Whispers of a Star-Filled Cave

Whispers of a Star-Filled Cave

Ink Wash on Seaweed paper

c. 1619

By the age of 6, Fluvio had begun to believe that his illusory visions were far more important than the ability of his eyes to see in a realistic manner. While at the beach one day, he witnessed Wise van het Hol being pulled away from shore in the jaws of an angry whale. Fluvio would later say, "watching my friend Wise thrash and scream in the surf while dozens of beach goers paid no mind was the singular defining trauma of my childhood." The fact that Wise was wholly imaginary only served to sever whatever remained of Fluvio's attachment to the masses. "It was the sudden realization that they are not entitled to such greatness." When Wise reappeared the next day seemingly no worse for wear, it concreted in Fluvio's mind the superiority of the illusory world over mundane reality. "No one in the real world could have survived the sea-borne viciousness in that angry whale's eye", Fluvio would reminisce. "Whispers of a Star-Filled Cave was one of the images that flowed out of me when I realized all things are possible in a world of my own making".