Today's #flashfiction The Painter's Parrot

 “3 second rule!”

Alice, Alice In Wonderland* #quote

Today I went to a Celebration Of Life of my Grandpa Nolan who recently passed away. I will always remember that strong, kind smile of his.

The Painter's Parrot

          Painter Nathan kept his parrot Paul in the studio. He painted while playing music softly. The parrot sometimes copied the musings Nathan made to the bird or himself. Sometimes it emulated the music. A middle-aged man with a few crises here and there and many memories, Nathan certainly had plenty to muse about. His wife enjoyed the art he made. A hobby that managed to make a few dollars on the side was nice. She made him leave Paul in the studio because of how chatty the orange parrot was.

         But Paul paid attention to more of its world than just the noise and the musings. At first the sounds and feeding time was all it cared for. But eventually it figured out how to unlock its cage. It could never leave the studio since Nathan shut the door so the little kids didn't wander in a mess with wet paintings. The screen of the window kept the parrot from just flying out so he moved about the room.

         At one point the bird saw an open paint bottle. He dipped his claw into it and color covered his toe. That day Nathan left out a blank canvas. The bird flew over and wiped off a bit of the paint. It recognized the process it'd seen ever since it was a very, very young child. Painting the canvas. It felt compelled to do it. Paul the parrot saw his adoptive human father do it nearly every single day and the activity became gut instinct. The bird kept dipping its claw into the blue and marking the canvas. He flew to hit higher parts of the canvas.

        The resulting painting didn't follow a grand design. It came out of a pattern created from Paul's desire to figure out how to emulate his human father. Since the parrot could only use its toe it created a painting made of straight lines that ran upwards in steady, imperfect rows. Because he used blue paint an abstract waterfall emerged from the painting.

         Nathan then walked in and saw Paul put the last strokes on his painting. He said to the parrot, “I'll be damned.”

          Paul repeated back, “I'll be damned.”

          Nathan loved the painting, and certainly knew nobody would believe him. He left out more colors for his bird and allowed it to paint more. Nathan sold the bird's work as his own. The paintings turned out quite popular, and when Paul learned that he got bird treats if he made good paintings a new artist for the ages was born.