#755 Black-White- Tove Jansson
This story is dedicated to Edward Gorey, the American illustrator. Like him, the man in this story drew dark and scary images for books. He has been commissioned to create the pictures for a terror anthology, the chance of a lifetime. When his wife, a talented designer critiques one of his drawings as too gray, he takes it to heart.
The house she has designed for them is literally a glass house and is too light for the dark subject matter of his book. He moves to a different studio for a few months where he can wallow in darkness and create the proper level of black as the dominant element in his work. How dark is too dark? How far can an artist get lost in his work?
This is a nice homage to an artistic master. The imagery is stark, the black/white symbolism is obvious but handled well.
Notable Passage: “The darkness crept away, and they stood side by side, throwing no shadows, and he thought, This is perfect. Nothing Can Change.
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