Original Oil Painting on Canvas

Framed

By Helen Norton

76 x 92 cm

1999 Second Test

“ In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.  It kills the very brave and the very good and the very gentle indiscriminately.  If you are none of these, it will kill you too.  But there will be no special hurry.” – Ernest Hemingway

“I have no desire to do anything.  I am afraid of nothing, I wait like a psychopath in a game of dodge-ball breathing quickly while the fools decide which one will throw at me next, and jumping aside for no reason except that I like being in the middle.  And there is really no reason for being in the middle.  Why not quit altogether and lie down outside the circle?  I have no idea what to say, I don’t know when I’ll see you again and I don’t believe in anything beyond the next ten minutes.  People keep telling me what a great friend I am.  Everybody is looking for someone who can stand up in the wind.  It is lonely standing up and crowded lying down.  I refuse to be an anchor for the other people’s dreams – but then I refuse to anchor mine to anyone else.  So I have no choice but to stand up and piss into the wind.  Pardon my vulgarity. – Hunter S. Thompson, quoting Hemmingway to a friend ( in his book of letters).