Rosalynn Tellerman
January 13, 2023 7:59 PM
Visual Arts Club by Rosalynn Tellerman
It was her sixth year, her first year of Advanced studies, with her CATS behind her and the RATS already starting to swarm given that she'd decided to keep five of the six core classes (dropping only Herbology) as well as her two Independent Studies in Literature and Cultural Studies. Plus she was a prefect and she was running two clubs. She thought she might need to offload something else besides Herbology, and as she looked around the gathering group of the Visual Arts Club, she thought this might be it.She hadn't said anything during their first meeting. She'd wanted that to be a friendly welcoming experience to any new people, and to help everyone get back into the school year, but that was two weeks and two meetings ago. It was now late September, and her workload was starting to pick up, and if she was going to do this she should do it today.
"Hello, everyone!" she greeted cheerfully as the hour chimed on the cute cuckoo clock hanging in the art studio she'd imagined for today's meeting in the MARS art room. "Does anyone have any projects they want to show everyone?" she invited, following the formula Katya had set in motion years ago (she assumed it was Katya, but maybe it was a president before Katya; Katya was the only Art Club leader Rosalynn had known though).
Once all the demonstrations of finished artwork had concluded, Rosalynn drew everyone's attention to the cuckoo clock. "As a suggestion, you can do a painting of the clock, or design your own, or build one for your activity today. Or, as always, you're free to continue on your existing projects or do something entirely different. Also, I'd like to put it out there that I'm looking for someone to take over this club. I'm willing to help out this year, if you're not sure how to run a club, but it's all yours next year, if anyone here is interested in the leadership opportunity."
Subthreads: Pretty as a picture by Verdillia Scurlock with Christopher Brockert
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Rosalynn Tellerman
Visual Arts Club
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Verdillia Scurlock
January 13, 2023 8:53 PM
Pretty as a picture by Verdillia Scurlock
Visual arts club was a mixed bag. Painting was a ladylike accomplishment and something very worth practising. Therefore, Verdillia enjoyed the club for the chance to hone her skills and meet like-minded people. Not that everyone who went fell into that category. The definition of the club was rather broad, and whilst Verdillia had no objections to embroidery (which was equally refined) or sculpture (which was very impressive) or pottery (both elegant and practical), the club attracted a rather eclectic mix.Some people, like herself, were devoted to the pursuit of replicating reality, or at least making things that were pretty or functional, in the case of the potters. Some people, however, seemed to want to stretch the definition of art to be any old thing. It was like the paintings Leviosa liked, which were just big splotches of colour across a canvas. Allegedly, they were paintings of ‘feelings’ or ‘ideas’ but most were indistinguishable from the work of a toddler. You could not paint a feeling. You could paint a basket of apples. And the latter was much nicer. Who didn’t like looking at apples, or flowers, or riverside views? Not that making things look nice seemed to be on everyone’s agenda. Some of them even seemed to want their work to be ugly on purpose, though Verdillia had never applied that term out loud for fear of offending.
Still, in spite of the outliers, being a member of visual arts was a generally pleasant experience, and was something she felt reflected well on her. Today, she was excited to show off a picture she had done of a particularly nice area of the gardens. It had a statue in it, which meant it was art within art (so who was deep and meaningful now, ‘paint your feelings’ crowd?) and she was rather proud of the impressionist brushwork she’d done on the hedges. It was somewhat similar to things she’d shown before, but an artist was supposed to have a distinctive style, and maybe it meant she was doing a series? Anyway, there weren’t that many things to paint at school.
When it was her turn to speak, she stood up, sharing her painting and pointing out the brush work, though leaving people to read the symbolism of the statue for themselves.
After the round of show and tell, Rosalynn made an interesting announcement. Running the club… That was an interesting proposition. If coming to art club reflected well on her, running it would look even better. And she was passionate about art. She held back from calling out in front of everybody, deciding it would be best to discuss it one to one with Rosalynn.
When Rosalynn set them to work, she picked up her bag with her art supplies, making her way to the cuckoo clock (she always followed the prompts, as it would be rude not to), glad that it suited her preferred medium of painting, and preferred subject of still life. She tried to find a place near to Rosalynn so she could ask her about the leadership.
OOC: If Rosalynn wants to reply, I can extent it and have Verdillia open the conversation about leadership, but I wanted to leave it open, both in the sense of giving you the choice to NOT post (and just assume it happened) and giving others the opportunity to reply if they want to.
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Verdillia Scurlock
Pretty as a picture
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Christopher Brockert
January 21, 2023 5:38 AM
It was a very pretty picture. by Christopher Brockert
As always, Christopher was glad to be back at school. Even though there were a lot of people here, he generally felt safer being in a place where he knew that he would not have to interact with Uncle Eustace. Although there were people here that he wanted to avoid completely, like Oz Spellman who had been really aggressive with Jasper for no reason and people who he was more wary of than average, usually the Pecaris in general, minus the two who Christopher had had as teammates last year in the Challenges, most of the time he did not interact with them much.On the other hand, during the summer, he did not just have to worry about Uncle Eustace, but society as a whole, and a lot of people he didn’t know and did not have sussed out like he did people at Sonora. Okay, there were first years, but Chris was at an age where, unless he got prefect-something that he was not remotely optimistic about given that the only one from their group of first cousins who had gotten it was Emerald-he would probably not be interacting with them much. So, overall, school was a better, more comfortable place for him. Plus, he was a decent student too. Which of course made Uncle Eustace mock him and call him a nerd.
Anyway, the main highlight of the summer was Allegra’s wedding. Christopher did not know her new husband, Josh very well, because the fourth year was the type who just took awhile to get to know people, and usually when his new first cousin-in-law-a term that Chris was pretty sure was exclusively used by the Brockert family-was around, so were a lot of other people,which would make things hard enough normally, but also, those people tended to include two that he would prefer to avoid. However, Josh seemed pretty nice from what the Crotalus did know about him , and he seemed to care deeply for Allegra and was pretty protective of her. Plus, Allegra was happy and that was nice to see.
Christopher just hoped that Topaz wouldn’t find a way to ruin it. She was like a fairy tale villain. He would not put past her to make Allegra’s first born prick her finger on a spindle and sleep for a hundred years because Allegra got married first. Even though it didn’t seem like Topaz even wanted to get married. Still, the Aladren alumna was hyper-competitive, especially with her siblings and Allegra. Hopefully, this was a situation that Josh could protect Allegra-and their future children- from. And protect any sons of theirs from Uncle Eustace, of course.
Anyway, today was Visual Arts Club, which Christopher did not always attend due to the fact that he was generally on the shy and incredibly cautious side, and slow to be comfortable with people. Currently, he only really trusted his close relatives, Verdillia and Cole. Yarielis was…getting there. However, there was nobody overtly threatening in Visual Arts-overtly threatening types tended not to be into such things- and he enjoyed making things out of blocks, which might be an unusual medium, but it was his favorite. Although, Chris did use others and wasn’t bad with them.
However, today he just felt like going and being creative. So he entered the MARS Art Room, nodding at Isla and Liesl who were regular attendees and took a place next to Verdillia, greeting her as well, while Rosalynn began the meeting. Christopher had no desire to take over the club or show off anything he’d made. He didn’t care if the meeting was a few cousins, one friend, a few friends of cousins, and some Teppenpaws, he simply wasn’t comfortable doing that.
Verdillia was though, and after finishing the round of show and tell, and they started on the cuckoo clock, he turned to his friend and said. “Hey, I liked your picture.” Chris smiled warmly at her and then looked back at the clock, unsure what he should do. He was big on architecture, which was what he wanted to do as a career when he left school. “I’m not exactly sure what I want to do.” Christopher admitted to his friend. “I have ideas, I’m just not sure which to go with. Like, I could either make a cuckoo clock out of Magi-blocks, or I could design a building that looks like one, maybe as a German restaurant. What do you think?” Verdillia was his closest friend and he valued her opinion. Plus, she might even have other ideas for things he could do with it.
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Christopher Brockert
It was a very pretty picture.
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Verdillia Scurlock
January 21, 2023 4:07 PM
Thank you by Verdillia Scurlock
Before she could get to Rosalynn, Christopher caught her attention. This was far from unwelcome, as she always liked spending time with him. He didn't always attend art club, so it was an added bonus when he did - especially when she had something to show. She beamed, growing an inch taller as she straightened with pride at his praise."Thank you!" she smiled. She was never sure whether she was supposed to be falsely modest in these situations or to revel in the compliment. She didn't want to talk herself down, especially not to someone as important (both socially and to her) as Chris but nor did she want to appear big headed. "I did work especially hard on that one, though I think I need some more time on figure drawing - that was the hardest part." There. That was a nice balance between agreeing and admitting she still had work to do.
She considered his question, not because she didn't know which to pick but because she wanted to make sure she didn't seem like she was biased against one his forms of art, even if she was. However good Christopher's models were, Magiblocks were a toy. She could accept that model making was an art form when done in other materials. She could accept that if people enjoyed painting, then painting could be a form of fun and relaxation. But her brain would not accept the opposite - that something intended for play could be considered art. Things belonged in the boxes she had been taught they went in, and thinking outside of those wasn't one of her strong suits.
"I think the building is a good idea. The more drawings you do, the more you'll have for a portfolio when you're older," she reminded him." She was also curious to see what a cuckoo clock themed building looked like. On the one hand, she could see the similarity in the shape of a cuckoo clock and a traditional slope-roofed building. On the other, her own imagination only let her see a literal giant cuckoo clock, which seemed a little gaudy. She was not sure how to emulate the style while making it look good, but Christopher would be able to. "I'd also be interested to see how that turns out," she added, in case her personal interest motivated him. "I can imagine how it looks made of Magiblocks more easily than I can imagine it as a building. Clearly you can see both though," she added with a smile, hoping he understood that she liked the ways he was smart and creative, and let her glimpse things she otherwise wouldn't. "I think I'm going to practise watercolours."
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Verdillia Scurlock
Thank you
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