![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Artist’s Eye (320 words)
Sep. 23rd, 2020 11:35 amOver at https://moreoddsthanends.home.blog/2020/09/16/week-38-of-odd-prompts/
Becky Jones prompted
The metal rose sculpture on the end table turned into a real rose.
With a bit of playing, this is where I ended up...
The Artist’s Eye (320 words)
By Mike Barker
Helverson shook his head, and stared at the sculpture. It was so close to his imagination, but not quite right...
Mandel, his agent, looked at the sculpture, and smiled. “Yet another masterpiece! I’m sure it will win awards, and sell for more than your other works.”
Helverson grimaced. No doubt it would, but...
“Okay, what does it look like to you?”
Mandel grinned. He knew Helverson would ask this question. Mandel looked over at the sculpture, then walked around it, looking at various sides and distances. Finally he shook his head and looked at Helverson.
“A horse’s head.”
Helverson nodded.
“That’s obvious. What is he doing?”
Mandel frowned. This was where it always got difficult.
“I... he’s biting an apple?”
Helverson shook his head.
“Don’t guess! If I did it right, you would know! You would see it, too.”
Helverson looked over at the metal rose sculpture on the end table. It was one of his early pieces, and people swore they loved it, but no one saw it like he did. As he watched, the metal rose sculpture on the end table turned into a real rose. He could almost swear that if he sniffed, he would smell the rose. Then it faded back into a metal rose again. Sigh. He worked so hard to get that effect, but so few people ever seemed to see it.
This one, for example. As he looked at it, the metal horse head seemed to shimmer for a moment, and there was a brief glimpse of a dark horse, neighing, but... no, it wasn’t there.
He waved his hand at it, and told Mandel, “Go ahead, take it away. It’s trash.”
Mandel smiled. “Your trash is art to everyone else, you know?”
Helverson shook his head. No one ever seemed to understand.
Maybe one day he would manage to make a piece that showed everyone both sides of his vision.
Someday.
The end
