Patrick Kendrick

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The Art of Incongruity: My philosophy on Writing and Art

Within my writing and art, I have found and, hopefully, developed a common thread, that of a consistent incongruity, if that can be said without committing an oxymoron. Webster’s defines incongruity as: “a thing that lacks harmonious or rational relation to its environment.” That is the very definition of my work. I don’t believe I set out to purposely do this but once I noticed it in my work, I certainly embraced it, if not wholly exploited it. What I mean, is that my work does not always follow the staid and certain path, a preconceived and conventional plot, or the perfect picture.

In one of my paintings, “Substitution Deposition, ”a woman held up on the hands and shoulders of a group adoring men is actually being lowered from a crucifixion. On the cover of my novel, Papa’s Problem, a rooster struts around, seemingly aimless, as his bloody footprints form both a Star of David and a swastika.

In my stories, a man of faith could be a coward, hiding his religion behind another religion to protect himself (Papa’s Problem). An honored, well-to-do, and respected citizen might be a Nazi. A man who is confined to house arrest might have found a way to get out but that freedom might be the beginning of the end for him (The Seven-Minute Window). A quiet writer goes to a prison to interview a serial killer, then murders the killer in his cell (The Bestseller). A boy whose face and eyes are ruined as a result of being flooded with hot bacon grease from his quarreling parents, sings like an angel (Spider Sings).

In Papa’s Problem, the story line might seem like the type one might find in an old parlor mystery, only to devolve into the horror of more contemporary and, I think, more realistic, suspense novels. As in real life, not all things are tied up neatly and put away. Some of my protagonists have dark sides to their “good guy” status. Some of my antagonists have redeeming qualities for a “bad guy.” As in real life, all is not black, nor white, but many shades of gray, along with a palette of other colors that make up what we all are. “Good guys” make mistakes, love the wrong person, steal, and sometimes kill if situations in their environment lead them into it. “Bad guys” might have pets they adore, give money to those in need, and often follow a code of what they feel is righteous if the situations in their environment allow it. Just like real life. It is the nature of incongruity and, I believe, the one thing consistent in my work.