---

Feel free to print off "Love in the Art World".
Take a copy with you to an exhibition opening,
or display it on your coffee table for your art world visitors.

---

A doe pauses at the centre of a cool, verdant green forest to nibble on some foliage. She is alone but so busy she doesn't realise that there is a predatory wolf behind some rocks....

"Ouch!" Gabby said frowning at her doctor.

"Sorry. Won't be but another minute, Gabby." Doctor Hunt worked a little more quickly in the surgical light. Gabby resumed her inspection of the poster on the ceiling.

Hmmm, thought Gabby. She might even be eating poisonous plants. But then, deer instinctively know about things like that. They have great instincts. In the spring with the increasing daylight, deer secret something which automatically takes them into heat. They have little problem maintaining a large population -- and we've helped them by killing or chasing away their enemies, wolves. Now there are too many deer and they're starving. Oh, God! I'm so depressed, Gabby silently moaned. Man does such stupid things.... and we seem to be losing our natural instincts, one by one. It's a wonder we survive. Man now seems to be having problems procreating... it's the opening chapter in Atwood's Handmaiden ....

"All done Gabby." The doctor switched off the light and snapped off his gloves. Gabby swung her feet out of the stirrups and pulled the paper gown over her knees.

"We'll have the results of your pap in two weeks. Meanwhile, since you seem to be so worried about your ability to get along with others I've set up an appointment for you with Dr. Maclean. He's an experienced psychiatrist. In fact, your appointment is in 15 minutes, so you'd better get going!" Doctor Hunt smiled paternally and closed the door.

Within an hour, Gabby was seated on a plush paisley couch in the office of Dr. Hamish Mclean. It was an exceptionally bright and spacious room with patterns and styles of furniture, drapery and rugs, that clashed happily with each other. Dr. Mclean sat in a worn plaid upholstered chair opposite Gabby. The youthful doctor wore soft blue corduroy pants with brown belt, and a purple cotton hendley shirt. His hair, parted on the left was a 1950's non-style. He was energetic and cheerful. It was obvious that he was very comfortable in his own skin. Next to him, Gabby felt hard and artificial. She was very uncomfortable with the prospect of having to talk about herself.

"In this one hour session we'll decide if you indeed have some things to work on or if you just need a holiday!" Dr. Mclean pulled out a pen and clipboard. "So, tell me why you're here."

Gabby felt very small on a couch which began suddenly to swell, throb and menace. Her mind wandered over the last several weeks -- over her attack on painter John Albert with a paint roller, her cruel revenge on arts activist Gilles Leduc, her failed negotiations with Curator Colin Swain, her unfulfilled lust for art student Dominic di Maiolo, and the unpleasant interest of Inspector McTaggart of Revenue Bath. While the world of art separates itself from the larger one, it mirrors it almost exactly. Grey players battle for power while he that has a little tiny wit, with hey, ho the wind and the rain, must make content with his fortunes fit, though the rain it raineth every day....

Overwhelmed, Gabby succumbed to the flood. She expired in a dead faint on the couch of Hamish Maclean. Dr. Maclean, surprised that his simple question should evoke such a response, rang for his assistant.