Boy With Fossil

Boy With Fossil, oil on panel, 24"x 48", Steven Rhude, private collection

Probably the largest jigsaw puzzle he could think of. At least it looked that way from a distance. Two families with heads bowed solemnly, like an Edvard Munch image - treading along a stretch of coast line called Blue Beach. They walked like this, apparently not because of some serious ritual, or to check their footing, but to scan the stones, for that important piece of the puzzle. Hopefully one containing a mystery millions of years old.

'Check it out.'

 It was a micro chip, in the truest sense. A innocuous piece of slate derived from larger pieces, and larger stones, and a large land mass, and an even larger coastline - and of course the big blue sea. Embedded in the stone a blackish impression. Reminiscent of flakes of material he once put in some paper he made years ago. Like a mold, it was safely secured by the stone's solidity.

 He asked the boy what it was he had found, but the boy didn't know. He'd never seen one like this before. He took it back home and put it in his room with his other treasures. Later, while working on the boy's portrait, the boy told him he went back out, this time to the near by museum. He found out it was a skull fragment of a Tetra Pod, also known as Four Feet.

He would go back next year to find more pieces of the puzzle.

Steven Rhude, Wolfville