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 day of the event news about a
Japanese artist from the Tokyo
neighborhood of Shimokitazawa, made
headlines in the States. He 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 2 hour bus trips him
and his mother would make to Riga
in the summers, to visit the museums.
What a waste, he thought, all those
hours, 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.
