Skip to main content

The Shortest Story...an unfinished epic in the making. Inspired by the Harry Chapin Song

The Shortest Story - 20 Days Unfinished artwork by TET
'The Shortest Story: 20 days' is a painting I've been 'working' on for over a year. 

It's based upon the Harry Chapin song of the same name which tells the story of a child born into extreme poverty.

It is a very sad story and probably my least favourite Harry Chapin song. However, my partner likes the song and thought I should create an artwork based upon it. 

So, towards the end of January 2005 I began work on, what was intended to be a Valentine's Day gift (Feb 14, 2005). 

Two Valentine's Days and over a year later, this is where it is at - just over half finished. It's a difficult artwork to get excited about even though I'm happy with how it looks so far. 

Obviously I haven't actually been working on it every day. For the most part it's sat in my studio, neglected for the larger part of 2005. 

Early February 2006 I managed to progress it to this stage after about a days work but haven't touched it since. 

Maybe the song is just too depressing or maybe the image contains too much fine detail that I'm reluctant to tackle? If I really set my mind to it I could finish it in a couple of days. 

Whatever happens I thought I'd show it to you. Maybe a few words of encouragement might be in order...

[2021-Jun-7 update: Sadly this painting still remains unfinished, progressing no further than you see here. Having not used chalk pastels in years I'm not even sure I'd have the skill level to finish it now. - TET]
TET Life Topics:

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 15, 2006 9:21 PM

    Get that painting finished! Although, it looks finished to me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. TET (David Arandle)May 25, 2006 2:13 PM

    If you click on the image you'll see a larger version that is missing a lot of detail. I still haven't done anything more on this. It's hard because it's quite a depressing image based on a song I don't really like.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices.  My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe?  Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...
3 comments
Continue Reading »

Movie Review: Captain America: Brave New World (2025) *No Spoilers*

I  decided not see Captain America: Brave New World in a cinema because everything I heard about the film pointed to a disjointed mess, from testing poorly, to whole characters being added in during reshoots. The trailers looked okay but, since they featured Red Hulk, quite a bit, it felt like there wasn't much left as a drawcard for seeing the film in a cinema. Having now seen the film on Disney+ I feel it was a good decision. While the big budget effects no doubt would've looked better on a big screen, the story wasn't particularly complex or intriguing enough to make the film stand out. If anything, it's a straight forward action movie with a hero who is just kind of... there. The story revolves around a plot to kill the newly elected US President, former General Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford). Captain America (Anthony Mackie) must find who is the real mastermind in order to clear his friend and the original Super Solider, Isaiah Bradley's (Carl Lumbly), name. I...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

TV Series Review: Humans (2015-2018, 3 Seasons) *No Spoilers*

Colin Morgan, Katherine Parkinson, Ivanno Jeremiah, Gemma Chan, and Emily Berrington in Humans (2015) W hile it may seem late to be reviewing Humans now, nearly seven years after the show wrapped, the only thing that's really aged about it is the opening titles... and even then, not that much. I think I caught the first season on Netflix back in 2015, and then kind of dropped off waiting for a new season to appear. As of writing this, all three seasons are on Amazon Prime. Humans is set in a parallel world that looks much like ours except humanoid robot helpers, that look just like real humans, called 'Synths', are now common place. Season one begins at the point where the first synths go from being subservient machines to gaining consciousness, and explores not only how humanity reacts to that but how the synths react to humanity's perceptions as well. Initially it follows a group of OG synths, already given consciousness by their creator, and just trying to survive i...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...
2 comments
Continue Reading »

Resident Dragon: Checking In with My Daily Gag Cartoon/Comic About a Fire Dragon Living in the Suburbs

A t the beginning of the year I introduced you to my latest cartoon/comic series, Resident Dragon (because a dragon's got to live somewhere).  A daily - well, week-day-ly - gag cartoon about Red the Fire Dragon, living in a shared house in the suburbs, with his human friend, TET and his two pets, Grrr Dog and Cool Froyd the cat. Back then I had about 100 cartoons sketched out, with eleven completely digitally inked and coloured.  As of writing this, I haven't yet skipped a day of my schedule, and am seven toons short of an even 200 sketched out, with 31 fully inked and coloured. Actually, it's 33 but I only publish one full colour toon each week, so I have two in the wings. I'm not planning on doing daily toons forever. My goal is to hit 366 so I have enough to fill a daily desk calendar, should I decide to sell one. Currently you can buy individual prints of my finished toons in my Resident Dragon Store . When I have enough finished toons I will be compiling them into...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) *No Spoilers*

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite  A Complete Unknown  being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar.  From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »

TV Series Review: Star Wars: Andor - Season 2 (2025, Disney+) *No Spoilers*

D isney+'s Star Wars: Andor  the first season is widely regarded as some of the best Star Wars since the original trilogy, and I don't disagree in my  Andor Season 1  review. Despite that, it does have its problems, mainly a lot of space between action pieces. That's not to say nothing is happening in those spaces, but I do remember being frustrated how long season one took to get to a promised heist scene, going from conversation to conversation over several episodes. However, when Andor does have action, it usually delivers, with action that serves the story rather than action because 'it's time for some action now'. Unfortunately that gave Andor the reputation for being Star Wars 'for grown ups'. People who understand how tension and intrigue can come just as much from character interaction, who is talking to who, and what they're saying. That lead to low viewership and the show's proposed number of seasons being reduced to just two (I believe...
Post a Comment
Continue Reading »