My brother, Dave , is an accomplished artist. He used to be a prolific one but got distracted by other things and does not put marks on paper as much as he used to or should. His chosen style was leaning towards what is generically know as fantasy and certainly bowed towards the macabre or darker side of things. For such a gentle soul he saw things that few of us either can or want to. Occasionally, he will still talk about the pictures in his head but, alas, that is where they stay. For now. Everything can change and be different and that, today, is my point.

Sometime in the early 1990's I visited him at the house he lived in at the time. This was before he was otherwise distracted. Upon the wall was a large image that he had recently completed. It depicted a warrior-type on horseback. The horse was plunging head-first into a swathe of demons who were pulling down the beast's front legs. The animal's nostrils were flared and the eyes betrayed a terror and fear the like of which I have never seen before or since. The rider was looking in the exact same direction as his charge and yet his face showed a cold determination as he raised a sword above his head with one hand and a handful of swirling demon in another. How he stayed in the saddle is of no interest or consequence.

My brother asked me what I thought. I told him that the subject was not really to my taste but that the skill, technique and detail were breathtaking and that he had portrayed the moment perfectly.

He went on to ask me what I thought the moment was. I chose the romantic view that the lone warrior was facing insurmountable odds and was heading down into certain death but that he believed in what he was doing to the point of not caring for the consequences.

He laughed and said I had it all wrong. He told me to look again.

"Look at his eyes. How can he lose?"

And there, you have the essence of Dave and I at that time.

Today, if we were both asked for an opinion of the picture, I believe neither of us would give the same answer as we did then because of the myriad of twists and turns we have experienced since that time and that have so much bearing on our opinions now.

My honest answer would be, "I don't know."

And Dave? He'd probably just ask, "What picture?"





More, though not Forever Changes


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