repaintress | Etraya Info/Inbox

"Allo. This is Clea Dessendre. Speak."

Age: 29

Height: 5'9" (179 cm)

First Impressions/Things Characters Would Notice - Click to Open

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Etraya Specific Information - Click to Open

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

ornithologist

[ The way she acts like engaging in conversation with him deliberately is a major concession is amusing, and Harold is truly hard up for conversation of this type, so he duly takes the offered seat.

He glances down as she places her hand on the book and starts in surprise at the movement of the brush strokes themselves on the page. Harold has never seen anything like that before -- but he has been in Etraya long enough not to be completely unmoored. Immediately, he pushes back. ]

Let's not pretend French art is less derivative. We may speak different languages and have different history, but ultimately the best art is about the human condition, which is universal. If we didn't all draw from one another, that would be wasted potential. There's no shame in being influenced.

[ If art is orphaned from its prior cultural history, isn't that a loss rather than a sign of skill?

Harold is inarguably intrigued by what she'd done, regardless. ] May I ask how you did that with the book?

From:

repaintress

[ Rather than be dissuaded, an inner light shines in Clea when the man pushes back against her. Some minute percentage of formality eases in her bearing, and the artist leans toward him with a fierce light in her eyes, ready to defend and expand on her position with an openly pleased smile on her face. If she were of the feline persuasion, her tail would be quivering.

Yes. Finally. Someone who isn't him with informed artistic opinions. ]

Let us also not pretend there's no difference between influence and derivation. A work is derivative if there is no addition, if the artist does not add their own touch and soul to the work. If I were to render one of Pollock's pieces as a Canvas in direct translation, that would be entirely derivative. The line between the two is the thought and craft of the artist. Nor do I agree with you that art must be universal to be of the highest value. Art can expand the human condition as well as reflect it, and often the most expansive art has the most niche audiences. That does not impact its worth.

[ Though, in the spirit of having a true discussion, Clea must concede at least one point in the stranger's favor. ]

I will grant that we on occasion also produce derivative slop. Most of the Impressionists and the Pastoralists are clerks in the garb of an artist and barely worth considering.

[ What she'd done? Ah. Yes. She's going to need to get used to explaining herself. That's going to become tiring. Clea holds her hand over the pages again, drawing Chroma to her and letting it ripple, a distortion in the air above the pages, resuming the movement. ]

I'm a Paintress. I create immersive works. This is a technique sometimes used to help us understand how a piece will flow in motion or through time before we go to the work of constructing a Canvas.

[ It's common to sketch out or sculpt ideas and use Chroma to move them. Without anything to attach to, it doesn't last, and there's no immersion, but it helps when considering matters such as how a creature should move, or how starlight should shine. ]

There's clear cohesion in these pieces, layered on top of one another. I am trying to examine them so I understand.

From:

ornithologist

[ Oh, she does want to have a whole debate about it -- seems quite clearly desperate for intellectual stimulation. Harold can relate, even if art isn't his scholarly pursuit of choice. He's an appreciator but no critic or artist himself. He forms opinions, of course, but nothing like the opinions he forms on someone's internet privacy and security practices.

Really, everyone should be using Blackberry.

She explains what she'd done and his eyebrows go up and up, impressed and thoroughly taken in with the concept. ]

That's quite the skill, Madame. [ He uses the French inflection in deference to her own way of addressing him. Harold's French isn't perfect and he doesn't speak much of it, but he is someone who pedantically cares about the proper pronunciation of things, so he's far better than the average English speaker. ]

I take your point about influence and derivation. [ He doesn't mind acknowledging when someone's found a flaw in his perspective. ] That's certainly true. I will say that I find niche works like what you speak of to be more like a window into our commonality, the way light reflected through a prism can look different at various angles but in all cases is still light.

[ Harold may not be a visual artist, but he is exceedingly well-spoken. Even in casual conversation there's a deliberate care to how he picks his words. ]

If I may make a suggestion, I believe Pollock was influenced by Janet Sobel, who is the one who truly originated drip painting in the contemporary style, as well as the lack of orientation to the piece. It's referred to as all-over painting, meaning you may turn it on its side and not find an up or down.

From:

repaintress

Thank you - it is indeed. It will be some time before I can create a work here, though I hope to in the future.

[Painting is a remarkable skill. Clea is proud of her abilities, there is no reason to falsely shrink into herself and deny them. To deny her talents would be to deny the hours she's spent learning her craft as well as the hours her parents had spent in teaching her, lessons they'd honed after years of their own practice. She will not deny their brilliance.

As he has done her the honor of considering her criticism, of weighing it and evaluating it on its own merits, Clea does likewise, turning his words and argument over in her mind, fingers absently tracing the drops of paint in the photograph. What it would be to see the pieces in person, to see the weight of the drops standing in such contrast to even the most unconventional brushwork.

They could not have known these pieces would be made. Even the most forward of thinkers would not imagine it: paintings without strokes? Without one of the foundational aspects of the medium? And yet, they exist.

The future contains multitudes they cannot yet imagine. Something in that thought loosens a knot Clea's been holding in her heart. Some of the ever-present tension in her bearing lessens.]

What a poetic metaphor, monsieur. It conveyed your intentions quite clearly, and I cannot find a point of disagreement other than to say others are less open minded than yourself.

[ There is nothing sarcastic or backhand about the observation. It is meant as a neutral evaluation of his character. For good and for ill, he seems to hold an openness to experience that many people would not. Many people prefer the familiar, the banality of known beauty.

Picking up her pen, Clea flips to a blank page in the notebook and writes down the name 'Janet Sobel' in fluid, impeccable script. Then, next to the name: 'All-over painting'. Apparently their creativity had not extended to the naming of their movement. Though the blame for that might lie with the academics. ]

Am I to assume, then, that you're the proprietor of this establishment?

From:

ornithologist

[ Harold is all too aware of his own level of skill in his area of expertise. In some ways it's destroyed his chance at ever having a normal life, completely due to his own eagerness to stretch those skills. As a result he's also shockingly humble. He has a realistic estimation of his own capabilities -- but he won't be bragging about them to anyone, either.

He's rather closemouthed about himself as a general rule, in any case. ]

Proprietor would be overstating it, but this building is from my home, and I'm familiar with it. [ His now dead best friend bought it for him because Harold was despairing about the city selling off its public libraries and what that meant for the decline of civilization. Not something he easily shares any more than his genius level expertise in computers. ]

I'm an appreciator of all forms of human creativity, [ he admits, guilty as charged in terms of her insightful response. ] Art, literature, cuisine, fashion. Being close-minded is really a travesty when there's so much to experience.

[ Harold is quite sincere about that. They're only on this earth once each, and yet people make incredible things with their time here. ]

From:

repaintress

That's rather fortunate. The only familiar location I've found in Etraya are the catacombs. This is a much more pleasant area.

[ Although they have their own peculiar and aesthetic charm - they certainly are a good place to wander when one wants to be left alone, or when she wants her external surroundings to match how cramped she feels - the catacombs pale in comparison to the library. It makes her wonder if the man chose the location, or if it had simply emerged one day. Is Etraya itself a living entity, or had everything here predated the first kidnapping victim?

Clea's mind wanders. If she had to pick one building on all of Paris... the first thing she knows, deeply, is 'not home.' As guilty as it makes her, something loosens in her chest every morning when she wakes up and is faced with that terribly boring white ceiling. When she sits at the small table in the kitchen and drinks coffee while she looks out a window. When she begins her day sculpting instead of with a list of tasks.

Her eyes wander back to the photographs in the books. If only she could see the works in person.

Ah. There's her answer. If she could only wander the Louvre... but inspiration here is thin on the ground.

His answer earns him a smile. Clea agrees. A life without novelty is a life built on complacency. One must always be looking to push, to experience the new and the exciting. She finds herself often pondering what it would be like to see a platypus, or the Aztec temples. ]

What is the most unique experience you've had in that realm?

[ Perhaps she will study it. ]