Katerina Vorontsov
July 20, 2021 10:00 PM
Art Club - Passing the Torch by Katerina Vorontsov
Painting had always been an indulgence, one with almost no practical purpose – she had given a few pictures as gifts to her family before, but for the most part, painting was something Katya did entirely for herself. As a result, it was the art form she had, reluctantly, engaged in the least over the course of her seventh year. Any time she was painting was time that she could and probably should have been doing something else, but this year, with her exams looming, there really had been no time at all for it. As a result, she supposed that some of the others might be surprised that she had brought a painting to Art Club again, even if they weren’t confused by the subject. Which was also likely.It was not the most technically daring or complex piece she had ever done, and did not even really draw over-much on her imagination. Instead, she had painted the Art Room the way it usually looked when she was hosting the club, along with examples of every kind of art she could ever recall anyone making here: there were paintings and sculptures, knitting needles and embroidery hoops, Allegra’s quilts, papers and quills for the poets who attended from time to time, even, in one corner, a half-completed piece of metalwork in the process of becoming a necklace as a nod to her sister. Tatiana was difficult and loud and thoughtless and did things Katya couldn’t remotely understand, but she had, even when they were actively fighting, showed up here when she’d still been at school, and while showing off had doubtless been part of her motivation, Katya believed the core of it really had been that Tatiana had wanted Katya’s project to be a success.
Of course, she was not really in an objective frame of mind now, and hadn’t been when she’d made the painting – the forms realistic, but the colors at varied saturations and none of them in alignment with reality, giving the whole thing something of a dreamy quality. It was not the proper way to think of things at all, but she had already started to feel sad and sentimental when she thought about the club. She was proud of this, both in how it had worked out in ways she’d planned and how it had worked out in ways she hadn’t. She was proud of her work, too, even if it was mostly pointless. There was no reason to be sad, especially since this need not be the end. She wouldn’t be here much longer, but they would all go on somehow, and hopefully keep making art. In fact, she thought that once she finished RATS, she might get to paint as much as she wanted for a while, until she got married. Until then, she wouldn’t have very many obligations, other than looking for a husband, on her at all, and after a lifetime of social activities and lessons – well, if free time was a currency, the near future was going to be an embarrassment of riches. It was a bit unnerving to think on too long, really.
Fortunately, then, she still had many other things to occupy her mind for now. She smiled warmly at everyone as they gathered for the meeting.
“Good evening, my friends,” she said, just as warmly as she had smiled, her hands clasped at her waist. “I hope you are all very well tonight. I am excited to see what pieces you bring and make tonight also, but first, there is a small business which I must speak of with you.” She smoothed the front of her robes unconsciously. “Soon, I must go, and not return, as you know. I hope that someone will become leader here in my place. If anyone has interest, please speak to me soon, between now and the next-to-last meeting of this year.” That gave them, what, two months? Surely that was enough time for everyone to think it over. “Thank you. So. Does anyone have new art to show first?” she asked, looking around the group.
Subthreads: What to do? by Valentine Duell with Rosalynn Tellerman
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Katerina Vorontsov
Art Club - Passing the Torch
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Valentine Duell
July 21, 2021 8:47 PM
What to do? by Valentine Duell
Valentine arrived dutifully on time for the Art club meeting, despite feeling a bit sad and uncertain about things. She hid that well enough though and greeted Katerina and the others in a friendly manner. If she was honest with herself, she knew she wasn't really that good at art. She'd tried nearly everything anyone could think of, mainly as an excuse to hang out with them. However, she had discovered that she was terrible at drawing, and her painting at best could be called 'abstract'. Her sculptures never quite looked like anything resembling what they should, and any jewelry she had tried to make didn't last long before it fell apart.Her best skill in this field was sewing, which she had put to use the other year to make some simple dolls and doll clothes for the charity fair. She had branched out a little bit and could make not terrible looking stuffed animals. She was never quite sure if they actually counted as 'art' though, and she didn't make them very fast. This was probably a good thing, because she already had quite a few and really didn't need any more.
This lack of artistic skill wasn't what had gotten her into a rather morose attitude as she had made her way to the meeting. She liked going to the meetings for the social aspect of it, not really the creative. Her main creative outlet was making up adventures for the gaming club, but she was pretty sure that didn't count as 'art' either. She was a tad on the gloomy side because she was still behind on her schoolwork, and really probably shouldn't be here, and was most likely going to drop it next year because this year was almost over and she could just make it a little farther to a clean break. Right?
She didn't want to drop it, but next year would only be worse. Valentine was considering just dropping everything so as not to show favoritism, but knew she couldn't do that. She had put in an application to run the gaming club next year, though Morgan still had seniority over her for that position.
Val marveled at Katerina's painting as she found a seat. The etheralness of the image gave the subject matter a strange timelessness. She stared transfixed at it for a few moments before breaking free to take her seat. Katerina was very good. Her own latest project, a stuffed mooncalf, just needed it's hind legs yet. As she pulled it from her bag she thought it looked about as gloomy as she felt. Maybe she'd need to name it Eeyore.
When Katerina began talking, the first thought through Valentine's head was that she could take over the club. She instantly cringed inwardly and tried to figure out what crazy part of her brain got loose to think that thought. She couldn't, she just couldn't. She wasn't even planning on making much progress on the mooncalf tonight, she'd snuck her potions homework into her bag as well and was hopefully going to make some progress on that while people were distracted with their own projects.
2
Valentine Duell
What to do?
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Rosalynn Tellerman
August 01, 2021 9:06 PM
The same thing we do every night? by Rosalynn Tellerman
Rosalynn had joined the Art club this year. It was a nice creative outlet, though she preferred performance arts more than visual arts, but there wasn't an existing club for those, and she wasn't quite feeling important enough at Sonora to try to create her own yet. She was still a beginner, after all, and thought it would be weird to be a president over intermediate or advanced students. This spring, she had pulled off a few performances in Aladren with Morgan, but wasn't sure that quite counted as a formal club activity.Still, she enjoyed drawing and painting and sculpting. She was not particularly skilled at any of those, but that wasn't the point of art. The point was to create something, and ideally to have fun doing it. Her creations weren't perfect - any time she made something with eyes, they always looked a little bit creepy, so she tended toward depictions of landscapes or architecture or basically anything that lacked a face - but she got compliments on them, and that boosted her confidence to make more, and she was ending this year feeling more positive toward her artistic abilities than she had started it, which she believed was the mark of a good art club.
Rosalynn raised her hand when Katarina opened the floor to show off any completed pieces, and she showed everyone a sculpture of a tree with real dirt on the bottom, and some spellwork that created the illusion of leaves coming off the clay branches. They faded out after a few seconds, leaving the winter branches bare, then faded back in for spring and summer. She'd wanted them to change color in the fall and then fall off, then grow from buds in the spring, but that had been a more complicated charm than she could manage yet, but the clay work was good for the trunk and branches, and she was quite pleased with the paint job as well. She thought in a couple years she could finite the simple enchantment (assuming it even lasted that long, which she would not put any money on, because what she did have was already above her level as permanent spellwork wasn't taught until intermediates) and redo it with the better aesthetic details once she reached mid-to-late intermediates. Overall, though, she was quite pleased with what she'd managed.
She left her tree sculpture onto the display table for others to look at during the course of the meeting. As as they broke to begin work on their individual projects for the day, she found herself standing beside Valentine, who she was familiar with because who didn't know Val, but mostly because she used to date Stanley, who was her own boyfriend's nephew. They weren't dating now, though, so hopefully that wouldn't cause awkwardness. Stanley wasn't her relative though, and Ros held no ill will about it.
Though . . . was that her potions homework Val was taking out? As an Aladren, Rosalynn couldn't entirely fault the older girl's priorities, but it was a bit surprising. "You may need to at least write your answers in a fancy font, or doodle in the margins to make that art," she teased lightly.
OOC: 85% sure of the relation between Tommy and Stanley. Can fix if wrong. Ros would know.
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Rosalynn Tellerman
The same thing we do every night?
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Valentine Duell
August 04, 2021 9:08 PM
Talk to people and stuggle futilely against the inevitable? by Valentine Duell
Valentine looked up quickly at Rosalynn's comment. She'd been caught! Val sighed and gave the younger girl an embarrassed, sheepish grimace. Still the girl hadn't sounded accusatory, and she was an Aladren, so maybe it would be okay. Maybe. Val was just so far in over her head at this point she wasn't sure which way was up anymore. "I could try..." she responded a bit hesitantly, then made an odd shaped something in the margin that didn't look anything like the potion bottle she had intended it to be. Looking at it almost broke her.The feeling of impending doom seemed to rise up in order to crush her soul into oblivion. There was just so much stuff to do and no time in which to do it. Now this terrible scribble which wasn't accomplishing anything on her overwhelming list was just sitting there mocking her. It made her want to cry. No... not now. Later.. maybe when she was all alone in her lonely dorm as she tried to figure out how to make tomorrow work.
Instead she took a deep breath, put on her best smile, and shoved all that to the dark recesses in the back of her mind. "My doodles aren't great, maybe I should try the font thing instead?" It came out as a question even though she hadn't really intended it for it to be one. "But I do really need to get it done..." her voice drifted off and she sighed again, "and Charms." she added quietly. Why did the professors assign so much work when they knew there was other things to do around the school? She stared blankly at her potions paper again, nothing was registering though, it was as if her eyes refused to send the homework things up to her brain.
Val resigned herself to another very late night struggling with schoolwork alone in her room. She'd need to swing by the hall after club and see if there were some snacks she could find to take along to keep her going. So, she turned to Rosalynn again, "Your tree was really nice. I liked that leaf effect."
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Valentine Duell
Talk to people and stuggle futilely against the inevitable?
1490
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5