Friday, December 26, 2008

The Journal of Cotton Adams #2


June 15th, 1737
Taught in the home of local artist, Wooster Plodmullet this evening. Following the lesson, Mr. Plodmullet unveiled his recently completed masterpiece, still mounted on an easel. It appeared to be an untouched piece of canvas.
"How do you like it?" Wooster proudly asked me.
"Fine...but, what is it?"
"It represents the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea!"
"But...where is the Red Sea?" I asked.
"It has been driven back - as related in the book of Exodus, chapter 14 verses 21 and 22."
"And where are the Israelites?"
"They have crossed over."
"What about the pursuing Egyptians? Where are they?"
"They haven't yet arrived."
I began to realize his mind was as blank as the canvas I was viewing.

4 comments:

  1. Once the female's nephew gave her a blue piece of paper and told her it was a representation of the biblical flood. But this man has obviously perfected the technique. Too bad he didn't produce and illustrated study bible.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funny you should mention that. I found a letter addressed to Cotton Adams, dated October of 1737, indicating Wooster was working on that very idea. Each illustrated page was nothing more than page of solid color...with one exception...the rainbow that appeared in the sky after the flood was multiple bands of solid color. I have to say, his solid color painting of a close up of the golden calf in Exodus 32 was quite impressive! He was turned down by every publisher but, came up with the idea of the Wordless Book...and the rest is history!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Did Cotton Adams really suffer from automatonophobia? Because I thought I was the only one who suffers from the constant dread of those wee mannequins with their wee beady eyes and spindly appendages moving all around! *shudders*

    ReplyDelete
  4. A close up of the calf -- impressive. In Gold, I daresay: though on a molecular level the closeup could be done in white as molecules are invisible to the naked eye.

    The rainbow sounds disturbing: solid bands of color. These abstract impressionists. I might have mistaken it for Joseph's coat of many colors.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails