The client's package arrives much like any other. Rolled up and sealed. It's a big one. Artist unknown. Date unknown. When he unrolls it across the table he can smell the water damage. A big canvas. Oil. A strange, dark scene with a figure of light standing in the top right corner. Lots of holes in the canvas and fractured paint.
He draws up a plan for the restoration. Drying. Fixing the canvas. Removing the old varnish. He's not sure what glue was used on the original so he'll have to figure that out. He takes some time, as he always does, to go over it with a magnified lens and see if he can pick out any details the naked eye missed.
That's when he sees them. Hidden in the paint. Fractal patterns swirling. Tiny. Microscopic. He frowns. Even in the pitch black corners of the painting there are the fractals. Hardly the width of the canvas strips. Looping eternally. He draws back, away from the painting. No human hand could have made that.
Paddy Dobson
22nd November 2021