THE BURDEN OF TIME ELISA CHAN

I once heard of a princess who lived in a clock tower. Not at the top, like you might expect, but in the very bottom, for it was her job to turn the crank that powered the clock.

Every time the clock struck nine—after the nine chimes sang—the princess would hear the sweet, soft humming of her favorite song through a tiny, crumbly crack in the stone base of the tower. One day, when the humming began, a thought occurred to her.

“I wonder if this tiny, crumbly crack in the wall is big enough that I could look through it to see who hums outside my tower?”

Kindled by curiosity, the princess wiggled about in her seat, trying to get her eye to the hole. She leaned in towards the wall but couldn’t bend low enough. So, she tried leaning away from the wall, as far back as she could go without toppling out of her seat, but still the crack was too low. It was no use! She just couldn’t see through the hole from her place in the little seat. The humming began to fade.

Without further thought, the princess sprang out of her seat, released the crank, and knelt beside the tiny, crumbly crack. Her dress puddled around her legs. Her fingertips pressed against the cold stone.

Suddenly, instead of the humming—which had stopped—she heard a sort of grumbling. The wall trembled against her touch. Fissures spread out from the crack. Then, the stones tumbled away, and the princess crouched before a crumbly, person-sized gap.

She slowly pulled herself to her full height and stepped out into the morning. The still, silent morning. The princess looked around her. Several feet to her right, there stood a young man. No tune, no sound, left his pursed lips. He stood impossibly still. He didn’t seem to notice her at all, just stared ahead with a halfsmile on his face.

“Perhaps it’s some kind of odd statue?” the princess mused.

With a shrug, she turned and went on her way. The world awaited.

When the princess reached the town square, however, her smile sank.

As she’d hoped, people choked the square at this hour of the morning. There was a woman buying fish from a grumpy vender, kids eyeing candies behind their mom’s back, and a long-bearded man heckling over the price of a bag of walnuts the size of his hand.

The princess may as well have walked into the middle of a ghost town.

No one blinked.

No one breathed.

And no matter how many streets she turned down or how many buildings she peeped into, no one moved. It was as if she alone was awake in a terrible dream, and something inside her crumpled. Convinced that all she had in this world was the shelter of the clock tower, the princess slowly dragged herself home, shoulders slumped, eyes watching her bare feet take each agonizing step back.

Soon, she climbed back through the gap in the tower wall, sat in her little seat, reached out with her empty hands, and resumed turning the crank.

A voice carved into her misery. “Princess? Is that really you?”

The princess looked up. There, in the crumbly, cracked doorway, stood the young man, looking more alive than she’d thought anyone could ever be. “Who are you?” she asked.

He bowed low. “I’m a knight of this kingdom. I was charged with finding and freeing the king’s daughter after she went missing, years ago, but I found out I couldn’t free her from her burden. And now you’ve done it yourself!”

“I’m sorry,” the princess said, “but I haven’t. If I ever stop turning this crank and get out of my seat, the whole world stops turning, and I have no place in it. I can’t stop, or nothing will ever work again!”

The knight rubbed his chin. “Maybe not. I’ll be back—the next time the clock strikes nine. Promise.” With that, the knight marched off down the path.

“Could there still be hope?” the princess wondered. Her spirits were too crushed to believe it. “This is my life,” she conceded. Crank, crank, crank. But when the nine chimes sang, the knight returned—but this time he wasn’t alone. The bearded man from the market followed him.

“He’s here to turn the crank,” the knight explained to her. “All you’ve got to do is let go.”

The princess looked between the two men. Slowly, she stood up from her seat. The bearded man grabbed the crank with one hand, then two. Then, one finger at a time, the princess let go.

And so it happened that every few hours the job of turning the clock passed to a different member of the town. Of course, the princess still took her turn, too. Every Tuesday and Thursday from nine to noon. And sometimes, when the princess sat in the base of the clock tower turning the crank, the knight would come and sit in the opening in the wall beside her and hum her favorite song while she worked.

And when the clock rang twelve, she rested.

Aidan Stinson

Aidan Stinson is an artist of many disciplines: graphic design, illustration, poetry, creative writing, filmmaking, and perhaps more. He is studying graphic design and illustration in order to be able to work in the marketing world and to produce graphic novels. Aidan comes from Texas and desires to travel and live all over the world. Aidan likes watching films, too.

Ari Yam

Ari Yam is from Mexico and is a sophomore majoring in computer science with a minor in art & illustration. Ari really enjoys expressing herself by drawing either digitally or traditionally, but she has mainly focused on doing digital art with rather unsettling creatures.

Ashlyn Rancudo

Ashlyn Rancudo is a photographer with heart for capturing the uniqueness of God’s creation in people, places, and moments. Her hope in creating images is that there would be an intimacy between the viewer and subject. Ashlyn desires most of all to serve Christ with what she creates.

Bradley Burgin

Bradley Burgin is sharing his artistic side. Years ago, he studied art and began a career in graphic design which sidelined much of any fine art that he loved doing. Art today is appreciated from afar, but he is slowly getting back into being a more creative participant. For him philosophically, art is not just for the young idealists out in the world. Art is for all people of all backgrounds and ages. He hopes people will see the emerging talent he might have and help him share and develop his skills for all to see.

Brooke Baldwin

Brooke Baldwin lives in Northwest Arkansas and is from Fort Worth, Texas. When she wants to go out, she often finds herself at the most aesthetic coffee shop she can find. She loves to travel, and has traveled for her work as a photographer since she was 17 years old. Currently, she’s exploring abstract portraiture, pursing events and concert photography, and fashion/editorials!

Caroline House

Caroline House is a junior biology major.

Cedahlia

Cedahlia has been making art from a very young age and hasn’t stopped since. Her family has always been supportive of her endeavors in creating art and are creatives themselves. She is currently pursuing a degree in graphic design. Cedahlia has a deep appreciation for all things spooky and fantastical. Whether it’s reading up on cryptids or making mini fairy houses in her backyard, she’s into it. Cedahlia’s hobbies are reading, watching 80s movies, painting, thrifting, and taking care of the neighborhood cats. She loves expressing herself through her outer appearance and enjoys when others do the same.

Faith Brown

Faith loves working with animals of all types and loves that she gets to take pictures to remember those that she has worked with and learned so much about.

Galeana Boomer

Galeana Boomer is a photographer from Wisconsin currently attending John Brown University. She was given her first camera at the age of 13 and has been taking photos ever since. She loves the way photography can be used to evoke emotion in others and how it has been used to provide awareness to otherwise forgotten individuals.

Grace Francis

Grace Francis is a senior at JBU with a degree in graphic design and a minor in illustration. She loves making gothic art that is dark and beautiful.

Gwena Dye

If Gwena Dye had to choose one word to describe herself, she would choose eclectic. She grew up overseas so she has a deep love for diversity. Her personal style, if she could say that she had one, is very mixed and orderly unorganized which she could also say for the rest of her life. She has ADHD so she is either all in or all out in every aspect of her life and her art is no exception. She believes that God presents a special responsibility for each of His children, and right now her responsibility is to make art.

James Yates

James Yates, PhD is a professor of English and Director of the Associate of Arts at South Arkansas Community College. He is a 1979 graduate of Booneville High School, and holds a BA in Communication from Ouachita Baptist University (1983), an MA in English from Arkansas State University (1985), and a PhD in English from Oklahoma State University (1995). He has been teaching on the college level since 1985 in colleges and universities in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. He has also been a Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Arts and Sciences at Southark.

Jessica Thompson

Jessica Thompson typically does art and illustration, but occasionally dabbles in written art forms. She loves to create and is thankful for the ability to share the gifts God has given her with others to help them see how His hand works in all things.

Katelyn Kingcade, is a freelance photographer currently located in NWA. She practices most passionately in the darkroom photography medium in addition to advocating for the process and diligence that the environment holds. Her images explore concepts of time and the cultivation of our experiences, relationships, and struggles.

Kyle Blair is an illustrator, printmaker, and designer known for his bright colors, wild characters, and cheeky humor. Apart from his fine art and freelance illustration work, Kyle also works as a creative director in Northwest Arkansas, where he lives with his wife, son, and his pup named Goose.

Laina Ludwig is pursuing a career in filmmaking. She loves highlighting the stories of people who may not usually find themselves in mainstream media, and the emotional connection to the audience that comes with exploring new concepts and perspectives. She wants to capture emotion on a deeper level, wanting to bring the audience closer to someone they may not generally connect with. Her goal with nearly every project is to bring justice or awareness to a broken world through visual storytelling.

Leah Scott

Leah Scott is a senior elementary education major and Spanish minor from Little Rock, Arkansas. She loves traveling, going on adventures, and creating.

Lizzie Good

Lizzie Good would rather die than craft a bio (she’s a freshman English Major, with a creative writing emphasis and a journalism minor).

Mak Cofer

Mak Cofer graduated from JBU with a B.S. in digital cinema. She currently lives in NYC and is pursuing a career in film. She loves all things art, poetry, and film!

Matthew Campbell

Matthew Campbell is a 21 year old graphic designer, photographer, musician, and writer from Bella Vista, Arkansas. He is studying graphic design at John Brown University and will graduate in 2023.

Megan Whitmore

Megan Whitmore is a junior nursing student. She has always loved writing and reading. Art has always been a great outlet for her, but she has always been nervous about sharing her stuff with people. She is trying to better at that so here we are.

Nick Cox

Nick Cox is a double major in graphic design and art & illustration and originates from Bentonville, Arkansas. He works in a variety of mediums from graphite, to wood working, to rug tufting and practically anything in between. His biggest overall goal with his art is to foster a connection of some sort. That may be between himself and the view, the viewer and an emotion, or just between himself and a thought. If he can accomplish that, he count his work as a success.

Sam Patterson

Sam Patterson is a fine artist, exploring what it is to be human. He enjoys using the human figure to convey life as an image bearer of Christ.

Sarah Caspari

Sarah Caspari was born and raised in Illinois. Currently, she is a junior at John Brown University and is double majoring in graphic design and photography. She likes to try to capture moments in a way that can inspire others to look at something from a different point of view. She enjoys the outdoors, reading, and going to concerts with her friends.

Savannah Green

Being homeschooled in a suburb of Dallas, TX, Savannah Green was given a lot of opportunities to try different things growing up, and photography was what always stuck with her. She always aspires to bring out the beauty that God has created in this world through all of my photographic work. She has been growing and developing her personal style into something, dare I say, cinematic by playing with lighting, different angles, and composition.

Seth Sears

Seth Sears is currently serving as the Walton International Scholarship director at JBU. Until June of 2022, he lived in Costa Rica where his wife and he started a Christian community development outreach in a marginalized community called La Carpio. He thinks if we are curious we will see beauty all around us.

Shelby Brewer

Shelby Brewer is studying art & illustration and photography at JBU. As she learns more about art and creativity, she desires to reflect the image of the ultimate Creator--God--and use art to become closer to Him and help others do the same. To her, art is a way to show beauty in the hardships, the mundane, and the darkness. Redemption plays a huge role in what and how she creates.

Skyler Robbins

Skyler Robbins is a photography major who loves many things, like traveling, taking pictures, eating food, and drinking coffee. She also really loves sleep, but she doesn’t get much because she likes hanging out and talking with people more. Her absolute favorite time of year is summer, and she loves going to the beach.. any beach... even Galveston, TX.

Sofia Ettema

Sofia Ettema loves illustration and storytelling and has always felt drawn to artistic mediums from a young age. She grew up in Northern Virginia in the D.C. suburbs and has worked there in a local studio/gallery, had artwork accepted into several art shows, and have illustrated a published children’s book for a local author. She hopes to use her abilities for publishing or video game development as a career and to also publish her own stories and illustrations.

Tara Warden

Tara Warden is a fine artist, and she loves working with color and subject matter that is close to her. She is inspired by the objects and people around her most often, although sometimes she likes to branch out into other subject matter. She paints largely with oil paints, and you can find her through her website, taracuda.art.

Verity Callahan

Verity Callahan was born and raised in Conway, Arkansas, to two academics with far too many books. A child raised on Robert Heinlein and C.S. Lewis, she grew to love stories and aspired to one day develop a voice of her own. Currently in her senior year of a degree in English-literary studies at Hendrix College, she continues to pursue her passion of the arts through writing poetry, printmaking, and reading whenever, and wherever, she can.

Victoria Blount

Victoria Blount is from Nixa, Missouri. She finds inspiration in creating images that really bring out her personality. Driven by emotion, she wants to be able to speak through her photos. To express exactly what she is trying to say is her ultimate goal.