A dwarf in past life, but an artistic genius in this life

14

But there was nothing in Jeong-Hwan's painting.

To be precise, it was just a picture of an old wooden table against a pitch-black background.

“Professor, this is unfinished.”

“That’s not it!”

Professor Lee Hong-rim's abstract scolding.

Gu Cheol-woong flinched.

She slammed the stick on the floor and called all the teachers.

“Everyone, come closer.”

All the teachers stood in a row.

Professor Lee Hong-rim pointed to the picture with a stick as if starting a class.

“This painting is a finished work.”

"yes?"

“It’s unfinished? There’s not a single still life?”

Most of the teachers tilted their heads.

Their reaction was not much different from Gu Cheol-woong's.

Professor Lee Hong-rim couldn't hide his frustrated expression.

“Do you really think there are no still lifes painted? Come closer and look.”

Teachers including Cheol-woong approached the easel.

But no matter how much I looked, there was only an old table drawn on the paper, and no still life at all.

But then a young female teacher who had been looking at the painting for a while exclaimed, “Huh?”

"what's the matter?"

“There is a mark.”

"mark?"

The female teacher pointed to the table with her hand.

“Look closely at the pattern of dust accumulated on the table here. Doesn’t it look like the floor marks of the still lifes presented on the test?”

“Huh? Wait a minute!”

The other teachers also opened their eyes wide.

As she said, the traces of the still life remained intact on the dusty table.

'Oh my goodness. She drew each speck of dust with the tip of a sharp pencil. As delicately as if she was caressing a baby's cheek... '

Gu Cheol-woong felt like he couldn't breathe.

Could I really make such a delicate touch, and do so during an exam?

One teacher raised his hand and asked.

“I only drew traces of the still life that was on this table. In other words, is it an expression of the time that brings death?”

"bingo."

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Professor Lee Hong-rim spread out Jeong-hwan's essay answer sheet.

There was only one short sentence written there.

[Death is time.]
“It means that everything is just a handful of dust in front of the passing time. Moreover, since I did not draw even one still life, death feels like ‘nothingness.’”

“Professor, isn’t the work that applied vanitas in a similar context?

“That student did not seriously contemplate death. He simply borrowed past thoughts and expressions about death through Vanitas. On the contrary, this student projected his own thoughts about death from beginning to end and expressed them in his own way.”