Chereads / Relics, Trinkets and More / Chapter 3 - Chapter 2: Paintbrush

Chapter 3 - Chapter 2: Paintbrush

What I have today for you is a paintbrush, this is a piece of history that not many in the world it is from truly know of. The story that surrounds it has either been changed for several reasons, mainly as propaganda.

It was during this time that a dictatorship loomed across the country, the rich were pillaged and murdered, the poor became slaves and the intellectuals were sent to concentration camps, awaiting an unfair trial so as to be murdered.

One of these intellectuals was an artist, his name cannot be easily translated such that I can speak it and for you to understand so….. let's call him Lernie. Lernie was an artist, a renaissance man that desired to spread his art and knew nothing would stop him. During the creation of one of his many art pieces, he was captured by the police that was under the dictator's direct commands. He was brought to a prison, beaten and starved. It was hell on earth and the question of "Why?" echoed through the chambers and corridors of this prison. Unfortunately, this broke Lernie, the only feelings he could feel were pain, isolation and hunger, but most importantly, he could not draw.

Eventually, when he could not scream due to his broken throat when he could not see due to his gouged out eyes all he could think of was the half-drawn painting. As such, he wanted to finish this drawing that was in his memory. But first, he needed to make a paintbrush. This paintbrush has an interesting structure, made from the hair of its user, tied down to a short, uneven stick with torn-up fabric. He would bite down on the underside of his wrist and took the flowing blood to draw on the walls. Despite being blind, beaten and in deathly shape, he stood up and drew. He wanted to finish what he started and drew and when he finished, he wailed and cried one last time even though his throat gave out. Dying in a pool of his own blood.

I understand that there are many details I have left out in this short sharing, like what was the painting about, or... well that's the only question you would have, won't you?

Well, I assure you it wasn't anything too interesting, you must understand that he was blind, broken and hungry. He made this paintbrush, bit his wrist, dabbled on the wall and died in his hysterical episode of "epiphany". He died doing what he loved and I think that was a good thing. The bad part was how the entire thing was leaked to a rebellion group, which used him as a propaganda tool to get people to know that the dictator was torturing the mentally impaired. Sad but that's how stories go, I'll be sure to cheer you, viewers, up with the next relic.