Lost - Illustrations

The illustrations for the story Lost were created by Krista Kelley Walsh.

In the story, Claire is followed, and eventually attacked by a crow.  Krista created this wonderful illustration incorporating a bike, the menacing crow and a missing bridge.

Krista Kelley Walsh is a multidisciplinary artist and art activist whose projects use simple materials, responsive collaboration and audience interaction. Collaboration with other artists and with her audience is essential in her practice. Her aim is to remove any barriers that prevent art from being a part of our everyday life.

She has a 40 year history of arts activism and teaching in the Twin Cites. Currently she is teaching privately and is on the adjunct faculty in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota.

Her collaborative projects include: “LandMARK: 24 hours at the Stone Arch Bridge” Mpls, with Local Strategy multidisciplinary collective, “Limo” and “ Bird Eye Blue Print” NYC, with Lisa D’Amour, Katie Pearl and Emily Johnson. “Windmills and Mirrors” first as an installation collaboration with students at St. Cloud State University then remounted as a performance for Naked Stages, Intermedia Arts, Mpls.

Krista’s recent projects include an interactive installation commissioned by the Science Museum of Minnesota, “Gratitude Guerilla Action… because there is so much to be grateful for” a Public art action and Public Eye Action, a series of web based performance events.

Krista has been a recipient of Blacklock Residency Fellowship, MN State Arts Board Grant, Intermedia Arts Installation Fellowship, Intermedia Arts Naked Stages Performance Fellowship and Science Museum of Minnesota Artist Residency. Most recently a 2008 Forecast Public Art grant and 2009 Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship.

Lost will be published this Friday, February 22, 2013 at The Book of Bartholomew.

Lost - Story

Yes, Lost is one of my favorite T.V. shows, but this is wholly different.  In this story, Claire gets lost on her way home from a New Years Eve party.  She is biking and can't find a bridge across the river to get to her parent's house, where she lives.  She is joined by a crow, who is menacing.  Claire converses with the crow, sort of, and the crow taunts her and says things that seem mean - but also true.

Lost is a story about how our lives are continually being destroyed by our own growth.  We can never live the life we lived last year because we are not the same person.  We can never find our future if we are clinging to the past.  Claire is at that point in her life wherein she needs to do what will help her grow into her own person, but does not recognize it.

Riding down Third Avenue, she passed the last tall building and came to the river.

“Wha…?” Claire breathed as she looked up and down the river for her bridge. She did not see one. All she saw was darkness and a crow sitting on a street sign staring at her – head cocked looking out of one eye.

“Oh, shoo,” Claire said.

The crow did not shoo. Instead it spoke, “Where’s your bridge, little girl?”

“My bridge is right here. At least it should be. I’m not imagining things. I know its here.”

“Where? Kaaa,” said the crow. “Surely a whole bridge can’t move.”

“Maybe it is just around the bend of the river,” Claire theorized as she headed west down the road that ran along the river. The crow flapped its wings and vanished into the blackness.

Claire rode past many buildings and through several intersections. She turned the bend in the river and still did not see her bridge – or any bridge.

“This is crazy. How can people cross the river?” asked Claire.

“Maybe they can’t,” said the crow as it landed on the ground next to a box of Donkey Fries lying along the curb. “Maybe they aren’t supposed to.”

“People have to be able to get across the river,” said Claire. “There’s got to be a bridge somewhere. Where could they have gone, there used to be at least three of them?”

The crow picked up one fry with its mouth, tossed it around and then spit it out. “This doesn’t belong here, either,” said the crow.

Claire thought that she saw something back where she had been and biked east along the river. As her legs felt the ache of an incline, she thought about the first time she met Ned at Gerald’s house just a couple weeks earlier. She thought about how she liked his dreds, the manner in which he spoke and how he seemed to be nervous around her. She remembered how excited she was when they parted and he said he looked forward to seeing her at Topping’s party.

Claire passed many buildings and biked beyond her original point, yet no bridge was in sight. How could this be? She couldn’t even call her mom to come pick her up if there were no bridges. How would she get back to her parent’s house? In a little while they would start to worry about their little girl.

Asking someone for directions would be a good idea, thought Claire, but there was no one in sight.

“You could ask me, kaaa,” squawked a black shape perched on a bus bench.

“Oh, go away. What do you know, dumb bird,” said Claire to the crow.

“Dumb?! Me?! I’m not lost. I haven’t lost a whole big stone bridge,” replied the crow. “I can see what’s right in front of me.”

“This makes no sense!” Claire said, and worry began to creep into her voice.

“Makes perfect sense,” said the crow. “Can’t find what you don’t need. Kaaa. Not supposed to be on that side of the river. Don’t need to go there.”

Lost will be published on February 22, 2013 at bookofbartholomew.blogspot.com.