|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 8:34 am
Art!
The siren's small hands slid over the paper as she concentrated on her doodle, pencil flying. Casia wasn't good at art, and acknowledged it reluctantly, but she could still try. Anna had been able to pull something from nothing, to do groovy things, and she remembered hanging out in her studio, the smell of paint and creativity lingering in the air as she showed the guardian her latest masterpiece and admired the work the real artist in the picture had got done that day.
Halting and holding the paper back to properly admire it, Casia had to admit that it was one of her best doodles yet. It sort of didn't look totally like a stick figure and she thought it captured real expression. Sort of. Either way, her imagination supplied what her talents lacked, and even if it was no Monet, or not even a Lennon, she felt the urge to show someone just to prove she had done it. Looking around the empty hallway of the Liberty Center, she bit her lip. Who to show? She didn't want to find anyone she knew, that would be embarrassing, and she didn't want to show anyone her own age or older than her because they'd probably be able to draw better than she could. But toddlers didn't stay after school, did they?
Faced with a real bummer of a dilemma, the siren rocked back and forth on her heels for a moment and then was struck with inspiration. The art room! Maybe the teacher or an assistant would be there and she could show them. Teachers weren't allowed to be snarky, it was part of the job, right? And if she asked for feedback, she'd actually have a reason to be there, which would make the trip twice as reasonable. Pleased with this scheme, Casia set off to the art room, never even considering that there could be other people there already.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon May 25, 2009 10:43 am
There was something of a science experiment going on in the art room. It had been Fish's idea, once he realized that you couldn't use markers over crayons and that, similarly, markers did not really agree with latex-based paint (the teachers were grateful for this). While this discovery had initially proved a frustration, the end result was innovation.
To help him in his quest for an aesthetic 'eureka!' moment, Fish enlisted his older sister Ophelia. Both siblings were now hunkered down in their father's classroom after school, covering a sheet of white paper with scribbles in white crayon. There was a set of watercolor paints sitting at ready on the table next to them.
"This is a really, really good idea," Ophelia told her brother, squinting to see if the clouds were turning out right. She wondered if this could work with World Painting. She doubted it.
"Thanks," said Fish happily. Doing cool things with crayons beat Disney Princess coloring sheets any day.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 12:54 pm
Casia stepped into the art room, but at the sight of the two non-art teachers she quickly folded her drawing into squares and put it in her dress pocket with all the speed embarrassment could lend her. She got ready to turn around, but as she went to walk away, something made her pause, something that she caught out of the corner of one brown eye as she turned.
Crayons. Waxy, wonderful crayons with that coarse sort of paper labelling them, the sort that Anna had around the house whenever the siren had felt the urge to doodle, lying in cabinets and on the floor, the sort that she had almost forgotten about. Clenching her fists and fighting some sort of mental battle, she finally turned around again and headed over to the twosome, peering at their project. "What's up?" she asked in a half-shy, half-curious sort of way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:03 pm
Both students looked up at once. Two pairs of blue eyes (although the similarities stopped there) fixed upon the girl who had just walked in. Ophelia gave her a shy sort of smile. Fish waved happily to her.
"Hi!" he said. He pointed to the paper they were hunched over, which, to any outside observer, looked blank. "We're doin' an experiment," he informed her happily.
"Want to help?" he asked. It would be even more fun with someone else. And this girl looked nicer than mean old Ylaine.
"Were you looking for someone else?" asked Ophelia. Sometimes students came by after school looking for her father. He was out running errands on the other side of the building, though.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue May 26, 2009 4:58 pm
As the older girl addressed her, the siren quickly shook her head. Clearly whoever those people were, they were actual artists. The doodle in her pocket sank into ignonimy. "Um... No, sorry! I was just looking at the... art room." Making a show of looking around appreciatively, she flashed a wide grin. "It's real cherry!"
"What kind of experiment?" Casia asked suspiciously as the other kid offered, wanting to know what was going on before volunteering herself for some boy's project even if it did involve crayons. It didn't look that dangerous, but someone should probably tell them that drawing on white paper with a white crayon was kind of pointless. Maybe they weren't real artists after all, even Casia knew better than that and she was just the daughter of one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 27, 2009 9:21 am
"A cool one!" replied Fish, reaching for the palette. "It's better if we show you!"
He picked up the brush, wet it, and rubbed it around in the blue paint. Ophelia waved the girl over and smiled in amusement: Fish had a look of total concentration on his face.
"I'm Ophelia," she explained. "He's my brother--"
"M'name's Fish," said the boy, breaking his concentration. He whipped the brush up grandly, which splattered paint in several directions, and stroked it across the paper. The areas covered in crayon stayed white. Everywhere else turned blue. "See?" he asked, gesturing proudly to the paper and continuing to splatter paint.
He realized what he was doing, and sheepishly returned the brush to the water cup. "Sorry," he said.
"Our dad's the art teacher," added Ophelia. "I thought you might be looking for him, but he's kind of busy right now."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 6:23 am
Casia's eyes widened as Fish splattered. "That's really boss!" she exclaimed, embarrassment briefly forgotten. All doubts about them being real artists were gone, they were clearly real artist geniuses.
However, this merely highlighted the fact that she was not an artist even mroe painfully. She couldn't join the experiment because they would be able to tell immediately, but she could watch. "I can be a witness." she announced, reaching into her skirt pocket and pulling out her notebook and a pencil. "That way there'll be a record of it and no one can steal your idea, yeah?" Brilliance was hard to come by, and considering what people could be like, Casia felt obliged to help protect this particular display of it.
"I'm Casia, by they way. Nice to meet you." As for the other statement Ophelia made, she shook her head quickly. "Your old man? That's cool." It felt weird to talk to an artist's kids, and she had to keep pushing the mental image of Anna out of her head. This was different! "But no, don't worry, I was just here to, um..."
"Look around." she finished lamely.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 6:57 am
"I don't think Fish is the first person to think of doing this," said Ophelia, who distinctly remembered the same art project from elementary school, though her brother was too young to know about it. Fish scowled at her briefly, but gave Casia a smile.
"We could show you around," he volunteered, although, really, Ophelia knew far more about the art room than he did. Painting was Phells and his father's thing, not something he could do with any sort of special skill.
"We could," nodded Ophelia, who was only mildly miffed that her brother was stealing her thunder left and right. "Are you in any art classes?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:16 am
The siren laughed. "Oh, me? No. I was just kinda curious." Flashing a smile back at Fish as if to assure him that she knew it was still brilliant all the same, she considered their offer.
As for the art room tour, that would be a favour and Casia bit her lip. She had no way to repay them, and the fact they would go out of their way for a nearly-stranger made her uneasy. "No thanks, but it was cool of you to offer." Wanting to change the subject, she came over to them with a swish of her sixtiesish skirt. "What are the art classes like here?" she asked a tad wistfully. This could be answered with less trouble than a tour would be, and it was what the siren was really curious about. "Are you both in art class?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:29 am
"I'm in studio art," nodded Ophelia.
"She's really, really good," added Fish, because he thought Ophelia didn't give herself enough credit, and Ophelia blushed.
"I'm not much better than anyone else," she said, downplaying the comment. "Fish is--"
"I'm just in elementary art," said the boy, cutting her off. "And I can talk for myself, Feely. I thought everyone had to take art? You should sign up for a class! They're lots of fun. What level are you in? I'm in level one."
Fish, apparently, could be trusted to become a pitchman for anything he even remotely liked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 7:56 am
Overwhelmed by Fish's rapid promotions, Casia couldn't help but answer. "Level two." she stammered, looking concerned. "Really?" Did she have to take art? Anna had never signed her up for it and it had stayed that way as she progressed, but as much as she loved the guardian, she had been kind of spacey. It would be really embarrassing to have everyone see her doodles if she had to, and though she thought she could at least handle taking classes, she would rather just draw on her own. Things that required an audience were things Casia would rather be good at first, and if she wasn't, they were things she would rather people never ever find out about.
As this was quickly becoming an alarming conversation, the siren made a bid to change the subject. "So, you're a good artist?" she asked Ophelia. "What medium do you use?" Thanks to Anna, she knew the basics and the lingo well enough, at least enough to sound fairly knowledgeable and ensure her ourfit colours always looked good together.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:09 pm
"I'm a painter," said Ophelia happily. For someone who didn't seem to know much about the center's art program, this Casia girl seemed to know the terminology fairly well. "I like watercolors best," she continued, "But I've worked in acryllics and oils as well." And, of course, the world painter exams favored a different type of paints entirely, and so at home that was what she practiced with. She wasn't sure what they classified as, just that they took a long time to dry and stained clothes horribly. Other paints could be used for world painting, but the specially issued ones were preferred.
"Do you do any kind of art outside of class?" asked Ophelia.
Fish, meanwhile, went back to working on the crayon-watercolor-frankenstein-beast, bored by the girl chatter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:37 pm
"Watercolours!" Casia said with a sigh. Luckily, Anna had used them in her Art Nouveau pieces a lot, along with oils and sometimes acrylics, so Casia was vaguely familiar with all three. "Those always look so boss." Boss, and really grody to actually attempt, as she had found out one afternoon. "What style do you prefer?" The only one Casia was really acutely aware of was Art Nouveau, but she was enjoying this chat with an artist who already had something in common with her old guardian and was beginning to feel more at ease, if not a tad homesick.
"Oh, no." she siren said vaguely, hoping to direct the conversation back to Ophelia's art. "Art's not really my scene."
She peered over at Fish for a moment, interested in what he was doing as well. "So what're you making besides an experiment?" Hopping over to see, she watched him work a bit. "I mean, every piece of art has to mean something, yeah?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 10:57 pm
"I work in realism usually," sighed Ophelia dreamily, drifting off into the world of art chatter. "But I really, really like impressionism and what they manage to do with light. I'm in studio art, so we get to play with all that stuff."
Fish poked her. "Earth to Feely," he said, "What are we making?"
"Why don't you tell her?" his sister asked him. Fish turned to Casia and gave her a blank look.
"I don't know," he said, and ran another streak of paint across the paper.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jun 28, 2009 12:26 pm
And that ended the siren's limited knowledge of the art world. Nodding in admiration, because people who knew things about art always impressed her to no end, she sought to change the subject before she tripped on her ignorance.
She stared at Fish for a moment and decided not to be surprised. After all, this was the same gender that was rumoured to like monster truck rallies. Men were bad at having reasons for things, and therefore Fish could be excused, she supposed.
This left the meaning of the piece up to the viewer, and as Ophelia sounded like a very nearly professional artist, Casia was sure that she had some sort of groovy meaning that was deep and wonderful and who knew what else. As the siren herself was an amateur, she looked at the piece and settled on nodding sagely like she had a deep, wonderful meaning for it too rather than letting it slip that she was just as clueless as Fish. "I see." she said disappointedly. "Well, that's fine, I guess, that means that the person looking at it gets to find out for themselves."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
