Shrunken Sights

Garnet Fox brushes away the last few specks of dust on the window to complete his work: Shrunken Sights. At two in the morning, the streets in Bedford, Wyoming are silent. The large storefront windows invite the work of reverse graffiti to make their dirty facade into a design peeking through the edges of ennui. Once the sun rises, early pedestrians see the art and see their reflection through the slits and shapes in which the dirt has been cleared. Garnet uses the dust upon the window as a template, and wipes away parts of the dust to create his designs. Shrunken Sights would pay homage to this city he passes. He yearns to propel a way for seemingly insignificant places to shine with unprecedented beauty. Light crushing pieces of dust to make way for eyes to be opened. On this piece, he drew in the dust a large outline of a mountain taking up most of his canvas. At the bottom of the mountain, he designs an elaborate town dimming in proportion to the mountain. He draws steeples, shops, houses… It appears small enough that one may see what it is supposed to resemble, but upon closer inspection, all that captivates the eyes is the mountain above. What lay beyond the town is what everyone would love and adore. Garnet packs up his few things and leaves before the sun starts peeking in on him on the horizon. He will not let the sun give him away, yet it makes his art dazzle all the more upon slits of sunlight glittering through the window-glass revealed in the dust. 

~

Garnet is an accountant at a law firm in New York with a soft spot for graffiti. Oftentimes on his way home from work, walking to the subway, he stops and stares at a work of graffiti. He tries to guess the motive of the subject to interpret its meaning. How precious an illegal form of art may be, giving a message which must resist traditional art forms to be truly heard. 

~

One winter morning, Garnet was looking out his apartment window. He saw the absentminded New Yorkers hastily walking to their destinations. They would walk past the art which he so admired, and they would focus on where they ought to be rather than where they currently were. The ghostly footsteps left behind in the light snow echo prayers of plans lived on time, and the ‘next-thing’ accomplished. They ignore the rare purity white snow brings to the city. Neither the vivid Christmas decorations nor the songs in the air would phase most of the bodies making way to their activities. Pulling away from his thoughts, Garnet saw a mother and her little girl. The mother was pulling the girl forward but the girl pulled away and ran to a small section of the sidewalk empty of people. She thrust out her arms and turned in a circle, snow landing on her scarlet winter hat and landing as jewels on long dark hair showing under the hat. Garnet Fox could see a grin on her face and could almost hear her pure cries of laughter and glee in welcoming the snow’s beauty upon her. The mother, upon realizing the daughter was no longer attached to her, stormed angrily and pulled the girl away, headed back to their predetermined destination. The girl’s hat fell off in the process so she detached herself again to go run and get it. As she bent down to pick it up, she noticed Garnet looking down at her from his window. She grinned and waved at him, then stumbling, went back to her mother’s side. 

He smiles, and turns away from the window just to pull back and look at it once more. He didn’t realize what he was doing as he saw the scene unfold: there’s shapes and designs in the frosted window pane. A distracted work of abstract art. He thinks back to the graffiti in the streets, and how each color dances and enlivens the work as a whole and makes the background redundant to the message it seeks to express. The doodles in the window give the background a greater vivacity and clears the foggy whiteness to make the scene outside clear, and able to be seen. As a magnifying glass heightens the intensity and importance of minutiae to give it meaning, so clearing the foggy window pane in designs gives clarity to the lives lived through the density of the weak frost.

~

Garnet continued to find fascination in this form of art. Upon doing some research, he discovered it is called “reverse graffiti.” He scrolled through pictures online, finding pieces of fine art etched in everything from dirty car windows to bleached etchings in dirty sidewalks. He liked the idea of art forms being made by cleaning a cloudy surface. 

He would be off for a two-week winter break starting the next day. He loosely packed up a leather suitcase, grabbed his wallet, got in his car and started driving. He didn’t know where. All he knew was that he had to leave in order to create something for people to stop and look at. He needed to incite a cause for people to take a moment, breathe within the business of everyday life, and accept an artist’s message. 

~

He drove as far as Bradford, Pennsylvania and paid for a room at the first hotel he saw after passing the New York - Pennsylvania border. He sits on the floor of his room with blank pieces of paper scattered about and pencils littered throughout the mess. He thinks to himself, “What can I create that people need to see? What are they lacking so much, that they ignore the colors of other artists?”

He draws almost by stream-of-consciousness fashion. He draws shadowy peaks and ridges and people standing looking up at higher shapes… They need a shift of perspective. 

~

As the sun inches up the horizon, striking awe into the most ignorant bystander by its vibrant magentas, violets, oranges, and golds all painted and mixed together giving night skies a worthy ending, Garnet Fox walks towards the sun while people start coming from homes and apartments. They begin to walk in the other direction. He smiles as he hears the pause of busy feet stop to see the art gracing the storefront, and why such work would be made in such a place. Children attached to their mothers look up at the art, minds brimming with colors and ideas that can only be attained by the rummings of a mind reflecting the thoughtfulness of the colors in the sunrise. 

~

Garnet drove without guidance of a GPS over the course of ten days, stopping in towns with populations he wished to speak to, with the reverse graffiti. He would spread out on the floor of a new hotel room each night, drawing sketches for his future designs and imagining what people need to see. After collecting his supplies, he would wander around the towns from 12-3 a.m with his phone’s flashlight guiding his way, looking at the windows and finding some surface upon which to create. The darkness of the morning was interceded around him by the lamp posts towering above him on the sidewalks, they guarded his yearning to halt the incessant footsteps of busibodies in order for a simple design to share with them the reality of the lives they live. A stop in steps and a pause to breathe, as people used to commonalities see something that did not grace the spot the same day before. 

Garnet was always finished working before sunrise. 

~ 

He returned to work at the law firm in a timely manner, halting his artwork in the meantime. Garnet Fox continued to take his time walking home from work, stopping to admire each piece of graffiti. Taking time to breathe after the work day, and smiling as he started noticing others stop their walks in admiration of the art upon the street. Each design imparting its own longing message to those who choose to pause in order to hear its message.