Such are the powers of artists

I'm proud to see my short story 'Sketches of a Worldwide Christo and Jeanne-Claude' endure and become even more acute. In our times of global upheaval if still offers a refreshing look at a possible future.

The story itself emerged from a fascination with the works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and was never intended to make a statement. Still, now that I'm contemplating its first English publication—in Mythaxis—it occurs to me that there's a message in there that's perhaps more visible in retrospect than it was in 2006 upon its first Dutch publication.

I don't want to give anything away, so I won't go into the details of the story, but there's a positive outlook on a serious world-threatening problem that surprises me still. It goes beyond, to use a classic word. Simply beyond. We live in the time of the super-enlarged problem, projected upon the sky above us by a never-stopping lens. We are starting to believe that life itself is now a problem. But this story turns a problem into something completely opposite, something that can grow into a beautiful thing of hope.

And the most hopeful thing about this story is, probably, the insertion of art as our saviour, albeit unintended. Still, such are the powers of artists who have opened their creative hearts to the world with such force that their creations actually become healing. No serious artists will dare to look upon themselves as healers, but like I said twice: things can be good beyond their original intention.

In the dark days of writing this post, the isolated time of corona, the frozen timeline, I welcome back this story from my past like a fresh breeze in a locked room. It's like a window opened by invisible hands, but we know it's the hand of the artists. I thank Daniel White of Mythaxis (Mythaxis.com) for publishing it and you for reading it (in which case I recommend purchasing the magazine through Mythaxis).

Martin Vesseur