Blank Page Art Club, Art Classroom, Monday, 1/19

[swipedthatfoot.livejournal.com]

Claire had been relieved to hear radio that morning. If the phones were screwy, it meant Cal probably hadn't intentionally not called her back.

She hoped.

She guessed she would find out during the meeting, anyhow. Right. She waited for most of the people who had signed up before starting to talk.

"Hey, I'm Claire. Thanks for signing up for this. It's really just to hang out and make stuff, and maybe we'll do an art show at the end of term if people are into it. I am way, way open to other ideas, though, so let me know if you have any.

"I was going to ask people to, like, bring something they were proud of to share today? But my phone was sort of blowing up at me yesterday so I never sent the email. So that's next week. This week, I got out all the drawing supplies" -- she gestured at a table heaped with pencils, crayons, ink and brushes, and other moddable media -- "so I thought we could just do that during the meeting. Maybe pair up and draw each other if you really feel creative? And like I said, next week we should each bring something and we can do show and tell."

"Oh, and Ms. Aldrin is our sponsor. She rocks."

Comments

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir knew he was most certainly a beginner compared to the others here, but he smiled around and hoped no one minded that someone just rather interested as opposed to skilled had decided to come.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo happened to glance over Liir's way and raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything; from what she remembered of seeing him at the art store he'd been interested in giving artwork a try, but hadn't struck her as an artist quite yet.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

The eyebrow had him sinking in on himself a little bit. He did, however, tilt his head to Katchoo somewhat apologetically.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

She shrugged one shoulder at him; her expression wasn't exactly happy, but it wasn't hostile either. He didn't -- okay, most of the people here didn't act, so far, like pretentious "look at me, I'm so artsy" types, which went a long way toward keeping the hostility at bay.

If he was here because he thought it would be fun, she could get behind that, and when she nodded at him, one quick downward jerk of her chin, it was almost approving.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He settled a little at that, his shoulders dropping a somewhat before he offered her a shy, appreciative, smile.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

It was, at least in her experience, rare to meet someone of the male persuasion who wasn't full of himself (at least by her standards), and she'd never gotten that impression from Liir.

Katchoo grunted in acknowledgment -- not the most cordial of responses, but from her it was more than most people got, really.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

After a moment, he worked up the courage and walked over to her.

"Thank you," he said with a nod.

For accepting his presence. And for the acknowledgment. There wasn't a drip of sarcasm or condescension to be found in his tone.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

And that, too, was unexpected. Didn't mean Katchoo would assume he was completely incapable of it, since assuming those things usually led to disappointment, but she was used to getting snark in exchange for her standoffishness.

"Yeah, sure," she answered. "Giving the art thing a try, huh?"

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I'd like to learn," he said with a shrug of his own, "to understand."

He thought about Nor then, of her drawings on the other side of the Witch's papers and how they'd been yelled at. He hadn't done any drawings, hadn't had the courage to, but he took the yelling to heart either way.

"Not so much the result as the doing."

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Technique's kinda overrated if you ask me," Katchoo offered, eyeing her charcoal-covered fingers. "You can have any old random windbag talk at you for hours, like that guy with the happy trees, about how important it is to hold your wrist just the right way when you draw this kinda line, or memorizing one style versus another, or some crap. Anybody who doesn't give a crap about art could learn that stuff. I figure, you enjoy it enough, it'll be worth the time it takes to figure out what you're doing. 'cause the doing's the fun part, otherwise you're doing it wrong."

It was a surprisingly long speech from her, but she felt pretty strongly about the subject. It was also a much shorter rant than complaining about the art teacher at her old school.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"That's the part I'd like to learn," he told her honestly.

To enjoy, to express... neither of those things came naturally to him. Doing an activity just to do it? Entirely outside his normal field of thinking. Even cooking at least produced something, something immediately useful, something solid and basic. The games he knew? He'd learned gooseball to keep himself fed.

The class he'd taken mostly to see what it was, but the inklings he'd observed, the touches, the beginning of an understanding he'd come to wasn't enough. And his attempts alone had been unhelpful. And so...

Here he was.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo shook her head. "What, how to have fun with it?" She wasn't sure she could explain that. For one, she'd have to admit that she had fun sometimes. For another . . . how did you explain enjoying things? She sure as hell didn't know.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He nodded as he breathed in.

"Nothing you can learn from a teacher, unfortunately," he said.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Katchoo agreed with a sigh. "That's the bitch of it, innit? I guess you just gotta figure out what feels good about it to you."

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Hence," and he spread his hands.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Good enough reason," Katchoo decided with a nod. "If you'd said something like 'I'm here to try and find myself through art' I might've had to barf."

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

He shook his head with a faint smile.

"No, nothing like that."

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Thank God." She really did look relieved. "So far this isn't looking like a bunch of people all full of themselves about being artists, and I don't think Aldrin's gonna be talking a ton of pretentious crap at us either," she added with a brief cant of her head toward where their advisor presumably was.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Was it a terrible danger, that happening?"

Once again, no sarcasm. The idea was just entirely alien to him.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"What, with her?" Katchoo snorted a laugh. "Kinda doubting it."

It wasn't a bad thing.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I like Professor Aldrin," he admitted with a smile, "She's very... no nonsense."

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo had to concede agreement witn another brief nod. "Without being just this side of evil, yeah."

She might still hold a grudge against Miss Beem, the drama teacher at Puncture High, for being evil to Francine. Just might.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"Thankfully, I've never had an 'evil' teacher here. Just, well, an unfortunately unpleasant one. Or two."

Professor Beaubier didn't count. Except for that one class.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo ran a hand through her hair, swore when she realized she had charcoal highlights now, and grunted a laugh. "Don't know what it is about this place, but even if some of the teachers are frikkin' certifiable I don't think any of 'em have been the kind of sadistic bastards normal high schools tend to get."

She would've just loved Umbridge.

Re: Mingle + Chat [1/19]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't really know," he told her with a small smile of his own. "This is the first school I ever attended. I'm just glad I'm not terribly behind with everything."