Window Into His Soul (Short Story) To Accompany My | Fractal Art Project

The sun rises. It greets Paul. It already promises sweltering heat. The moisture begins to bead up on Paul's forehead even though the coolness of the morning air breezes by. He rears his head back as he stretches from the cramped position.

Lyrics that begin each day seek him out. They detail a city come to life after a night's slumber. Cries, laughter, singing, coughing, and finally clinking and clanking of garbage receptacle covers raised, then replaced hurriedly.

No evidence of the day's sustenance can be located.

On rotten garbage swirls bringing its unique aroma. Like a boomerang, it returns to his nostrils as grimy, smelly oil mixed with human filth and decay.

The lyrics return to his ears as jumbled cries of inhumanity on its worse sunrise.

He shivers. Noticing his fingers stiff from the tattered pockets, he reaches under the hoodie and wraps them around his chest.

Suddenly, Paul jumps at the sound nearby. The bell announces the arrival of the food truck ole' man Gentry sends. He pays his son to run through the alleys of BlackDrop. In it, our savior for this day.

Young Robert won't give any guarantees for tomorrow.

"Just the day's leftover rations from the side cafes," he'll say, tossing the remainder on the sidewalk. He doesn't have enough scraps to accommodate everyone.

Paul and others scramble toward the truck, ready to consume with their hands the tasty morsels.

He then glances furtively across the street. Those side cafes offer the best food. He doesn't know this for a fact. He listens when people talk as they lumber down the sidewalk. His guess is that the food must be good for the prices they demand printed on the windows.

His heart aches as thoughts of being prevented from entering rises up to greet his tears. He wouldn't know how the inside looks. He is afraid.

Traffic flows to and from the cafes steadily each day. So he feels that whatever else they serve must be tasty also.

Paul returns his attention to the food truck. This place he is allowed to get closer. Young Robert doesn't mind. He's a kind fellow with a wide smile whenever he catches a glimpse of him.

He thinks that perhaps Robert views him as a brother. Someone to take care of. Times when he thinks of this, his own family enters his thoughts.

Others like him are stirring and move toward the food truck. Whoever arrives first receives access to the best scraps.

Paul already placed the small handful in his pocket. He'll need it later in the night.

The sky suddenly clouds and drops fall around his ankles. He can feel his toes. through the worn shoes.

He retreats and props himself against the granite wall. He's done so to allow the elders room. They move slowly. If the police patrol visits tonight with their sticks and poke, they may find some of them unresponsive.

However, he can't afford thoughts like this several nights straight. If poked, he feels that he may not respond.

The next morning, he witnesses workers stirring. Scaffolds busily hold them as they clean dirt from the windows of the tall buildings. Paul occasionally glances upward. He studies those braves men through the eyes of a child with what he sees is a dangerous way to earn money.

Paul then looks down. He sees numerous people enter, then leave the building where the windows provide them a view to the outside world.

But he wonders whether the workers see the world outside as it truly is.

He also wonders whether clean windows allow those in the offices a chance to truly see him. His hope and dream if given a chance.

For he believes that, behind those windows, people working with a job have the resources to help change his life.

He wonders why they have not done so. Do they see the window into his soul?

For those same workers take time out for lunch, ride the elevators and escalators down. They walk out onto the street where Paul lives. And they pass him by as though he is invisible.

As they pass by, talk of things foreign to him lingers and take hold. He doesn't understand, but he remembers.

A beautiful white dress casts a blinding glow of sparkles that overtake his senses. For a moment, he forget his plight. He imagines a grand lady dancing at a party.

In a flash, she disappears, walking hurriedly away. Perhaps she doesn't want to dirty her dress.

The other passersby look away as the walk by. Some are busy eating, drinking, and laughing.

Night falls on his not-so-busy day.

I wish someone would take me to a party, he wishes with all his heart as he remembers the lady with the white dress.

He settles in for the night. Wrapping his blanket around his ankles, he realizes that, I belong to no one.

Then again, I belong to everyone.

Because, he thinks, even though my name is Paul, it can be any one of millions of names people do not bother to know.

Why? If they did, they would have to look past the window into my and their souls.

My current fractal and generative art project focuses on the social issue of poverty and homelessness. My inspiration was an image I discovered from a free site that depicts a young boy in granite. It's a compelling image. The empty eyes spoke to me of inexplicable pain and suffering.

^Source

My next inspiration was my pure fractals I created utilizing Apophysis 2X, the fractal rendering program. Once I designed the fractal, I decided to render it on a transparent background. This would allow me to blend it with other type art. For my current project, I feel it worked well on the window.

With the two pure fractal art images and a short story in mind, I now required a suitable window. I wanted an unusual image to represent the panes in the window. The panes would represent the thousands of individuals who work in office building each day high above the streets where poverty dwells. I feel the Wombo Art program I used to create the window did my vision justice. Below are my steps:

Text input:
"Washing windows in a skyscraper."

Result:

Utilizing Canva, I was able to blend my pure fractals and the Wombo art. First, I opened up a blank canvas then uploaded my fractals and the Wombo art window image. With my upgraded Annual Pro Membership Subscription, I have available pro tools such as background removal. The image of the boy I added first. I then flipped the image so that it appears he is lying down.

Next, I added the window to the left side of my canvas. I see that I will need to fill in the black spaces in my scene.

I decided to fill in the concrete portion of the free image. This took care of the background. It appears that the boy is lying down on the concrete.

Third, I duplicated the window and sized it to fill in the left side of my scene.

Final step was to add the disc ball and ? fractals to complete my scene. I wanted to keep the concrete clean to only focus would be on the young boy's face and the window and window washer.

This is the final version:

Thanks for taking the time to view my post. I hope you like my fractal and generative art project.