sweet baboo

john f. marok.  one way.  36"x48"  oil/canvas

 *****

sweet baboo, sweetness or just plain baboo was an opera singer, grew up in northern bavaria, germany on a farm on the outskirts of beyreuth on the red main river.  as a young girl she was exposed to a horrific visual experience that both incarcerated her and, later in her life, richly influenced her expressive abilities as a performer. this is what sweet baboo saw:  late afternoon while playing in the dirt of the freshly plowed field beside her house, baboo was exposed to a most deplorable sight. barbarian hussites had snuck into the village limits, were hell-bent on destruction, devastated the town hall, churches, houses, shops. she watched in transfixed horror as they attacked, committed monstrous acts of cruelty, treating the villagers like wild animals.  horses were galloping, fanatical warriors screaming, fires, blood, terror, death. baboo survived by climbing a tree, observing, memorializing the entire unspeakable experience into her being.  as she grew into a young woman the only thing that saved her from her memories was fantasizing about performing in one of the stage presentations of the operas that occasionally came through town.

*****