Les Deux Magots Cafe

[The Exodus]

Damien Blackwood-Michaud

Trent agreed with Damien and then asked what the theme of his collection had been. Damien tapped his own cheek with drumming fingers.

“It was supposed to be representative of who we are as an artist; so it’s more about style than substance, actually,” he said. “It’s all annoyingly technical – three landscapes, three portraits, three artist’s choice paintings. I have to prove to the art department that I know my way around a canvas.”

Damien snorted skeptically. He knew his way around the entire art supply box; he just had to prove it to a bunch of old geezers with doctorates and reputations. And that was fine. It would quickly be evident that he was more than qualified for the degree he was pursuing.

“How about you?” he asked to be politely.

"I have this beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower from my balcony, so I'm trying to gain inspiration from it, but right now I've only got two pieces together...I'm hoping to try and make at least four or five more."

“Wait, so you’re painting a bunch of different perspectives of the Eiffel Tower?” Damien asked. “Hmm. Interesting.”

It had to be the most iconic of Parisian landmarks. Certainly, it was among the most phallic. Damien and Bill still made jokes about it being France’s way of compensating.

“You wouldn’t see something like that in England,” Damien had said in a mock-sage voice last time he and Bill were passing by the Eiffel Tower.

“No, we just have a bunch of rocks in a big circle. Wonder what Stonehenge says about us?” Bill said with a wicked grin that dissolved Damien’s pseudo-phlegmatic expression and replaced it with a giggle-fit.

“So are you an architectural artist? Or would you say that you’re more of a landscape kind of bloke?”

[RaeRae]

Trent Revlin

Trent had decided at some point that coffee sounded good, and he made himself a cup-earning a look from Marcel, to which he just smirked and then focused on Damien again as the man spoke. “It was supposed to be representative of who we are as an artist; so it’s more about style than substance, actually, it’s all annoyingly technical – three landscapes, three portraits, three artist’s choice paintings. I have to prove to the art department that I know my way around a canvas.”

"Hm...I'm sure it will." He took a careful sip of the coffee, just black with a heap of sugar. "Though I suppose a handful will still turn up their noses. After all. We all get that superiority complex at some point right?" He flashed a smile, then when Damien asked about his own work he told him about his balcony view and his attempts.

"Wait so you're painting a bunch of different perspectives of the Eiffel Tower?"

Trent shrugged a bit. "Different perspectives, styles, whatever hits me when I look at it. The first one I have done is of the view from my balcony done up in primarily pastels. The second one focuses more on the scene of people around it and you only see the bottom of the Tower." He explained and took another sip. "The third one...well it's just barely begun honestly...but I'm thinking a more abstract technique on it."

"So are you an architectural artist? Or would you say that you’re more of a landscape kind of bloke?” Damien asked him and Trent honestly had to think for a minute. He really never gave it a lot of thought, he just painted whatever came to him. "Well...I guess it would all depend on my mood." He finally said with a chuckle.

[The Exodus]

Damien Blackwood-Michaud

Damien didn’t want to think about superiority complexes. The second Trent said it, he changed topics to Trent’s artwork. If someone else’s superiority complex detained him from earning his doctorate, Damien would be livid.

And like any artist, Trent seemed content to talk about his work. Talk about complexes; every artist Damien had met had some kind of ego strapped on them. Bill always pointed him to a mirror when he pointed this out, but Damien didn’t need to look at his reflection to know he was just as guilty as Trent, as his professors, as Salvador Dali of being egotistical about his art work.

I wake up every morning to the supreme pleasure of being Damien Blackwood-Michaud, he often intentionally misquoted.

He listened now as Trent talked about the first three paintings in his collection. One done up in pastels; another focused on the people milling about the base of the Tower. A third that wasn’t even done yet. It begged the question: what sort of art was painting the Eiffel Tower? Other than the sort that sold for twenty dollars apiece in home decorating stores. Was it landscape? Was it architectural?

Well...I guess it would all depend on my mood," Trent said.

“Versatility,” Damien said appreciatively. “I admire that. Some people get so boxed in.”

He’d done architectural work for a while, restorative art, costume design… Anyone that would hire him to do anything, Damien would appease. He’d painted cartoons in the street for tourists and backdrops for the Opera Garnier. All freelance, all miscellaneous, all somewhat lucrative. Not as lucrative, say, as a proper commission or owning your own gallery was, but Damien was still young. In time, maybe he’d have a gallery and dozens of commissions a year.

As long as his doctorate didn’t doom him to a life inside the library. They got mad whenever Damien wanted to paint in there.

[RaeRae]

Trent Revlin

Trent enjoyed talking about his work like any other normal artist would, but he didn't talk to brag and knew that he could improve, had plenty of room to. He wondered sometimes if his parents had any artistic abilities. He really never learned to know if they did, but he wondered if that's why art came somewhat naturally to him. Maybe his mother had a knack for it, he didn't think his father did.

His father, Trent hardly remembered him-either of them really. Though he did remember that his father had a penchant for cars, loved looking at the old ones and test driving them just for fun with no intention of buying them. So sometimes he wondered...Trent blinked a bit. It had been a long time since his parents had been called to his mind. Being that they passed away when he was so young he didn't really think about them. He thought about his grandparents more...they had been his family, the one that he remembered best.

He had fallen silent thinking, but was brought back by Damien's voice. "Versatility. I admire that. Some people get so boxed in."

Trent smiled again. "I know exactly what you mean." He agreed. "What's the point of art if you don't explore all the aspects of it? One of these days I'm thinking I'll try my hand at sculpting just for the fun of it. I've yet to actually try my hand at it." Sculpting would probably be fun actually. Maybe a little weird, but fun.

"So what's your favorite kind of art Damien?"

[The Exodus]

Damien Blackwood-Michaud

Trent smiled over at Damien. And if you ignored the fact that Trent was wearing a waiter’s uniform, it looked like two friends sitting down to have a cup of coffee. It was weird – Damien thought it was weird, anyways – that he was getting on so famously with Trent. Damien wasn’t exactly an introvert, but usually, he didn’t strike up conversation about art and other interesting things with strangers. Most strangers simply weren’t interesting enough to keep up their end of the conversation in a meaningful sort of way.

"I know exactly what you mean," said Trent. "What's the point of art if you don't explore all the aspects of it? One of these days I'm thinking I'll try my hand at sculpting just for the fun of it. I've yet to actually try my hand at it."

Sculpting. Damien had never had a personal interest in it; he admired those who took the time to whittle stone into more recognizable and intriguing shapes. The closest he’d come to sculpting was screwing around with a pottery wheel at the university, which was hardly the same thing. Sculpting always seemed to Damien to be a compromise between artistic and practical natures. As if making a three dimensional object instead of painting one’s thoughts out on canvas was a way to meet manufacturers halfway. Still, it was a skill he didn’t have and one he wanted just to say that he could do it. If Trent learned, Damien might find himself asking the other man for lessons.

The thought dried out Damien’s throat a little. He was getting ahead of himself and putting pride aside far quicker than he was comfortable with.

"So what's your favorite kind of art Damien?"

“I’m a painter and a fan of impressionism,” Damien said, thankful for the change in subject. “I do what I can to bring elements of it into my own work. You know… thousands of brushstrokes to approximate an image. But on a closer look, it doesn’t look quite like it does when you take some steps back. I love the illusion of it.”

And of course France had produced some of the best impressionists. Renoir, for one. Degas, Monet, Sisley. Damien didn’t fool himself, didn’t trick himself into believing that Blackwood-Michaud would be among the names of Impressionist Era greats. Instead, he hoped to be part of a throwback movement of sorts that combined modern subjects and sensibilities with impressionist techniques. Recognized in his own right for his own aesthetic.

“Any particular style you associate with, Trent?”

[RaeRae]

Trent Williams

Trent tilted his head a bit and then finished off his coffee. Trent was pretty sure if he ever tried sculpting and it went well, he'd probably just do it as a hobby, or when his painting was lacking. It would be an interesting venture at least. Then he asked Damien what sort of art he liked.

"I'm a painter and a fan of impressionism. I do what I can to being elements of it in to my own work. You know...thousands of brushstrokes to approximate an image. But on a closer look, it doesn't look quite like it does when you take some steps back. I love the illusion of it." The man answered.

"Impressionism is pretty neat." He agreed. "I'm more a fan of surrealism, Salvidor Dali and the like." He asked when Damien asked what kind of style Trent associated himself with. "Personally I like doing a realistic-type painting and then adding a bit of surrealism to it." Like that painting he'd sold to tourist last month. A painting of the scene outside this cafe, except the people were robots instead of people, but it all blended together. But...his work really did depend on his mood.

Some days he would paint strictly realistic, just abstract, landscapes, people, Trent enjoyed working on the fly. Maybe he could start advertising a portrait service...that was an idea.

[The Exodus]

OOC: Please forgive me for the length of time it’s taken me to get back to you. I got stumped. I hope this post doesn’t suck! BIC:

Damien Blackwood-Michaud

Trent conceded that Impressionism was “neat”, but said that he preferred Surrealism. It took a certain type of imagination to do surrealist art, but for Damien, technique was what most mattered. Surrealism was hit and miss with technique. Fortunately, Trent cited Dali as one of his favorites and Dali’s technique was spot-on. Damien nodded. Conversation turned once more to Trent’s personal artistic statements.

"Personally I like doing a realistic-type painting and then adding a bit of surrealism to it," Trent said. Damien considered this for a moment. Surrealism really was more a state of mind than an artistic technique, the more he thought about it. He wondered what the inside of Trent’s mind must have looked like, if he could express realism and surrealism on the same canvas.

“What would you call that?” Damien asked. “Realistic surrealism? Surreal realism? There’s got to be a name for it…?”