Harnett-Hargrove

Who would the Minotaur Apologize to? 

This is a memory circa '90 put down in ... Script for a Practicing Artist and an Unfinished Life. i read this thinking how judgmental it is, which isn't really me. Add too, i'm fairly skittish, + scare easily. But wondering, now, what was really going on then. 

You could live at the Vulcan for a long while, then all of a sudden someone you’d never seen nor ever want to meet would surface. A friend of a friend wanted to introduce us to someone's painting. i believe a false word had got around that we had lots of work for all that asked. Little did they know. + little did they know how picky we were about who we worked w/. Though always eager to cheer someone on, i walked by Lonnie’s side to the other end of the complex w/ an open heart + beginners mind. We entered through the creaking garage door, jumping (with fight or flight) as it slammed closing us in. My thoughts were as murky as the cavernous space. Eyes adjusted, i looked into the rambling studio set up like an art show. We walked past the art w/ wide eyed poker faces. The work was colorless, abstract, sans expressionism + expression. When the dreaded artist pointed saying, “The good stuff is in here.” i mouthed words to Lonnie, ‘I’m not going in there!’ He rolled his eyes to let me know this too will pass so lets get it over w/ sooner than later. We walked into the artist’s private chamber like we were doomed. +, as it turned out, we had good reason. 

Sometimes i suspect we were all left here to unravel each other. Art is subjective, + this fellow is probably a celeb now. It has become a standard joke between us that when you start talking about the size of a piece of artwork, you don’t think highly of it. If the best compliment you can come up w/ is ‘that's a great size for a poster’ then you must think the work isn’t worth looking at any closer. Just too scary. 

When the scene is a Victorian mansion, you should know it’s going to be a horror movie. i tend to carry that backdrop around in my head so it’s accessible at appropriate moments.