"We live in a mean world Adrian, so we have to prepare for it. Some choose to use guns, others like us choose art to make an idea become powerful. The idea is passed on from generation to generation, thus it becomes eternal. Who starts it to begin with, no one knows, the truth is it belongs to anyone who wants to embrace it, " said Ms. Wu.
"That's so deep, where did you learn that?" I asked softly.
"My father taught me that, you don't get that kind of education at school, but you can always apply it anywhere."
"So I see."
All these distant memories from my dreams came like a savage tide and collided in my head. I warped back to when I saw myself as a monster full of splendor; a creature that attracted all sorts of vermin. Now I knew that all these years I didn't mean to bring in the wrong kind of people but I was just trying to define myself. That's what Janie meant when she said she wasn't vermin; I could clearly see she was someone different. Then something inside of me snapped and I brought her to see another work I had done, Rabbit Monster. I explained the whole series of events that pushed me to do it; it looked very dramatic and childish at the same time.
"Be careful, you don't others to misinterpret this one," said Janie with a rather unusual expression. This reminded me of a famous quote from a movie:
"I kind of like this one, Bob. Leave it."
That's what the Joker said when he saw Figure with Meat from Francis Bacon.
Like I was told by my crazy art teacher, you paint something you empower it, and I never liked to empower the people I despised.
"Back where I come from we empower things too, but they sell. And I can see that this has potential, it will catch on soon, don't you agree?" asked Janie to another friend of hers named simply M. And then he replied, "Kawaii!", a Japanese term that stands for pretty, but in their own terms it's meant to enhance cuteness. I am not cute; but I am pretty, I could live with that.
"Have you ever seen how a comic book or manga get done?" said Janie.
"I´m familiar, a little bit," I answered politely, but no, I had no clue.
She walked up to a neatly stretched canvas they had just prepared this morning. She treated it as a piece of drawing paper and began to have just plain fun with it.
"You see, most of the time it´s a collaborative work. Someone is in charge of drawing with pencil, and then another person puts some ink on it, while others make the story. So you see, at the end of the day, they take an idea and improve it. The spectator likes that idea and buys it, but they seldom stop to think who did it. Thus, that´s what we do; we are one and we are strong. We call ourselves Shojo One."
Janie opened up my hand and put a rather pointy bamboo brush called sumi, "now please continue, usagi," she said as she smiled openly highlighting her thinly drawn eyes. By the way usagi means "rabbit". "But I must warn you, I´m a very messy person."
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