave her these eyes.
After absorbing the hard pressure of wonder, he is now drowning into depression. In no time he understood what had gone wrong. This time also his unconscious is responsible. This is not new for him. This happened before many times. But those incidents just made him feel ridiculous, not ruined him like this.
Now that also happened. Ruined him terribly and cruelly. He felt disgrace on himself. He’s feeling sick. What did he parcel to the society? They will find nothing but a scrap of paper and name of the artist and picture. They are surely laughing at him after receiving blank paper instead of painting.
That’s nothing but soldier of fortune. He’s now insulting himself and his luck, again and again. He cut the painting to pieces and throw it to the dustbin.
The next week he tried forget this disaster as much as he can. To forget this, he had done some bad painting which he never painted in his life before. While he was trying to forget this, on the morning of 15th January – the day exhibition is going to be held, he received a letter. He was doing his breakfast at that time. Blue color, slightly tall letter. A fresh symbol on top of it. It’s very clear who sent this letter. Society sent this letter.
Before opening the letter, he tried to imagine what could be inside this letter. He thought, society is interested to know about his ‘mysterious’ parcel. Possibly just for formal letter, which society do every time. He calmly opens up the letter.
The letter starts like that:
“Dear Sir, we are happy to congratulate you…” but this is absolutely unbelievable. He couldn’t believe his eyes. In short, the society is telling that his painting “The Somnambulist” got the first prize. At the end of the letter, they wanted him to be present at the exhibition.
He felt dizzy. He couldn’t understand anything. He was confused instead of being happy. After passing the primary excitement he understood, something is wrong. Definitely wrong.
After an hour when he reached Town Hall for exhibition, he felt excitement beyond his imagination. The main gate of Town Hall is now open for public. People are entering to the exhibition line by line. So much people. He somehow entered into the exhibition. The exhibition is on the second floor. Stairs is also decorated. He quickly reached to the second floor. The exhibition hall is colorfully decorated. Sparking all around the hall. Paintings are hanged on every side of wall.
His heart pumping rapidly as he was walking around the hall and looking paintings. Paintings who got prizes has a label on the bottom. This label contains the names of artists and paintings. He looked carefully every label. It took him one hour to finish, looking at the paintings of south, east and north wall of the hall. Looked through every type of painting like landscape, life style figure, life etc. Seems like he’s giving an eye test. His eyes flickering and now starting to pain. But he won’t give up until he solves the mystery.
He felt much less confident when came to the west wall of the hall. But in there he saw something that he felt no more confidence or excitement at all. At the west side of the hall, there is nothing but abstract painting. For him, those are nothing less than a nightmare. First painting he saw won the first prize. He looked without any curiosity and stood like a pillar for some time.
Name of the artist seems like familiar. Oh, that’s his name. And name of the painting? He knows that too – The Somnambulist. But what is this picture? Looks like artist just randomly used his hair pencil to draw. He never painted this.
And then suddenly he understood everything. This is not his painting, it’s the paper that he used to decide which color he will use to paint.