Artists by Andrew Grof

Author:Andrew Grof
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: a novel
Publisher: Sunstone Press
Published: 2017-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

“Listen, listen to me, Martin.”

Dusk.

A pleasant, a soothing light through the kitchen window.

“The moment one desires, the moment one chooses then acts to become a so-called real, a genuine artist, does everything possible, everything in his power to turn himself into a true, a genuine artist, he is finished. Do you understand? Finished!” he pounded the table.

Our food untouched.

Our so-called supper of leftovers from the various restaurants untouched.

“Every choice, every decision, every act of a genuine artist a fake, a phony and in the end a highly destructive choice, decision and act, his very choosing and then acting, working as a genuine artist anything but genuine, real, he must become a so-called true and genuine artist not through any sort of choice and subsequent action but something altogether different, do you see, Martin, yet how can he when everything in life, throughout our so-called ordinary and artistic lives is nothing but choice and subsequent action with a debilitating gap between the two, this destructive gap of time I’m talking about, in other words as soon as an ordinary man or even an extraordinary artist chooses and subsequently acts he is finished, don’t, please, don’t play with that food, Martin, because what the extraordinary artist, although not the ordinary man, no, I hardly think so, but what the extraordinary artist is after is some sort of instantaneous and therefore pure and genuine action, that is action without any prior choosing and deciding, but that’s impossible, Martin, do you see, and what separates the extraordinary artist from the ordinary man is that the former sees, yes, clearly and absolutely sees this impossibility while still pursuing it, the ordinary man with no such compunction, so-called necessity, but both, listen to me, Martin, both finished from the start, in other words as soon as they choose to act, to paint, to whatever, in other words as soon as they choose to live instead of simply living or painting or whatever, because life is not a matter of choice, no, absolutely not, as soon as there is choice and subsequent action both the ordinary man and the extraordinary artist are finished, do you hear, Martin, finished even as they start.”

And once more my father pounded the table, although gentler, softer this time.

“And what’s before the start, the beginning?” I screwed up my courage to ask.

Rarely if ever did I interrupt or ask my father any questions, I must have thought it both useless as well as ultimately destructive, but I did this time, almost without thinking.

My father looked up.

Seeing, scrutinizing me then the way he so often saw and scrutinized various works of art, in other words taking his time before deciding, formulating some sort of judgment about what lay in front of his eyes.

“Nothing,” he finally replied, “absolutely nothing. Neither before the beginning nor after the end. Absolutely nothing.”

As so often, no, as always before my father left the interpretation of his remarks, his dicta entirely up to me, in other words left me

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.