The Science in Loving Art

What exactly does the patron want? There is nothing he can do until they meet. He prepares for the meeting in the evening, suddenly jolted into activity. He starts reading the book his friend now wants back, steadily gnawing on pieces of fruit as a snack. He returns his friend's call, only to get an answering machine, and leaves a message, sounding as cheerily matter-of-fact as he can about the fact that he has been quiet because of "stuff going on at home." At the last minute, he chickens out and cannot quite say out loud that L. has left him. He spends some time preparing himself to sound witty and informed on the topic of "creation." Mostly, he hopes to wing this part of the conversation, but does make a token search on the web to back up his trenchant commentary. Unfortunately, all he comes across are a series of sites rabidly screeching about the godlessness of evolutionary theory. Should he suggest that he draw an idealized portrait, or sculpt a bust of Darwin for the work? You know, a sweeping statement of irony, nudge, nudge, wink, wink? Or should he construct a collage out of pages of the Bible and arrange the text in such a way that it spells out "evolution"? Such cleverness would be greatly appreciated. The man smiles his relief. He is already prepared, yanking open a drawer. "I do a lot of hand-painting of cards, you see." B. already knows what he is about to see. The man says, "I'm very fond of birds; I take my inspiration from birds in flight. Here's one in a series that she really likes..." "How rude of me--would you want something to drink?" The man is obviously enthusiastic about his art. And with a pang of jealousy, B. realizes that he is good at it too; his passion is evident in his images. "I really appreciate the time you're taking to look at it, and I did want to also make it worth your while, which is why I would love it if you could paint something for me. So she gave me the number of your dealer, and I thought that would be a great way to get you to come over to see if you could excuse my ulterior motives. I thought creation would be a good theme to inspire me." The man's chattiness is almost endearing, but B. is mildly thankful that he has disappeared into the kitchen to fix drinks. B. stares at the image that he knows from almost two weeks ago now. His head is reeling as he tries to make sense of the details.