Painting Superstition

Sitting on a campstool by the side of the wrong end of Superstition mountain, Harry Fauth paints what he sees. It is the wrong end of the mountain because other artists always paint the other end. He paints in sunrise, and in the dimness, stillness, punishes his brain. Steady strokes of his small brushes as they push clusters of blue shadows into place on his canvas beat monotonous thuds some-where inside of his sensitive head.

Hypnotic thuds 0 0 Is that cerise in the orange sky? 0 Is the orange a cerise? Has Superstition a native colour or is it all light shadow? 0 0 It would be just plain brown if the sun were white instead of orange, which of course makes it blue. 000 The other artists paint the other end pur-ple because the sky is red at sunset. 0 0 Tourists like to buy purple Superstition mountains. 0 0 Darn the tourists anyway. They don't know anything about art! 0 0 The truth is that Superstition mountain is covered with green, because everyone knows that centuries ago the Spaniards took out millions perhaps billions, then covered up the mines as they fled from the Indians. 000 Harry would paint the truth tour-ists or no tourists, so as his body swayed in rhythm to the thud-beats in his head, he saw and painted the crouching body of a "Gobble-Gobble is a giant. He is the serious side of everyone's life." "Do you mean that the giant travels around with everybody?" "Sure, and Snick-Wee is a midget with an airgun; he is the element of balance." "Then we all have those two characters following us around as we go . . . as we go?" "Yes. And if it weren't for them we would be cutting big papers into little papers." "Would there be huge black birds forever flying around the North Pole so as to convince us that ice is white? Why couldn't ice be white if the big birds were pink?" "Because pink is the greatest contrast of dark green. Yellow is the greatest contrast to purple too. Yes and blue is the greatest contrast to orange. You see, Snick-Wee, the sky being blue at the North Pole would make the ice appear to be orange. The huge birds have to be black so as to keep the ice white, which is its natural colour."

great panther, which a mile long formed the contour of the wrong end of the mountain; and he painted the Big Cat with a mixture of gold and green 0 0 Gold and green 0 0 Green covering the gold 0 0 Somewhere near that crouching cat is untold gold and it is covered up by the green of growth of centuries. 000 Good idea. 0 0 Paint Old Leather Neck with his patient burro in the foreground. (Turn to Page 33) GOBBLE-GOBBLE "But, Gobble-Gobble, every artist knows that white is not a colour, and besides there is no pole up there for the birds to fly around, and if there were a pole with big birds flying around it the birds could be any colour because there are no artists up there with eyes to see the colour and be convinced that ice is white."

GOBBLE-GOBBLE "Oh, I don't care, gimme a sandwich. I'm hungry!" Snick-Wee with sandwich bag in hand, darts behind a cactus plant.

SNICK-WEE "I still do not see any reason to doubt him." GOBBLE-GOBBLE forgetting his hunger for the moment "Doubt who?" Snick-Wee comes out of the cactus, lies on his stomach, looks at the giant but keeps his hand on the trigger of his air-gun.

SNICK-WEE "Doctor Cook."

GOBBLE-GOBBLE "Because he was a fake just like old Leather Neck the artist is painting. Doctor Cook never went near the North pole no more than old Leather Neck looked for the lost gold mine. I hate lazy people! I hate artists because they are too lazy to get out and work like other people!"

SNICK-WEE "What artist is painting?"

realist writers!" Snick-Wee slowly aims his air-gun at the giant.

GOBBLE-GOBBLE "Put down that gun! Don't shoot me! I am all bent up now (Turn to Page 33)