Why can’t something just be ugly?
But it can, I replied.
She looked at me. Puzzled.
It just needs to be cinematically ugly.
Which is to say
It must still be beautiful.
Still puzzled.
So I expanded.
I am a member of the Art Department
We create the world
Which characters inhabit
A made-up world
An artistic world
Which arrests the eye
Captures imagination
Engages fantasy
Even an ugly world must be both
Thrilling and disturbing
Repugnant and enthralling
Darkness and light
You may never want
To live in that world
But you must want
To be in it from beginning to end
There can be nothing mundane
Unless it is extraordinarily mundane
Chaos must have order
Random, only by intention
And ugly must be cinematically ugly
Ugly must still be beautiful
If only in its tragic perfection
Love it or hate it
You must still want
To look at it
She nodded.
So, then… Little Mermaid or Blade Runner?
Ahh! I laughed, with no small relief.
Let us go with cinematically ugly.
Right. Blade Runner it is.
Britannia Beach
British Columbia, Canada
2016
Pix to Words 