DWELLING The Novel - Chapter THIRTY-FIVE: Finishing Touches
Surrounded by candles, scratching away at his canvas, the light in apartment 21 suddenly flickered and Dorian’s eyes were accosted by the glare. He was among untold millions who had left their overheads on when the five borough’s electrical grid overloaded. His pupils slowly adjusted, he set down his palette knife, seeing his painting fully illuminated for the first time.
Standing, Dorian had to take a few steps back to take in the towering canvas.
He felt he was awaking from a long surreal dream. The painting somehow spoke for itself now. And for once, the end result had much to say. Leaning back on his heels, he knew it was finished.
Mioko lay asleep in her brightly lit bedroom.
A knock at the door. Then another.
She struggled to open her eyelids, raising a clammy bicep to shield the light.
Mioko opened the door a crack without removing the drawn chain.
“What time is it?” she said, finding Dorian in her luminous hallway.
“I finished the painting. You have to come look.”
Mioko shielded her eyes as he stepped aside.
“What? Now?”
“Come on.”
She tried to ascertain if Dorian’s late night overture wasn’t some new trick, but in the newfound brightness, everything seemed relatively free of danger. She pulled back her chain.
“Bring your camera. I want to take a picture of you next to it.”
Mioko laughed at his boyish enthusiasm, but she grabbed her camera from the kitchen table all the same.
Standing behind Dorian outside 21, Mioko noticed the pile of discarded abstracts leaning against the wall. She wondered what was so wrong with them that he’d had to rip a hole through the painting that topped the stack.
“I can’t thank you enough, Mioko,” Dorian said, so effusive he struggled to slip his key in. He paused for a moment before opening his door.
“I was so stuck for so long. You unlocked something in my mind.”
Mioko followed Dorian inside his apartment, the far wall slowly coming into view.
“I think I only just realized how frustrated I’d become,” he said. “And then I started this work. You’ve lived below me all this time, you’re like a portal into something I couldn’t see before. Sounds corny. But there it is.”
Two humongous canvases mounted side by side in a giant diptych ate up the inner wall.
The blood rushed from Mioko’s face.
Surrounded by endless pencil studies and half-worked canvases were two massive, vibrant, photorealistic paintings. Mioko caught the intricate blots of light and color in glimpses: an Eldridge Street stoop, a chair in Dorian’s living room, Mioko’s body completely nude, the tattoos on her legs moving up her inner thigh ending just below her navel. Then on the other massive canvas: Rube shirtless, glistening and dimensional, leaning out from the wall, his manic eyes staring back at her.
Gigantic.
Piercing.
Terrifying.
“Oh my god.”
Her camera slipped from her hands.
The lens shattered on contact.
SPECIAL THANKS to my wife @zenmommas for years of support during the writing process, @ericvancewalton for his trailblazing, inspired collaboration and incredible guidance, @andrarchy for his mind blowing insight and friendship, @bakerchristopher for being an inspiration as a human artist and bro, @complexring for his brilliance and enthusiasm, Masie Cochran, Taylor Rankin and @elenamoore for their skillful help in editing the manuscript, and to @opheliafu for the fantastic illustrations she created exclusively for the novel's launch on Steemit and to Elena Megalos for her wonderful character illustrations. I’d also like to thank Eddie Boyce, Jamie Proctor, Katie Mustard, Alan Cumming, Danai Gurira, Stephan Nowecki, Ron Simons, Dave Scott, Alden Karr, Missy Chimovitz, my dad Andy Karr and late mother Wendy, and everyone else who helped lead me to this moment.
I am a Brooklyn based writer, film & commercial director, and crypto-enthusiast, my projects include @HardFork-series an upcoming narrative crypto-noir and my novel Dwelling will soon be premiering exclusively on Steemit, and you can check out more of my work at dougkarr.com, piefacepictures.com, and www.imdb.com/name/nm1512347
Please comment thoughtfully, up-vote and resteem and I'll gladly upvote your comments!
Splendid prose fiction Doug, mioko seems Japanese and Dorian seems well American makes me wonder the true setting of the piece, the story centres so much about art really and illustrations I love the dialogue between the two characters, ver humorous and engaging, beautifully written
I must confess it's the first chapter I've read! I will try to catch up. Especially since this chapter has a well-managed suspense that makes me want to know why this reaction to painting; the other is that you have some collaborators whom I have read (@ericvancewalton) or enjoyed their drawings (@opheliafu) and they are extraordinary. This is synonymous with quality! I will read them. Greetings
So glad you're picking this up again. I've missed reading it. The ending wasn't what I expected but makes me even more eager to read on. Great work!
I upvoted your post.
Keep steeming for a better tomorrow.
@Acknowledgement - God Bless
Posted using https://Steeming.com condenser site.
grab me camera .... Mioko laughed at his boyish enthusiasm, but she grabbed her camera from the kitchen table all the same.
great story great novel dougkarr
Doug,
I was finally able to dedicate some time to reading this work of yours and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have a hard time reading books in bits and pieces so I had read the first chapter the day it was published but then knew it would be hard for me to read unless it was all in front of me.
Today I read it from Chapter 1 until the camera hit floor at the end of 35.
I can't help but think that there is more to this than the story coming to you through imagination and hearing some things during jury duty. I don't know why I think that, but I do.
Chapter 17 and the line about hard to tell the cops from the thugs is one that has stuck with me all afternoon. It is a shame but that is the reality in most places now, especially the big cities.
I don't remember which charity you were donating the earnings of this novel to, but about midway thru you releasing it chapter by chapter I promised you I would read it and donate $1 steem per chapter. I just transferred $35 steem to your wallet, I am sure that it is a drop in the bucket for the charity but is the drop I promised and have followed through on.
I always wanted the RB67, I had a couple of the twin reflex Mamiya cameras C33 and C330 , loved those 2 and 1/4 negatives and the fact that you never lost sight of what you were shooting since it was twin lenses. Plus the enlargements from those negatives always gave exacting detail even when blown up to poster size prints. You stirred some jealousy in me for that camera of Mioko's and you killed me at the end, crashing it to the floor.
Great work friend look forward to more from you.
Until next time,
@sultnpapper