Stollen Pallor—An Introduction

Painting is often considered among the most serious of the arts, conjuring images of austere old masters, probing still lifes, noble portraits. But sometimes you notice painters winking at you. Maybe this is a 20th century postmodern trait, an Andy Warhol sensibility that acknowledges commercialism, pretension, and disposability.

A conspicuous example is Banksy's notorious painting Girl with Balloon, which proceeded to self-destruct the moment it was auctioned off at Sothebys back in 2018. I was thinking a lot about that moment when my frequent collaborator, Josh Viola, and I took a long late night walk to hash out plans for a short novel. We both liked the idea of a particularly sinister version of Banksy, an artist who doesn't mind killing people for the sake of artistic vision and who is also willing to play a very long game when it comes to seeing a work to completion.

I'm hoping this book occupies both the seriousness of art and the wink-wink, tongue-in-cheek aspect at play in its inspiration. An early reviewer said it was like David Fincher and Clive Barker conceiving a baby. That's thrilling praise, but perhaps in this case what Josh and I were going for was the lovechild of Francisco Goya and Warhol with James Ensor as the midwife.

Hope you enjoy the novella, and feel free to comment one way or the other.