Binge Painter

by Gloria Garfunkel

One week until the exhibition and only half the paintings were done. This is how Axel worked best, with a gun to his head. He existed on coffee, only the darkest beans for inspiration, listening to his favorite jazz round the clock, sweeping those brushes and colors and his body in rhythm like a dancer leaving traces of his grace on the canvases so that, by the day of the exhibit, with the paint still drying, the paintings were done. All the paintings sold. A genius! Then he went home and crawled into bed and didn't lift a brush for another six months.

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Gloria Garfunkel is a writer and psychologist.