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The drawing that eventually found its way to New Island.
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Alan, a bit breathless, called Michelle about a week later...
"Hey, you know that show that the Art Club had last fall? And that drawing I did of an imaginary coastline? It sold, and all I knew was that the buyer was visiting from Australia..."
"Yessss," Michelle answered, not sure where this was going.
"Well, I just I got this crazy letter..."
THE COMMONWEALTH OF NEW ISLAND
Office of Wainwright Stevens, Ministry of Trade
Mr. Alan
Faramond
671-B Willard Avenue
Michigan City, Indiana
46360
USA
17 March
2012
Dear Mr.
Faramond,
I am Margaret
Mullen, the Secretary-in-Chief to Mr. Wainwright Stevens, Chief of Tourism. I
happen to have in my possession an excellent drawing of our southwest coast that belonged to
a local man of my acquaintance. An Australian woman may have purchased it; we
are not sure. It has your name and address on the reverse. I brought the
drawing to Wainwright’s attention, and we both reviewed more pictures on your
‘Alan’s Art’ website. We decided at once to contact you, since you are obviously
familiar with our island.
We are creating a guidebook that
shows the beauty of our island and that depicts the joys
of being here. It is our pleasure to request of you, in the capacity of
Official Depictor, to produce a series of pictures of our island-nation.
We will provide you with a list of the places
we would like depicted. We can offer you a stipend as well. In return, we ask that you produce
hand-made pictures and tourist maps of our island,as requested. The number and completion
date of these is to be determined by mutual agreement.
We are willing to offer transportation to New Island via Perth-Fremantle, Western Australia. When you arrive we will arrange for accommodations, and local transportation.
Please reply via E-mail
or telephone at your earliest convenience, and we will send airline and ship
tickets in your name. Also, if you accept our offer, plan to be here for as long as necessary to complete the number of images in question.
Sincerely,
Margaret
Margaret Mullen, for the Minister
PS: I do hope
you say yes. Mr. Stevens has been under pressure to get our island “on the map”
to increase international revenue. Your pictures are by far the best we have
seen -- you seem to know our island well!
- M.
The Ministry of Trade ▪ 15 Government Hill Mall, The Commonwealth of New Island 1005 ▪ 99-12-334-2995 ▪ trademin1@freenet..ni