A review of The Lunatic Painter in Intangible Stories by Syed Amaan Ahmad

Website design By BotEap.comIf it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then Syed Amaan Ahmad’s ‘The Lunatic Painter’, published by TheUnknownPen.com in their bi-monthly ‘Intangible Stories’ says a thousand words. Syed’s imagination reveals itself in colors and images. Although Syed has publicly stated that he is an atheist, I must say that I see images in this short article that remind me of Revelation. This is probably my bias, but it might be worth mentioning. The moon turns red. The colors of the story flow together from episode to episode, so that the reader can experience the story as if it were a dream. In the book of Revelation the stars fall from the sky, the elements dissipate and a woman seeks refuge from evil. In ‘The Lunatic Painter’, one world switches with rich brushstrokes to the next in a whirlwind of attention-grabbing images.

Website design By BotEap.comIn tone sounds ‘The Lunatic Painter’ by Shakespeare. The appearance of a Puck-like figure is refreshing. A painter appreciates her colorful picture from the outside, but then is brought inside her artistic worldview. It is while she is inside her own image that she really experiences her own art. The experience is magical, but in some places the charm suddenly collides with harsh reality. It is as if one had to pay for the rich and happy moments of enlightenment by subjecting oneself to the intermittent gouges of reality. I think the word for this experience is ‘bittersweet’. It’s a watercolor dream as the colors on the palette are constantly mixing. But the colors in ‘Lunatic Painter’ don’t swarm into the canvas; they swirl and spiral into the artist’s world or draw her in.

Website design By BotEap.comIn this story, the artist is granted the wish of many of her kind. She experiences her art totally. But he pays dearly for this privilege by becoming the subject of another artist’s painting. This may not be too high a price, because she willingly accepts it. After all, she wasn’t satisfied with simply looking at her own art; she wanted to become art.

Website design By BotEap.comThe naked boy reminds me of Puck in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. This child plays the flute, perhaps enticing or enticing the artist to enter the painting. But the happiness that is promised in his aesthetic experience is soon shaken when the boy’s happiness turns sour and in anger he throws stones at the moon. So the artist must pay the price of bread as a greater pleasure to experience his own art.

Website design By BotEap.comAs the artist wakes up, she seems to come back to reality. Now only the eyes of the subject in her painting are shown on the canvas; she’s very left out of her art at this point. She tries to remedy this by holding him in her arms as if he were her child. She cries with him in the real world, her world. Even this moment of sharing with her art is interrupted when her eyes disappear and a mouth appears in the painting with only her upper teeth intact.

Website design By BotEap.comPerhaps the mouth with half its teeth missing is that of the old woman who now appears. This old lady is manic. She seems to be music personified. One of her breasts hangs off her stomach as she furiously plays the piano. Her hair flows with the wind of her music. Perhaps she is the sound of classical art, the explosive resonance of thousands of years of aesthetic influences. Manic music challenges our ears like a force that refuses to be tamed, even in the old age of it. Her descendants, a world of artists, feed on her unique breast. Something old becomes new. Naked she cam and naked she starts.

Website design By BotEap.comThe artist wakes up once more to find herself alone. The old maniac, her muse, has suddenly abandoned her. Perhaps she remembers that the frenzied genie visits only for short periods of time. An artist must draw from that well as much as the muse allows.

Website design By BotEap.comBlood flows from the artist’s eyes. This could be a warning to the weak. The artist must pay his due with his own life blood.

Website design By BotEap.comBut the lady in ‘The Lunatic Painter’ pays with more than her life’s blood. As she continues the story, she hears someone playing a violin behind her. This is a naked man. As he plays, she sees many paintings around her; they look at her as she had once looked at them. These paintings have now become her peers. The naked violinist has taken over the entire story as he stands behind her and plays. He is appreciating it as her masterpiece.

Website design By BotEap.comAs the lights come on, we see that this entire story has been played out on the stage of a picture in an art gallery. We have witnessed his painting, a fine work of art, so magnificent that it has captivated everyone’s attention from start to finish. This artist, a man named Aldorino, has won an award for his painting of a female artist, a naked boy playing a flute, and a single-breasted old woman furiously playing a piano. The painting is titled “The Lunatic Artist.”