Prologue

The ninety or so minutes that my wife, Monica, and I spent in the fine art gallery of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas several years ago were destined to be defining moments.  I was completely awed and overwhelmed by the vast exhibits of talent displayed in the classic masterpieces, while simultaneously being reminded of the phrase that “art is in the interpretation” by other works.

Almost hidden away, was a moderate sized impressionist painting that depicted a crowd of people around a roulette table by the French artist Jean Baptiste Beraud.  I walked by it twice, then three times, and was not moved, nothing jumped at me to say, “This is a great work of art.”  I had seen Beraud prints available in some of the mall poster shops, they were interesting pieces of showing life in the streets of Paris, but there was nothing about them to help me understand why this particular piece was here, and why it was worth a king’s ransom.

The fourth time by it, I noticed a solitary figure near the right side of the painting, and looked closer.  It was a man sitting on a bench, head in hands, absolutely exuding the misery of having lost everything.  Intrigued, I looked closer at some of the other people in the work and discovered that all of them, I am guessing fifty to a hundred of them; all carried incredible emotion in their faces.  Some were happy, some sad.  There were people who were angry, others completely at peace.  I looked at face after face, and my most amazing discovery was that none of them was neutral.  None of them was simply adding a nose, eyes and mouth, some hair and a few clothes, to help fill in the background.

EVERY ONE OF THEM HAD A STORY!

The emotion in their faces told their stories.  Their presence at “The Casino at Monte Carlo” at this one fixed point in time was something serendipitous.  Every one of them had a life, hopes, and dreams before they entered this casino; and each of them would have a life, perhaps a changed one, when they left.  For many of them, like for me observing this instant, this was a defining moment.

I have been struggling with storylines and concepts, experiencing a dozen false starts, having a few successes, a few failures, but for the most point having a lot of stuff on the plate, that just was not going anywhere.  The Casino at Monte Carlo provided me an epiphany.  A single event, a single place, a single point in time became the driving focus.  There would be people whose lives would begin, people whose lives would change, and people whose lives would end; at this defining moment.

The place is the fictional town of Solace Creek, Colorado, which would exist somewhere in the Boulder, Denver area.  The event is yet to be determined.

Come with me on the journey!

 

Ron Lynch Chalice, January 2005.