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 Posted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:52 am
Rhona had, over the course of the last few weeks, memorized the layout of at least four different hobby shops. She could walk into any one of them, blindfolded, and go exactly where she wanted to go without incident, minus the stray patron who might wander into her path. She could draw a map from memory and label each section of the store, and yet she would never, ever find what she wanted inside. It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking, she was. Insistently, daily. It was just that she didn’t know what she wanted. Evidently, starting from scratch was harder than she had previously imagined.
It was interesting, Rhona mused as she ran her fingers along balls of yarn, how she was reacting to her newfound blankness. She wasn’t afraid, or at least not to any real degree. Of course she was a little scared, who wouldn’t be? She was 21 and had no idea of who she was. Luckily, Rhona found that she still had the stamina and drive to run, but she was finding that she no longer had the patience for puzzles. She had also learned that she wasn’t coordinated enough for knitting, nor was her mind focused enough for it anymore. She lost count too easily. She couldn’t paint, either. Translating the images from her mind onto the canvas was harder than Bob Ross made it look, and things often got lost in translation.
Maybe something that didn’t require too much abstract thought? Maybe something like…
Photography? Aisle three opened before Rhona like an offering. Brightly painted frames stood on shelves, filled with stock photos of smiling families and reclining pets. It seemed simple enough to do. Find something, point, shoot, print, done. Like the pictures displayed at Kyndall’s house. While sweet little Sarah slept in her crib Rhona wandered around, looking at the artwork created by the older daughter. It looked so simple, balancing objects in the frame to create flow through the composition. How textures interacted. She could see all of the aspects of the work, and if she could see it then she could replicate it, right? It wasn’t like taking an image from mind and putting it on page. It was a literal reflection.
And Rhona knew a thing or two about mirrors.
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Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 9:51 am
Harmony probably spent the better amount of her off time in this aisle. It wasn't as good as the camera store she went to but the hobby shop had more fun ideas for her photography than the mechanical upgrades she purchased elsewhere. The softer side of photography, she mused.
She picked up a fun frame and looked at it. It wasn't really her aesthetic, more chunky blocks of color than a fluid piece but it did get her wheels turning and, well, it was only a picture frame. It was probably suited better to a little kid's room than the muse of an aspiring artist but with her toddler sister Harmony's mind often drifted to babies these days and incorporated into her photography.
Vaguely she was aware that someone had come to the aisle, someone she knew. More importantly someone that knew her baby sister.
"What do you think of this?" She asked absently, still studying the frame like it was something significant.
Ok, maybe her muse wasn't as active right now as she would like.
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Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 1:22 pm
Rhona jumped from her thoughts, looking wildly around for the source of the sound. She hadn't noticed Harmony standing there, and honestly, even if she had, her face was so rare around the Darrow house that Rhona probably wouldn't have even recognized her right away. "For Sarah? I don't really know. For babies I tend to like cartoon animals, and personally I like something with a more Tolkien-Elf look, but I mean it's not horrible..." She wasn't really one for big chunks of color anyway. Rhona liked gradients and blended color pallets. "Something like this is nice, though," she picked of another frame to offer Harmony, one that looked like white lace. "This is nice too though... I mean I don't know what you're looking for exactly... you take pictures, right?" Maybe not the best way to have put it. She had made it sound trite without meaning too, and with her first impression too. "I mean, you do photography..." Rhona turned the frame over in her hands nervously. "I'm Rhona, by the way. We've crossed paths a few times when I watch your little sister. She threw up on me last time I watched her..." Wow, that was super relevant and important for Harmony to know. Good job Rhona. Good job.
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Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:51 pm
"Not necessarily for Sarah..."
Harmony seriously looked at the frame in her hand and sighed. She put it back on the shelf and tried to figure out something else. This wasn't helping her creativity much but it was nice to run into someone she knew. She looked at the girl and recognized her from brief meetings at her mom and Tony's house. Now that she'd moved out her mom needed to outsource babysitting most of the time she and her husband wanted to go out.
"Rhona, right? You babysit for my mom sometimes."
She smiled happily, feeling at ease with someone she knew. Life in college had been mostly a non-stop introduction to new people, places, and schedules. It was hard for her to keep up sometimes, as used to being perpetually busy as she was before. She hardly had time to volunteer at the library anymore.
"What brings you here?"
Better to steer the conversation away from her shortcomings...
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 10:37 am
Rhona nodded happily at Harmony's recognition. Oh good, so she had made some kind of impression, and it appeared to at least be a neutral one, since Harmony hadn't outright started yelling. To be perfectly honest, Rhona had been worried that Harmony would feel like she was taking over her place as Sarah's temporary care taker. Seeing as that wasn't the case, Rhona's shoulder lifted a little. "Yeah, that's me. Er... I recently had a pretty huge life change... as culminating in moving away from home and I feel sort of... brand new, you know? Which is good, I mean it's a fresh start but... I don't know what I like anymore. Old hobbies just seem... dull -- or remind me of things I'd rather forget. So I come here to find new things to try. I haven't really settled on anything." Rhona nervously tucked some hair behind her ear, trying to find something besides Harmony to look at. "Your photographs are really good. I've seen them around the house. Do you... have a favorite subject or style?" Why not try and learn more about photography? It's not like Rhona had anything to lose.
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 11:01 am
Harm wasn't in a position to judge anyone's time spent with her little sister. Since moving out for college she spent little time at home between working full time and going to school full time. She was not as prominent in Sarah's life as she'd like. It was a sacrifice she had to make, considering they were so far apart in age. Still, she tried to be there when she could and her little sister seemed to adore her anyway, which was lucky.
Of course, Sarah adored everyone. She was just one of those kids that loved everybody.
"Oh, wow, that's cool!"
The idea of Rhona having nothing but possibilities in front of her sounded exciting. She sort of wished sometimes that she could branch out and do more but, honestly, photography was her unchanging passion.
"I like portraits. Pin up style, burlesque. Sexy with the illusion of skin."
Though sometimes she did show actual skin, doing racy portraits. But really, so long as she had a camera in hand she felt like she was creating art and felt complete for it. That was the important thing.
"Want to hold my camera?"
It was an unheard of offer but Harmony truly believed that if Rhona was meant to hold a camera if she held one she'd know it.
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