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Write a story about an artist whose work has magical properties.

Posted in Fantasy on Feb 23, 2024

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✍️ 93 stories

The Painter's Carnage.

Submitted to Contest #239

In a town shrouded in the mists of time, where legends and realities intertwine like threads in the tapestry of magic and mystery, there lived a painter who was a conqueror of the arcane arts, a wielder of dark magic that held sway over life and death. My name is Eldric Kirigan, and I am the master of this cursed brush. When I was a child, I discovered a hidden chamber in the deep forest of Eternark, a treasure trove of forgotten paintings waiting to be rediscovered. Each canvas seemed to whisper secrets to me, promising untold power if on...

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Just A Sculpture

Submitted to Contest #239

He has been accused of playing God. He disagrees. The beings he makes are more perfect than any human could be.  Ambrose also receives many questions. Do they have a soul? Do they really think the way we do? Are their wants and desires and feelings real? Are they real? His response is always the same. “How do you know we have a soul? How do you know we are real?”  Ambrose also knows that it really doesn’t matter to them, these questions they pretend to be concerned about. Their fake furrowed eyebrows and acted-out wrung hands. T...

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Till we meet again

Submitted to Contest #239

“So, Roger, tell us more about yourself.” The music director asked. His needle-gaze fixated on Roger’s eyes without moving a muscle, almost like a statue. Roger began tapping his index finger against his thigh. Small droplets of sweat gathered in his front and upper-lip, as he fetched for some answer to the interviewer’s question. But that type of question - how is one supposed to answer? “I am a father of two children... well, one child actually,” Roger corrected himself. “So, is it one or two children?” “I..., I, I only have one child, ...

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the Unusual Vase

Submitted to Contest #239

The Unusual VaseMatt awoke with a start to the banging on the door of his Airstream.  He never had visitors at 6:00 in the morning.  Heck—he never had visitors and that was planned.  His Airstream was parked behind his small cabin/studio.  Yet someone was here and by the loud and incessant knocking, they were anxious to see him.            He yelled, “Hold on to your britches, I’ll be there in a minute.”  He hastily pulled on his pan...

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Distortions

Submitted to Contest #239

When he asks to paint me, I readily agree—not out of vanity, or desire to be immortalized, but out of curiosity for him. I know how art is made, how the shape of the artist can be found like a shadow across the canvas. One can trace the outline, step behind their eyes, and see what they see for a brief, still moment captured in oil on canvas. Like a crystal lens, the artist is the focusing point of any piece, the fulcrum of reality and surreality. I settle on the chair in his studio, wondering how I should sit. What reality will I have him...

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Lola-Beans Magic Potions

Submitted to Contest #239

Lola-Bean was all packed with new summer clothes in her Ballerina Backpack. She was going on a magical vacation to Florida, to the beach with Gramma. She had packed two new floral bathing suits Mommy had bought at the store and her pair of water shoes to walk the beach. This was her first time traveling on a plane with Gramma and she was very excited to share this adventure. Gramma had told her of the wonders she would find on the beach. Strange creatures with names like starfish, something called a jelly fish and crazy enough, a sea crea...

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All You Have to Do is Ask

Submitted to Contest #239

She had always known there was something special about the way she crocheted. Scotland loved the way it felt, even as a young girl. Metal hooks, balls of yarn, the soft mulling of tea on a nearby table, she still can remember the way it felt to have her grandmother show her how to craft the first loop. Worn hands, aged curtains, the moth balls in the back of upstairs closets, Scotland had spent a lot of time with her grandmother. Always draped with some silver and dried flowers, her grandmother had a house out in the country where ...

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Behind the Scenes

Submitted to Contest #239

Franz cannot repress a smirk of anticipation. He knows what is going to happen. They don't. All is black, shrouded in a silence so thick it strangles sound. Blind, deaf and mute. Franz lifts his hands. Three… two… one… Light! Noisy light. The night skies ignite. Fire rains on the city. It is as if the stars themselves are crashing down, it is not merely the death of men, it is the death of the cosmos itself. He peers around him, delighting in the transfixed expressions, gleaming tears streaking down their cheeks. This is Oscar fo...

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Brush With Life

Submitted to Contest #239

(Content Warning for grief about the death of a pet.) It was a few days after my dog died that I learned I could create life. Samson was a good boy, and losing him hit me hard. I took the day off work and buried him in the backyard. Once I had the last bit of soil stamped back down, I went inside, cleaned up, and eventually found my way to my studio in the garage. The easel already waited for me, a fresh canvas set up weeks ago that I hadn’t the time to touch until now. I painted a portrait of Samson, letting every emotion, both good and...

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The Magic Scissors

Submitted to Contest #239

The Magic Scissors by Ellen M. Shapiro In the Jewish year 5105, everything in Spain was upside down. People put their clothes on inside out. They wore hats on their feet and shoes on their heads. It was sticky hot in February and freezing cold in June. The cabbages grew big and round under the earth and the carrots grew long and fat facing the sky. One very, very cold night that June, a rabbi named Shem Tov ben Yitzak was getting ready to write a few words of Torah on parchment. He did that every week so he could remember what to sa...

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The thief known as ‘Emulsion’

Submitted to Contest #239

Kath awoke at the crack of a noise, her heart pounding as she heard the loud thud. She had only been asleep for short while, but it was enough to put her in a deep sleep. Disoriented and still half-asleep, she stumbled over her own discarded shoes before regaining her balance and hurrying to investigate the source of the disturbance. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she gasped in horror as realisation dawned on her - her beloved pink mobile phone was missing from its usual spot on her nightstand. Someone had broken into her bedroom an...

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My Varari

Submitted to Contest #239

Tale-essence “My Varari” School. The 5th grade.  Into the classroom walks as if flies the teacher of sexuality of a human being from the planet Earth - Julia Volodymyrivna by name, Ukrainian beauty by nationality. Her breasts cup D, her hair flies into all of the directions possible on the planet, her words are lost on paths unknown, her gaze is wandering around in the depths of own subconscious. At the very last desk, hidden from everyone, sits a girl: tall, thin, her legs longest among the longest, huge eyes - hugest among the...

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Cheap Fiction

Submitted to Contest #239

trigger warning: depictions of sex, murder, and self harmI didn’t want to kill anyone this time around. I almost did a couple of days ago, while shopping for gummy worms and paper towels. I overheard a toddler screaming furiously when he and his mother passed by the candy aisle without stopping. I listened as the mother tried to bargain with the kid for several minutes before giving up and letting his tantrum carry on. That’s when I opened the journal I took everywhere with me, and wrote:The mother tried to ignore her toddler’s tyrannical cr...

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The Auspicious Adventures of Dr. Winthrop P. Alexander

Submitted to Contest #239

Dr. Winthrop P. Alexander (also known as “The Professor” by his students and colleagues) stared in disbelief at the notes on the table before him. As a renown (well, formerly renown) naturalist specializing in the study of camouflage this was a most remarkable discovery. He flipped through the pages again, just to be sure. It was, indeed, remarkable.    He pursed his lips, frowned and pursed his lips again, turning his fluffy mustache into a wiggly caterpillar. As of late, few colleagues took his discoveries seriously. In fac...

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Snow Moon

Submitted to Contest #239

The February full moon is known as the Snow Moon, a celestial event that lights up winter skies. As the Earth tilts towards the sun, this lunar phase marks a time transition, offering a chance to embrace renewal and prepare for the promises of spring. In its path what we know as reality shifts allowing moon drops resembling snow to flutter down into hearts to give new beginnings. For those alone with a tiny speck of hope the Snow Moon fills them up remaking who they are, from the inside out. Twenty-five year old Margaret Montgomery didn’t be...

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