Sketchbook/Writing

Once upon a time, there was a young artist who had eyes of unusual bright blue colour. They exuded the creativity, curiosity and innocence with which he looked at the world and his fellow human beings.

The ‘Blue Eyed Artist’, as he was known, lived in an unassuming little house, which was surrounded by an evil metropolis. Unknown to his wicked landlord, the house was a refuge for fellow artists, bohemians, mavericks and other subversive elements from all over the city. They would gather there to exchange ideas, recite poetry or debate the metropolis and its merciless energy.

One fine evening, a small festivity was taking place in the parlour of the house, when a fellow artist said to the host: ‘Through your blue eyes, I can see your soul! Let me take an image thereof.’ To this, a heated debate ensued on whether an image can take a person’s soul, for good or for bad. The Blue Eyed Artist stayed quiet, at first.

‘I trust in art,’ suddenly, said he, ‘and I trust in you, my Fellow! Take my image.’ And so his image was taken.

The years went by, and the wicked landlord demanded ever more rent, so the Blue Eyed Artist had to go forth and try his luck in the evil city, let it cost what it will.

He soon lost his friends, only to find new ones of the shallow kind, and started to worship insatiable mechanisms that measure the world in zeros and ones. Yet he earned great respect for creating commercial effigies, coordinating communications for global entities and developing interfaces that allow humans to interact with machines. He was known as the ‘Blue Eyed Master’ now, and his creativity, eloquence and personality were highly regarded amongst his peers.

One day, he went on a secret assignment to an undisclosed location, where high-net-worth individuals would regularly congregate to indulge in the nectar of the green Siren. The Blue Eyed Master had gone there to sell retail concepts to unsuspecting international property developers.

He was just about to conclude an important transaction, when suddenly his evil communications device vibrated. An anonymous source had sent him a message containing nothing but a link to a subversive left wing news outlet. A shiver ran down the Blue Eyed Master’s spine. He paused for a moment and with a sense of foreboding, followed the link.

Thereupon, he was looking at a photo of himself, staring at the camera with his blue eyes. Underneath, was written: ‘Would you trust this man?’, followed by a scientific explanation of why men with cold blue eyes are untrustworthy human beings.

After a moment of shock and disbelief, he realised that he was looking at his own self as a young man in the little house many years ago. Long had he felt that he was selling his soul to the devil. Yet looking at his own mirror image, he understood that he himself, in fact, was the ‘Blue Eyed Devil’.