The Artist

A brilliant artist, by the name of Mikus Austrums, painted the Last Supper on a single grain of rice. One art critic in his native Latvia, said it brought him to tears, as the lens of the microscope came into focus, and he gazed upon the tiny Lord Jesus.

At the invitation of a renowned New York City gallery, he was flown first class and landed to much fanfare with a briefcase full of hundreds of beautiful works of art.

His first rice painting on American soil was an homage to great American monuments. He painted the Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, and the Lincoln Memorial, all on a single grain of rice, it was his greatest accomplishment to date. 

An official unveiling of the painting was set for the coming Saturday, in conjunction with a fundraiser for The Greater U.S. Latvian Arts League.

On the morning of the event news about a Japanese artist from the Tokyo neighborhood of Shimokitazawa, made headlines in the States. The young man had just completed a rice painting which included the Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, the Lincoln Memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Staring out the window, Mikus recalled the two hour bus trips he and his mother would make to Riga in the summers, to visit the museums. What a waste, he thought, all that time, all that art wasted on a fool like me.

When the assistant curator for the gallery entered the rental apartment, to pick up Mikus Austrums for the show, he witnessed the distraught artist swallowing a final spoonful of rice.

This is truth, when others call you artist, it is nothing, it means zero, but when you say you are artist, this is when your life is finished, there is no rescue from such a foolish thing. I want to go home please, now sir. I would like my final art to be made tomorrow morning in the bathroom of my home in Talsi.