Revenge of the Paste Eaters
Chapter One
revenge of the paste eaters
in our fifth grade art class there were two acknowledged artists,
Louisa McFarland and Samantha Serene. Billy Stewart was clever, but
his artwork was more inventive than fundamentally skilled. We knew
what we could do, and we could have done what Billy Stewart did, if
only we had thought of it: when Samantha or Louisa drew a picture of
a dog, we could not only distinguish which species of four-legged
animal they drew, we could identify the breed. Billy Stewart would
have made us see that what he drew was a dog as well, but he would
have done something like incorporating the letters into the shape.
Trick art. We were not looking for creativity in our fifth grade art
class. We were looking for a representation that required more
dexterity and deeper vision than the rest of us had. We were literal
critics and we were looking for literal art.
Off somewhere in the distance the Adults-that vast, amorphous
collection of order-giving people taller than we were-were Doing
Something, but I have long since forgotten what. Whatever it was,
they ... read full excerpt from Revenge of the Paste Eaters ebook
