Sableagle

the artist

Describing Sableagle is hard. Well, that's no surprise. Describing anyone is hard. Sableagle originally appeared as an anonymous creature lurking behind doors, under beds and in dark wardrobes. This creature would never be where it was looked for. It was one of those things, hidden somewhere, always watching, but never ever found or seen. Eventually, the world it observed tempted it out, and it made its first excursion into the light, albeit dim, and was seen. Its form then was an eagle, totally black, darting through a room for an instant and gone. Sableagle soon acquired another form: human, tall and slender, with dark hair, a long knife and a trenchcoat.

Sableagle has changed a lot since then. Now he is definitely male, and known for his willingness to show it. Ever more confident, he has become a well-known figure where he moves, although a certain inclination to dive into the shadows when trouble stirs still remains to protect him.

the art

Sableagle creates very little permanent art. What art he creates is written: rare prose, rarer poetry and occasional lyrics for songs whose music is merely a dream.

Sableagle does art, if that is the correct term. He writes off the cuff, describing somewhere or something in words as they come to him. His most frequent exploits are the verbal dismantling of people who need putting down and his increasingly notorious slow, sweet seduction of any and every young lady around him, accomplished with quick, clever words and, he being purely a virtual being, well described actions. He also has some skill in the art of gentleness and supportiveness, although his practice comes rarely, and in deceit, which he prefers not to use.

Overall, Sableagle is a flashy charmer with strong loyalties to his friends and his values, a vast love of flying and a vicious streak wide enough to hit both banks of the Mississippi, and it is the deployment and enjoyment of those skills that make up his art.

the beret

Beret, no. A beret is the shaped and distinctive object many artists wear on their heads as a sort of badge of what they are.

Sableagle wears wings. Even in human form, he has wide eagle wings of pure black, which have grown as wide as can be carried without dragging on the ground, and are lined with finer feathers softer than velvet and smoother than silk, making his wings the most comfortable covering around, and very popular things to curl up under for a rest or hide inside when the world gets to be too much.

Sableagle is a creation and partial embodiment of my mind. If he's good with words, it's because I am, at least in the world of the 'net where words are all that you see. He and I learn from each other's experiences, and change together. He and I have a lot in common, obviously. A love of poetry, a reverence for love and a willingness to listen. We also, meaning I always, value a person's right to turn something down ... and he still has that knife.

Submitted by Chris Newman (lsusa@csv.warwick.ac.uk), on Wednesday, May 8, 1996, from Coventry, West Midlands, UK