Daughter of Spirit

“My third option, although one that I never took seriously, is Tutu, daughter of spirit.

We call her so because the High thickets accepted her. The eastern forest of spirits that no living person could enter , not even the High Priest. There is an aura around that place that ...pushes you back. It is a strange thing to experience,much less to articulate. Tutu is the only one I know of in my lifetime who the High Thickets have accepted. You would think that would mean that she would have divine answers for us but, unfortunately, she doesn’t.

Her reply, whenever I asked for a solution from her sessions there, was that what happens in the High Thickets stays in the High Thickets, else they wouldn’t be so high. What then is their purpose if we can’t find help from them in our direst time. To this, she made a reply that floored me, not because it was profound but because it implied the unthinkable. She said, “ A seed falls to the ground and blossoms into a tree. The death had to come first, before life could follow. I would say  that our kingdom is going through something similar - rebirth. That is all I may say on the matter of the Invasion, your highness.”

I think you can see why I brought her up last, her ways are impractical. It is almost like she lives in another plane of existence.

A few days ago, the sentries on the eastern wall reported blue flashes emanating from that unnatural place. I had to wait for her to return, for she would often spend days there. When I finally got a hold of her and Inquired about the strange phenomenon, I was foolish enough to hope that it had something to do with a solution to our struggle.

She just shrugged it off and said, “Experiments. Even the things of spirit have a process. One that I haven’t perfected.”

I have moved on to more practical things, I can’t afford to place the future of an empire in her hands. “

-Her Majesty’s Journal, Entry 03: Daughter of Spirit

Thanks a lot for joining me on this experiment, friends. There are a few things I’m happy with and others, not so much, but I do plan to continue these and get better at it. That is, creating pieces of stories that would inform my portfolio paintings. I learnt a few things, but one of them stands out and it’s this: As an artist, you will get to a point where “how” to do your craft becomes straightforward and simple. It’s just natural if you keep building mileage, you’ll be better at the “how“. When you are at that point, you’ll have to ask yourself, “What do I draw?”

That’s the really hard part: What do I draw?

Craft is easy, but we artists will be the last to admit that to ourselves. Isn’t that funny?