Jane Nash: Story ‘Whale song’
He held the V tool in his right hand pushing it away from his anchoring fingers through the rubber block. Slowly. He’d already drawn an outline of his whale for guidance but the details were waiting to come out of his hand and fingers. The silence of the room was punctuated by the rattle of his breathing. Medication keeping him alive and focused were responsible for the speed of his breathing. The rattle, leftover from a week of hay-fever, faded far out of his consciousness, leaving him only aware of the tiny grooves he was carving.
He was meticulous in his carving. It took him an hour to create the whale. He sat back, looking at the 15 x 9 cm carving. Rubber blocks were easier to carve and handle than Lino. He liked the process rather than final results. Finished products no longer belonged to him as they were ready for sale.
A movement on the desk caught his attention. The whale’s tail flicked out of the block. The blowhole spouted a tiny spurt of water. The sound of his loud breathing was eclipsed by the sounds of the ocean. Gull cries and the swish of waves entered his ears. A deep whine of whale call rang through his body leaving him breathless. As suddenly as it started, it stopped when he put his hands onto the rubber block.
Hand printing is a process of patience and accuracy creating something special, a limited edition, a ghost or unique print. All the while during this process, he couldn’t dismiss his supernatural experience. He stared at the black ink spread upon the perspex plate. He carved to add a waterspout coming from the whale on the block. He covered the block in ink. He laid the paper upon the block and using a baren he pressed the paper into the block. Each press brought with it once again, the sound of crashing waves.
He printed a limited edition of 10. He left them pegged to a line. That night he fell asleep to the sound of whale song.
The next morning was quiet. He shook himself to counter yesterday’s hallucination. First, a strong cup of sweet tea before he entered his studio. Every print was blank. The block had been inked. Prints had been pegged to dry but there was nothing to show. He stared hard at the carved block. He half expected the whale to tease him and move a fin, do anything but it didn’t move. He could no longer hear whale song in his mind. The pod he created had swum away in the night.
Deep breath sighing, he debated whether to reprint the whale or carve something different. There was clear evidence he’d printed the day before, that wasn’t an hallucination or was it?
He stared at the blank sheets. Convinced the whales had escaped his studio in the night, he settled down to another strong cup of strong tea and began to plan how his art could repopulate the oceans.
Jane Nash
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Publicada como J.L. Nash, é poeta e contista. Nascida em Stockton-on-Tees, Inglaterra (1969), obteve posteriormente a cidadania australiana, onde vive atualmente, casando-se com seu incrível marido logo depois, e seu cão pastor australiano (Blue Heeler). Apesar de ter nascido na Inglaterra, passou seus anos de formação entre a Zâmbia e a África do Sul. Foi professora por vinte anos e psicoterapeuta/hipnoterapeuta por dezenove. Também viveu nas Ilhas Marshall por cinco anos, onde se inspirou para escrever seus dois primeiros livros de poesia e se apaixonou perdidamente (casando-se com o autor). Apresentou trabalhos na Conferência do Dia Mundial dos Poetas, representando a Austrália duas vezes, e uma vez no Dia Mundial dos Escritores. Dedica-se à escrita e escreve diariamente. Publicou seus trabalhos em revistas e antologias ao longo dos últimos 25 anos, tendo publicado três livros de poesia individualmente, além de um livro de fotografia e contos em parceria. Seus hobbies incluem pintura em aquarela, estudo da comunicação não verbal com foco em linguística e tocar ukulele. Ela é uma grande leitora e atualmente está trabalhando em uma série de novelas policiais. Um livro de contos também está previsto para publicação em 2026.
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Art, in general, and literature, in particular, as a mega-catharsis, purifying and perfecting the human soul!
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