043 - “Self Portrait, Man With Gun”, Oil on Canvas, 36x18 Inches by Unknown Artist (ca. 1978)

Artifact: “Self Portrait, Man With Gun”, oil on canvas, 36x18 inches by Unknown Artist (ca. 1978)

Power: Significant.

Description: An oil painting on canvas over a cheap, wooden backing. The frame is damaged, the left side pulls loose when lifted if not supported. Subject is a male, caucasian, 30s with a pensive and resigned expression on his face, standing on the front porch of a white weatherboard home at dusk. He is dirty, dressed in unbuttoned denim overalls and holding a shotgun while knocking on the front door. The light is on inside and in the background are unplowed fields of wheat and hills. There is an empty painter’s easel on the porch next to a love seat. The style is evocative but technically unimpressive, the perspective is wrong for one thing. Long-term viewers report a sense of grinding unease.

The provenance of the work is completely unknown, tracing it reveals a maze of owners that loops back on itself and is impossible to properly verify. Most won’t admit to ever having possessed it and dealers and auction houses refuse to touch it. It has been stolen on no less than three occasions, once in an unsolved robbery turned murder. It is unsigned.

Effect: The portrait is destructive to other artwork. Stored with other paintings it causes the paint to run, leaving behind a vaguely stained canvas. If the paint is collected (for example, setting them up above a trough with a funnel) it holds magickal properties: for every 72 hours of work destroyed this way the resulting sludge holds a minor charge. Only the runoff from original works has this property, reproductions do not but they are still destroyed. If reused in a new painting it will discharge in a minor unnatural phenomenon related to the subject matter, but only under legitimate scrutiny of the new work.

Alternatively you can gain the charge for yourself if you’re willing to drink paint.