fandomhigh | Art, Thursday, Period Three

"Sup, class an' welcome to the first day of Black History Month," Hardison said, once all of his students had filed into the art room. "I know class is usually more about makin' art than learnin' about it, but for all that African-Americans have been professional artists since before America was an independent country, there ain't a lot of people who can name even a single black visual artist. In most normal schools, you end up learnin' about the Renaissance masters, Impressionism, maybe even Modern Art an' Surrealism, but information about black artists outside of music an' the Harlem Renaissance is pretty thin on the ground. So for the rest of February, your art is gonna come with a side of history."

Sorry not actually sorry about that.

"Today, our artist is Dindga McCannon, a mixed-media artist who combines her training in the fine arts with the knowledge of needlework, embroidery, an' quiltin' that her mother an' grandmother taught her. Her art is strongly feminist in scope, in no small part because of the strong familial ties that brought her to it, celebratin' women's lives. McCannon was part of the first show of professional black women artists in New York City, back in the 1970s. For those of you who are from earth, I want y'all to think about that for a minute: it wasn't until the 1970s that New York had a show dedicated to black women artists." He couldn't help but shake his head at that.

"You can see some of McCannon's art here," he added, holding up a book with hi-res images of her quiltwork. "She also wrote an' illustrated a YA novel called Peaches. But for today, we're takin' inspiration from her work, Revolutionary Sister, currently on display at the Brooklyn Museum. Revolutionary Sister is a great example of mixed-media art, which is basically any art where more than one medium is employed. You wanna use pencil an' oil paint together, that's mixed media. Revolutionary Sister uses the kind of mixed media art that incorporated found objects--basically, you take items that were manufactured for a different purpose an' incorporate those into the finished piece. In her piece, you can see she uses yarn, bullet casings, a zipper, an' several other items to create the figure of a woman. That's what we'll be doin' today."

With that, Hardison started pulling out boxes and bins of ~~moddable~~ materials, as well as canvas and paints. "Nothin's off-limits today," he said. "But I want y'all to paint somethin' an' add these found objects into the work. Not just as accessories, though, I wanna see at least a good quarter of the piece be made up of found objects. Feel free to use other stuff we've gone over--clay, glass if you're careful, whatever. You got this."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Everyone made stupid decisions in their youth. Most people were just lucky enough to not have those decisions documented for the public.

"I mean, a'ight, but you're gonna be bored if you're waitin' for anythin' good. I know it's hard to tell with as hot an' suave as I am, but I was kinda geeky growin' up."

"You?" Tony gasped, putting his hand to his chest in shock, absolute shock at this revelation. "Never."

"Let me get you a chair, man, an' maybe some water," Hardison said. "I should know better than to just pull out these kinda surprises on people without some kinda warnin'!"

"You've just shattered my idea of you," Tony replied, trying not to laugh. "But I'll let you in on a secret... my charming personality only came about in college."

"...Yeah, but where'd it go after that?" Hardison teased.

And then tried to pull Tony in for a hug because he was only teasing and wanted to make sure Tony knew that down to his bones.

Human. Care. Bear.

Never underestimate Tony's ability to feel inadequate.

But he would totally accept a hug. "Oh, you are not allowed to talk to Rhodey. Ever."

"Our friendship would be beautiful an' you know it," Hardison told him. "Though we might end up fightin' over who you like better an' that might just end up messy. For me."

Because Rhodey had been friends with Tony for decades and Hardison respected that.

"I'm sorry, my honey bear has been through a lot with me," Tony replied sympathetically. "Saved my dumb ass from a few creeps in college."

"A'ight, but I still gotta get a cool nickname," Hardison declared. "Can't claim to have saved your pretty ass in college, but I still wanna be somethin' cool."

'Honey bear' was a totally cool endearment, what?!

"It has to happen organically. Pudding pop? Lambchop?"

God help everyone around them.

"Fair, fair," Hardison said. "Cause otherwise I'mma end up callin' you Snookums an' no one needs that."

There were students here, guys. Poor, innocent students!

It was the 'pudding pop' that really traumatized them, wasn't it?

"Don't think I won't answer to that," Tony replied.

Absolutely.

Hardison laughed outright. "The possibility never even crossed my mind," he promised.

"I love petnames," he replied proudly. Because it usually meant someone actually liked him. Usually.

"Then I'mma definitely gonna figure out a good one for you," Hardison declared. He reached out for a fistbump. "How else everyone gonna know you're my bestie, yo?"

"The friendship bracelets?" he teased, holding out his hand to return that bump. "You get one that says 'be' and 'fri' and I get the 'st' and 'ends' half."

THEY WOULD MAKE THEM FASHIONABLE.

AS THEY DID EVERYTHING.

"You'd wear it everyday, right?" Hardison checked. "I ain't takin' the emotionally-vulnerable step of gettin' best friend bracelets if you ain't gonna take it seriously."

"I will have to promise Rhodey that it means nothing to me when I see him, though. To save you from his frowny disappointed face."

More like his eye-rolly face once he found out there was another nerd just as bad as Tony.

Rhodey was just jealous that he didn't get a friendship bracelet.

"I'll tell Steve that Rhodey's bein' mean to me an' unleash his frowny disappointed face. An' probably a lecture about sharing."

Like the one he'd delivered in his PSA!

"I think Rhodey technically outranks him and can and will use that to avoid Steve's sad eyes." And Tony was super proud of his honey bear.

"I don't care what his rank is," Hardison decided. "You can't outrank America."

"Those are fighting words," Tony replied with a laugh.

"An' I'll stand right here an' throw down for it," Hardison declared, even though they both knew that wasn't true even a little bit.

CIVIL WAR ALL OVER AGAIN. DAMN IT, HARDISON.

"I will take pictures and laugh at all of you."

OOOH YEAH BUT WITH BLACK LEADS THIS TIME. BALLER.

"I can only assume you'll be laughin' because of how calm an' sexy an' in control I am in all of'em." You know, as he masculinely hid behind something.

Re: Talk to Hardison

imafuturist - 2018-02-11 00:00 (UTC) - Expand

geniuswithasmartphone - 2018-02-13 03:33 (UTC) - Expand

imafuturist - 2018-02-13 11:56 (UTC) - Expand