#When in every other medium colors absolutely ruin any and all projects

[sunfloo-wers]

Ope, I’ve done the clothing I wonder what time it is now,

SKINNNNNNNNN

the bane and joy of my existence yayyyyyy

[1lymark]

yellow paint blues || renjun

→ summary: a few hours before renjun needs to submit his art project, he realizes that he’s run out of yellow paint. luckily, you’re there to help (or not.) → genre: fluff, humor, college!au → words: 3.2K → a/n: dedicated to mary, my lovely patron. as always, this got way out of hand and got longer than i anticipated. i hope you enjoy!

Renjun had thought that the art course would be an easy A. He hadn’t needed the easy A to begin with anyway––his grades in every other course were beyond stellar, so most people would probably assume that he was doing it to pass time or to gain extra credits. Or so, that was what he wanted people to assume.

In reality, he had signed up for the course because you had wanted to. It wasn’t like you asked him to accompany him; he recalled you mentioning the course in passing a week before registration and somehow, that little comment had wormed its way to the forefront of his mind as he clicked “ADD COURSE” to his already packed schedule.

“Should be easy enough,” he assured himself, patting his own shoulder in untimely congratulations as he thought of the extra three hours in a week that he would get to hang out with you. After all, Renjun’s art skills weren’t shabby, so surely this could not go wrong in any way possible.

He forgot, in his hubris, about the tantalizing taste that procrastination had to offer. The sweet nectar that he had yet to conquer in all his years of education had once again enticed him like a fly to a fire. It was inevitable, and yet… how could he have been so blind?

So there he was, in his room at one in the morning, with more paint on his fingers than he had on his canvas. The blank surface taunted him in his mind, laughing hysterically at the cruel fate he had assigned to himself in the name of love.

The project should have been simple enough: it was a self-expression piece, wherein the objective was to present what makes them happiest. His professor was lenient to the point of negligent, allowing her students to use any medium they pleased for this first assignment. Macaroni and glue, string and popsicle sticks, scrap paper with a drunken doodle… She was open-minded to anything under the sun. However, the thing about Renjun was that he was an overachiever to a fault, so even though he could’ve theoretically slapped a Spotify playlist together on a CD and called it a day, he simply was not spiritually able to hand in anything less than perfect.

So of course Renjun chose to paint for his first project. Painting wasn’t even his strongest suit, but he wanted to challenge himself, or so he said when he had loudly announced that to you almost a week ago.

A week ago. He had an entire week to finish, with no other pressing assignments or tests in between, and yet he still found himself in this predicament. Thus was the fate of unending suffering that every university student must face.

You had texted him a few hours ago, asking to see a picture of his work. Despite your excitement to take this course, you had always been a bit self-conscious about your art pieces, though you have never expressed this to anyone. Renjun could see it in the way that you would close in on yourself when people ask to see your work, quickly redirecting the conversation elsewhere once people have their eyes off of you.

Not him though––you always showed each other your works. It made Renjun’s heart race just a little bit every time you exposed this side of yourself, and so he made a promise to always give you any sort of reassurance you might need.

Unfortunately for this time, he was a bit too busy trying not to drown in his own irresponsibility to answer you properly when you had texted.

to: renjunnie from: y/n-chi

hey!! how’s your project holding up? can i see yours? i finished mine just now and idk if i’m happy with it tbh…

to: y/n-chi from: renjunnie

not… going well… send reinforcements… T_T i think i’m gonna rot now…

to: renjunnie from: y/n-chi

eh??? the infallible huang renjun is suffering??? from a first year art assignment??? someone call the catholics, because i think the rapture is coming

to: y/n-chi from: renjunnie

y/n don’t be mean >:( this is srs!! i think i have inhaled enough paint fumes to fail a drug test by now

to: renjunnie from: y/n-chi

tsk. that’s what you get for procrastinating, babe. sending my thoughts and prayers!! txt me updates so i know you don’t die from paint ingestion ^^

If you weren’t so god damn cute, he would have smothered you (with his love) by now. Even if you didn’t know it, your texts had given him enough motivation to get something on the canvas, even though none of his drafts seemed to be good enough at the moment.

What was it that made Renjun happy, anyway? He liked listening to music, but that was as generic as it gets… Who didn’t like music? He also liked reading and travelling, though those don’t seem to be too appealing to paint either. Some of his friends had joked that he should just paint a bunch of Moomin, so that he wouldn’t really need to paint because it would mostly be white anyway.

Those things just seemed too shallow for him. While they were things that he enjoyed, he wouldn’t want to be that guy who showed up to class with a half-assed doodle and some stupid explanation like “happiness is what you make of it.” No, he would be better than that.

There was something quite obvious that he could use for his project, or rather, someone. It would be too embarrassing though––not that he was embarrassed of you, by any means. He just wasn’t brave enough to do it, not yet at least. Someday, he’ll have the heart to tell you his feelings, but for now… he was stuck with a blank canvas and an emptier mind.

The clock read 3:30AM when Renjun had decided to throw all his morals to the wind and just paint a field of sunflowers out of desperation. He thought that if all else failed, maybe he would submit that and say something about how he remembered going to a place like that in his childhood. It would be a complete lie, since his family hardly went out to nature spots like that, but at least you would like the painting. Sunflowers were your favorite, after all.

Halfway through his painting however, he realized that his tube of yellow paint was looking awfully empty. He squeezed it as much as he could, scrapping it out as much of the remaining paint as physically possible.

“Crap,” he moans out, looking at his half-colored canvas forlornly. There were still at least six sunflowers to be painted, though he had already painted most of the background. This couldn’t do; he had no time to start over. The art supply shop didn’t open until at least 9AM, but his classes start shortly after that. There was no way he could pull this off at this rate. Unless…

He reached for his phone from his table, almost tripping over his easel in his haste to grab it. He knew you were an early riser, though he doubted you’d be awake even at this ungodly hour. He just hoped to whatever entity up in the clouds that you would pick up your phone and not start cussing him out for ruining your sleep. Though it was hard to imagine you getting mad at him for anything, as he knew you always had a bit of a soft spot for him.

To his relief, you answered on the fifth ring.

“Hello?” You murmured quietly, voice still sounding rough with sleep. Renjun could hear you smacking your lips sleepily, the mental image of it all eliciting a grin on his face. He wanted to know how you looked right now, with your impossibly cute bedhead and droopy eyes.

“Y/N? You awake?”

You yawned, the sound of rustling sheets accompanying your reply. “I am now, I guess. It’s… 4AM? What gives? You don’t normally wake this early. Unless…”

“Yup,” Renjun sighed, head hanging in defeat. “Kinda haven’t slept all night. The project isn’t coming along too well.”

“Aww,” you cooed. Renjun perked up a little at your tone.

Then, “Tough shit.”

Renjun flinched at that, staring wide-eyed at his phone before returning it to his ear. “Excuse me?”

“Well, if you hadn’t been goofing off the entire week before, you wouldn’t be in this mess, would you? Now excuse me… I have another two hours of sleep before my alarm is supposed to go off, so I’ll see you later! Peace,” was all you said before promptly hanging up.

The room was silent as Renjun stood in the middle of his room, shocked beyond all belief. Was that really you that he had just spoken to? Where was the kind, empathetic friend he had come to know and love? Perhaps lack of sleep really does change a person for the worse.

Undeterred by your rejection, Renjun decided to head over to your house anyway. Was he probably going to get his ass handed to him for disturbing you even more? Probably. Was he willing to face the consequences of your fiery wrath? Absolutely. Was he going to enjoy getting berated by you as he stared, lovestruck, at your cute pajamas and angry, puffy eyes? Undoubtedly.

Luckily, your house was only a few blocks away, although Renjun still ran all the way because he was (maybe, slightly, on a little bit) afraid of the dark. So what if he screamed a little when a cat jumped out of some trashcans? No one saw, and that was all that mattered.

He arrived at your place in record time, the dark window panes indicating that you were still, in fact, asleep. He tried opening the door to no avail, not being able to find the spare key you used to place under the mat. With no other option in sight, there was one last thing he could do…

Tap. Tap. Tap.

There was something tapping incessantly against your window for a couple minutes now. At first, you had ignored the sound completely, assuming that it was the first drops of rain before a storm. After a while, you began to realize that rain did not sound like that, and it reminded you more like a finger tapping or knocking. That was impossible though, because you lived on the second floor of a shared house. Surely, it wasn’t what you thought it was––

Before you could contemplate further, you phone started to ring for the second time that night, and the pieces of the puzzle immediately fall into place. It was him, that fucking bastard. Grumbling loudly, you grasped your phone against your ear, a chain of swears tumbling out of your lips quicker than any seasoned rapper out there.

“Wait, Y/N! Lemme explain—“

“Renjun, I swear if I go downstairs right now and find you throwing pebbles at my window to disrupt my sleep even further, you better believe I’m calling the cops on you, friend or not!”

“I just need yellow paint!” He cried out, loud enough that you can hear him from outside. You hiss at him to keep quiet, worried that his noise would also wake up your roommates.

“No, Renjun! You have to learn to be more responsible! You can’t always expect things to go your way without proper preparation! 4.0 GPA or not, I’m not letting you keep doing this––hold on,” you paused, stopping mid-sentence. There had been loud thunk just outside your bedroom wall. There was a suspicious lack of response on Renjun’s end, though you can hear his heavy breathing through the speakers. You slipped out of your covers, padding your way to the window. You peered over, squinting blearily at the darkness of the night.

“Renjun? What are you––“ You gasped before finishing, slamming open the windows and letting the cool breeze gently brush your face. The sight before you was not as great as the wind, though. “Are you fucking crazy? Stop climbing before you get hurt!”

“Almost there,” Renjun grunted, his hands grasping tightly on your ledge. You watched in stunned silence as the gangly boy hoisted himself over and into your bedroom with the ease of someone who had done that at least a few times before. It took you a while before you could find your bearings as you stood, mouth agape, at the beaming boy now standing before you with neon green paint on his cheek.

“Hey,” he greets, smiling.

It took all the energy in your body to keep your hand from meeting his cheek (either to caress him or to slap him? No one was for certain.) “You could’ve fucking died.”

Renjun lifted both his arms into the air and shook his legs around. He shot you a cheeky look, faking contemplativeness. “I feel pretty alive, I would say. All limbs in working order, as far as I know.”

Oh my god. You were friends with a maniac!

“This is so unlike you,” you said. “You’re never this relentlessly annoying.”

“Well, you wouldn’t let me finish my urgent plea on the phone, so of course I had to take drastic measures! I’m gonna fail this GPA booster course, and then I’ll die, and then it’ll be your fault!” He said in one breath, grin never faltering. As his gaze flitted around the room, he noticed your finished project, sitting on your desk and covered in plastic to hide its contents from the world. “Ooh, is that your submission? can I see?”

You rushed over to it, hiding it behind your back with a huff. “Absolutely not! You lost all privileges from me the moment you called me up at 4AM! Now get out of my house before I really call the cops.”

He pouted, deflating visibly. “Okay, look… I know I’m being a prick right now, but you really gotta help me! I ran out of yellow paint and you’re the only person who can help me!”

You were not sure why, but hearing that reason coming from Renjun of all people was making your blood boil in anger. He went all this way to your house, throwing pebbles out your window like some cliché romcom protagonist, even climbing up a building, just to ask for fucking yellow paint?!

“Are you hearing yourself, Huang Renjun? I’m going to kill you!” You grabbed a few of the still open paint tubes by your desk, squeezing its contents all over his clothes in a fit of rage. He gasped, crying out in anguish as globs of blue and red marred the cute little Moomins on his shirt.

“You did not just do that!” He yelled, slapping the paint out of your hands. You were pretty shocked yourself, though you can’t help but giggle a little at how flabbergasted he looked.

“That’s what you get for being ridiculous, you stupid shit––hey, stop! Put down that cup of paint water now before I––NO!”

Murky black water splashes down your left cheek and onto your pajamas, the gross, cold sensation making you splutter out indignantly at the smirking boy. “Oh my god, you absolute bastard!”

It did not take long for the argument to dissolve into a full-blown paint fight as the two of you sprayed each other with every bit of available art supply in your room. Paint, brushes, pens, and markers were launched into the air, both of you screaming in both anger and delight as you hit the other with every type of projectile imagineable.

Renjun jumped across the bed, searching your bedside table for more ammo once you managed to hoard most of them on your side. It didn’t take long for him to find one of your unopened bottles of yellow paint, and he hooted in victory as he held it up in the air like a trophy.

“Yes, I found it! Ceasefire, Y/N! I got what I wanted!”

“And you think I’m supposed to stop just because you’re happy?” You screeched back, readying a large amount of black paint on one of your paintbrushes like a makeshift catapult. “Drop that paint bottle if you wanna live, Renjun!”

It was in that moment when one of your roommates suddenly barged in to the scene, her entire being blazing with heat as she furiously accessed the room. There you were, paint dripping from every inch of your body, with a similarly painted boy on the other side of your bed with a little 50mL bottle of yellow paint in his open fist. No one made a sound for a moment, afraid to explain what the hell you both were doing, until––

“I’m not even going to ask. Just shut up before I get you evicted,” Yeri growled, slamming the door with the frame rattling in her wake.

“Oh god, she’s going to kill me tomorrow,” you moaned, dropping the paintbrush and dropping your head against your newly painted bed. Not looking at him, you pointed your finger in his general direction, forcing him to stop as he tried to covertly escape through the window. “Don’t you dare move another muscle. You are helping me clean my room before class, or so help me I’ll paint angry eyebrows on all your Moomin plushies.”

That got him moving to help you quickly, at least. With the two of you working together instead of fighting, you managed to get all your bedsheets into the washer and most of the paint splatters removed from your walls and floor in record time. Thankfully there wasn’t much damage on your room, as you and Renjun were the main casualties of the paint war.

While the two of you finished up, you hadn’t realized that the sun had already begun its approach into the sky, meaning that it was time to get ready for class.

“Shit, I won’t be able to shower in time,” you whined, fruitlessly picking at the paint clumping your hair together. You gave Renjun the evil eye, who had the decency to look sheepish at least.

“Wait, hold that thought,” he said, grasping your hand in his as he appraised you with an odd look. His brows were furrowed, thinking deeply as he traced the strokes of yellow and blue on your cheeks, all the way to your neck. His proximity made the blood rush to your face, and you hoped that the paint was doing a good job covering your flush.

It was an odd sensation, feeling so aware of your friend’s presence. You never noticed how cute he looked until that moment, when he was so focused and thoughtful like this. He had always looked handsome to you, but for whatever reason, the dash of red on the corner of his lip never looked more enticing than it did then.

After a bit more staring, he smiled softly at you, tucking a bit of your hair behind your ear with the sort of gentleness that you have come to associate with him. Your stupid, funny, smart, lovable Renjun. The only boy that you could never stay mad at.

“I think I have my submission for my art project right here,” he said, simply and honestly.

You giggled a bit, not quite understanding. “Well, you got the yellow paint, right? Shouldn’t you head home and try to finish your painting before class starts? You got a bit of time, I think.”

He shook his head, cupping your face like something to be held. Like something to be admired. There was something blooming inside your chest; a field of sunflowers, all of them reaching towards the light right in front of you.

The sun grinned at you, and the sunflowers rejoiced. “Nah. I think I’m good. More than good.”  

[backtozeon]

Dear Fans of Watchmen, Hello there. My name is Damon Lindelof and I am a writer. I am also the unscrupulous bastard currently defiling something that you love. But that’s not all that I am. I am a twelve-year old boy being handed the first two issues by my father. “You’re not ready for this,” he growls with a glint of mischief in his eye. My parents have recently divorced and he has gone rogue, so there I am in my bed, flashlight beam illuminating pages, watching the Comedian fall again and again and again. The old man was wrong. I am ready for this. Because this was written just for me. I am thirty-eight. A man offers me the opportunity to adapt Watchmen for television. The filmed adaptation came out less than a year ago, but that doesn’t matter. I tell him I am not interested and that perhaps he should let sleeping dogs lie with hopes they will eventually be run over by a car tire, bursting their stomachs. He does not get the reference. I am watching my father haggle with a man in a wheelchair. I am fifteen years old and we are at a comic book convention in New York City, long before attending a comic book convention was something anyone wanting to ever have sex with another person would admit to. I definitely want to have sex with another person. My father finally harangues the merchant down to thirty dollars for a guaranteed authentic screenplay of Watchmen, soon to be a major motion picture! Now, he reads aloud from the script as “The Watchmen” battle terrorists at The Statue of Liberty. Something is wrong. The old man’s brow furrows, scanning the text in a mixture of disappointment and rage, a child who has just been told that Santa didn’t bring him presents this year, then robbed the house and beat up his parents. “What the fuck is this?” my father mutters. It is the first time he swears in front of me. Another man offers me the opportunity to adapt Watchmen for television. I am forty now. I tell him someone else asked me to do this a year ago and I declined. He inquires as to why I said no. I tell him that Alan Moore has been consistently explicit in stating that Watchmen was written for a very specific medium and that medium is comics, comics that would be ruined should they be translated into moving images. The Another Man pauses for a moment, then responds – “Who’s Alan Moore?” I am twenty-three and living in Los Angeles. My father flies out from New Jersey for my birthday and gives me a present, a new edition of the “graphic novel” that is Watchmen. He explains to me that this is the publisher’s way of retaining the rights to the characters. He tells me that Dan and Adrian and Jon and Walter and Laurie are all serfs, working the land for a Feudal Lord that will never grant them freedom. My father is more than a little drunk.. More so, he is a hypocrite for buying me the new edition. “I know, I know…” he says, that same mischievous glint from years ago obscured by now thicker lenses, “But it’s so goddamned good.” Yet Another Man offers me the opportunity to adapt Watchmen for television. “Just a pilot,” he says, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” I am forty-three now and I am thinking about something I read about Orthodox Judaism. While most religions are cultivated by evangelizing and conversion, Orthodox Judaism doesn’t solicit. If someone from another faith wishes to become an Orthodox Jew, they are rejected. If they are stubborn enough to ask again, they are denied even more harshly. But should they have the audacity to ask a third time? The door cracks open. And if they’re willing to invest an immense amount of time and effort and sacrifice and faith, they are embraced into the fold. Why am I thinking about this? I have said no to Watchmen twice now. This makes me Orthodox Judaism. I crack the door. And now I’m a hypocrite too. I am standing over my father’s hospital bed. I am twenty-nine, the last age at which I will consider myself “young.” The breathing tube was removed two hours ago and they said he wouldn’t last longer than fifteen minutes. It’s a cliché. I’m living a trope. He is unconscious and unable to impart final wisdom nor tell me he was proud all along, even though he never said it out loud. There is no beeping machine showing his weakening heartrate. My father is beyond machines. I hold his cool hand and try not to pray to God because he detested the very idea of God so instead I pray to his gods. I pray to Cthulhu. I pray to 42, the Eternal Cosmic Number. I pray to Dr. Manhattan, far away in a galaxy less complicated than this one. The television is on and the Lakers win the championship. My father never cared about basketball. He didn’t even know the rules. When he dies, I finally understand that I don’t know the rules either. No one does. I am forty-five and I am writing a letter to the fans. The fans of Watchmen. It’s unnecessarily wordy and an exercise in oversharing, but nothing gets people on your side more than telling them about the moment your father died. Sharing such intimate details with strangers feels needy and pathetic and exploitative and yucky and necessary and freeing. I am also looking for an elegant way to escape from this device of quantum observance, a device appropriated from Mr. Moore so that I can speak to those fans from the bottom of my cold, thieving heart. Perhaps I could switch from referring to them in the third person and shift into the second, thus bringing them closer to the first? Would that be amenable to you? First and foremost, if you are angry that I’m working on Watchmen, I am sorry. You may be thinking I can’t be that sorry or I wouldn’t be doing it. I concede the point, but I hope it doesn’t invalidate the apology, which I offer with sincerity and respect. Respect. That’s second and twicemost. I have an immense amount of respect for Alan Moore. He is an extraordinary talent of mythic proportion. I wrote him a letter, parts of which are not dissimilar to this one, because I owed him an explanation as to why I’m defying his wishes and to humbly ask him not to place a curse on me because he knows magic and apparently, he can do that. His response, or whether he responded at all, is between he and I. Suffice to say, even before I sent it, Mr. Moore had made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t want anyone to “adapt” his work. To do so is hubris. Worse yet, it’s unethical. There are a million ways to rationalize unethical behavior – I could argue that Mr. Moore’s partner, the brilliant artist, Dave Gibbons, is equally entitled to authorize access to his masterwork and that he has been kind enough to offer us his blessing to do so. Or I could offer that Mr. Moore cut his veined teeth on the creations of others; Batman, Superman, Captain Britain, Marvelman (he’ll never be “Miracleman” to me), Swamp Thing and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, not to mention The Charlton characters upon whom his Watchmen characters are based… So am I not allowed to do the same? No. I am not. I am not allowed. And yet… I am compelled. I am compelled despite the inevitable pushback and hatred I will understandably receive for taking on this particular project. This ire will be maximally painful because of its source. That source being you. The true fans. I once said that if one were a true fan of something, they weren’t allowed to hate it. A prominent writer took me to task for such heresy, arguing that just because one was the creator of a show, this did not permit them to pick and choose who was and wasn’t a fan of it. The writer went on to win a Pulitzer for television criticism. I went on to get snubbed by the Razzies for Prometheus. As such, I concede this point, too. After all, even the most fervent lifelong fan of, oh, let’s say the New York Jets, is allowed to shout at the top of his lungs, “YOU SUCK OH MY GOD YOU SUUUUUUUUUCKIII II” and do so while wearing a replica Namath Jersey he purchased for an ungodly sum of money that may or may not have constituted his entire first paycheck on Nash Bridges. But the point. The point is, you love Watchmen. That gives you the right to hate it, too. Because no matter what… You’re still true fans. But to quote the immortal P.W. Herman… “I know you are… But what am IT’ What am I? I’m a true fan, too. And I’m not the only one. What I love most about television is that the finished product is a result not of singular vision, but the collective experience of many brilliant minds. I have the pleasure of sitting in a Writers Room each and every day that is as diverse and combative as any I’ve ever been a part of. In that room, Hetero White Men like myself are in the minority and as Watchmen is (incorrectly) assumed to be solely our domain, understanding its potential through the perspectives of women, people of color and the LGBTQ community has been as eye-opening as it has been exhilarating. We’ve committed to doing the same in front of and behind the camera. And every single person involved with this show absolutely adores Watchmen. But in the spirit of complete honesty, we also sorta want to… uh… Disrupt it? Except I hate that word because now it’s not disruptive anymore. And how can I present as punk rock when I’m now cozy in bed, spooning with Warner Brothers, HBO and DC? Truth be told, everyone there, particularly Geoff Johns (who is as true fan as it gets) has been extraordinarily supportive. Sure, it’s fun to kick around the comic corporate overlords for exploiting writers and artists, but we all know what happened to Jack Kirby and we’re still first in line for every Marvel film. So… how do we answer the challenge of when it is appropriate to appropriate? Which brings us to the most important part. Maybe the only part that really matters. Our creative intentions. We have no desire to “adapt” the twelve issues Mr. Moore and Mr. Gibbons created thirty years ago. Those issues are sacred ground and they will not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted. They will, however be remixed. Because the bass lines in those familiar tracks are just too good and we’d be fools not to sample them. Those original twelve issues are our Old Testament. When the New Testament came along, it did not erase what came before it. Creation. The Garden of Eden. Abraham and Isaac. The Flood. It all happened. And so it will be with Watchmen. The Comedian died. Dan and Laurie fell in love. Ozymandias saved the world and Dr. Manhattan left it just after blowing Rorschach to pieces in the bitter cold of Antarctica. To be clear. Watchmen is canon. Just the way Mr. Moore wrote it, the way Mr. Gibbons drew it and the way the brilliant John Higgins colored it. But we are not making a “sequel” either. This story will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built… but in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original. It has to vibrate with the seismic unpredictability of its own tectonic plates. It must ask new questions and explore the world through a fresh lens. Most importantly, it must be contemporary. The Old Testament was specific to the Eighties of Reagan and Thatcher and Gorbachev… ours needs to resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin and the horse that he rides around on, shirtless. And speaking of Horsemen, The End of The World is off the table (THE LEFTOVERS! NOW STREAMING ON HBO GO!) which means the heroes and villains — as if the two are distinguishable — are playing for different stakes entirely. The tone will be fresh and nasty and electric and absurd. Many describe Watchmen as “dark,” but I’ve always loved its humor -worshipping at the altar of the genre whilst simultaneously trolling it. As such… Some of the characters will be unknown. New faces. New masks to cover them. We also intend to revisit the past century of Costumed Adventuring through a surprising, yet familiar set of eyes… and it is here where we’ll be taking our greatest risks. Risk is imperative. I need the feeling in my stomach before I leap from a great height without knowing the depth of the water below. If my body should shatter upon impact, at least it was in pursuit of glory. And let’s be honest… Isn’t there a small part of you that wants to see me explode like a fleshy watermelon? But hopefully, there’s also a part that wants to experience something sort of amazing. As for what I want? I want your validation. I also want not to want it. I’ve given up the opioid highs of Twitter, but continue to score my methadone in the threads of Reddit and the hot takes of morning-after recappers. I’ll be reading and watching and listening to what you have to say because even though I wish I didn’t… I deeply care about what you think. Which brings us, Thank God, to the end of the missive. Endings. I’m GREAT at them. A wise, blue man once said that nothing ever ends. But maybe he wasn’t wise. Maybe he was just scared and alone and sad that he would outlive everything and everyone he ever loved. So I hope this isn’t the last time we correspond, fellow fans… after all, it’s just a pilot and we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. But maybe… if everything works out the way I hope it does… and if you’re willing to give me a chance, it’s not the end at all… It’s the beginning? With Respectful Hubris, -Damon

[lonesomealley]

The Beginner’s Guide as a Proper Beginner’s Guide SCRIPT

Why The Beginner’s Guide is a proper beginner’s guide.

By Count_

Spoiler Warning / Opening

Warning, this is the obligatory spoiler warning, if you have not played The Beginner’s Guide I fully recommend that you purchase it for full price and play it. Although if you do not have money, I would recommend that you then go and watch a YouTube let’s play of the experience because you can effectively get the same experience from both despite what some people say. In the description below is a link to a silent let’s play that I recorded which is what was used as the footage for parts of this video. Please watch or play this experience and then come back and watch this video, it won’t be going anywhere. Also, just in case you may want to listen to this video purely through audio, you may miss out on many of the examples that I’ll be flashing up in the backgrounds of my commentary. Spoiler warning over in 3… 2… 1...

The Beginner’s Guide is a narrative experience created by the brilliant mind of Davey Wreden. What ensues is a hybrid of a first and second person narrative where the player walks about the small -death of the author like- 3D environment projects created by an ominous character named Coda. And over time the player begins to learn that the narrator, Davey Wreden himself, isn’t to be entirely trusted. Keeping details of the game emitted until Coda them self leaves a message explaining why they aren’t around anymore.

My overview of this information is so simple because the experience itself is not what the video’s about. The video you’re watching is a case study into how the player can use The Beginner’s Guide as a valuable resource when working on their own passion projects. Since i have played The Beginner's Guide over ten times now, I can say with certainty that there is a lot more here than just an interesting drama. The name “The Beginner’s Guide” not only reflects genius work but is also a dive into the basics of how to make art, media, writing, etc. I’m led to believe that the topics I’m about to discuss hasn’t been considered all too much either, because when looking into the idea there doesn’t appear to be any documentation on these concepts. So what I’m going to talk about are ways that I feel the medium of passion work can be pushed to the absolute limits. Here are some timestamps on screen and they will be in the description if you wish to click past the parts that don’t seem interesting to you.

Case 1: Build with a Purpose

It’s arguable to say that the levels in The Beginner’s Guide are somewhat poorly constructed at times and even amateur. Which is interesting when you take into account that Wreden is taking us on a journey through a collection of amateur environment-story telling projects. And in turn this property makes these levels believable, the player actually feels like they are going through levels produced by someone who isn’t getting paid for their work. Now some people will say that this argument simply exists to dodge criticism but hear me out. Would the experience really be strengthened by having highly polished and professional levels that give the idea that these levels were created by a professional while talking about a single character who simply created these games for them self? No, no it wouldn’t. Wreden even uses this as a plot device when talking about the house level, where he states: [VIDEO CLIP WHERE DAVEY CALLS OUT THE INCREASING QUALITY]. Obviously something to consider when paying attention to the release dates of Coda’s works.

This may seem obvious to some, but those who are just starting off in design should make sure that everything they create has a purpose. I especially find myself in a loop of not really knowing what I want to do because I don’t have a grasp on what is important to developing the world I am trying to show off. What’s the solution? You can build the essentials of a project piece and then add the meaningless details later. Just make sure those meaningless details don’t ruin the overall purpose you are trying to give your work. Although that is no reason for the developers to become lazy with their work; that’s not what is being advertised here. What’s trying to be said is to make everything believable because immersion is one of the preeminent, vital ‘organs’ of passion design. Just like mentioned above, Wreden intentionally made everything appear amateur not to ease his workload, but to convince they player these games were truly made by someone else in their spare time. And from here, the player is given a gateway into the convincing mind of an imaginary character.

A few examples come to mind, such as the environment changing as you move through it to imply the player is in a dreamlike state. Or the player is experiencing the world through the eyes of a grumpy old man who is dying and dissatisfied with his life, so you show the world around in him a different light to reflect this: Dirty textures, things dying underneath the character as he walks around the environment. How about a character that suffers from PTSD triggered from symbolistic objects, and so the developer may make those symbols stand out from the environment, something as simple as making the object colorless in a colorful environment. All of these ideas are relatively simple, yet their impact should not underestimated when it comes to storytelling.

Another thought to maintain as well, keep things simple yet use complexity to your advantage. The literal language that I am speaking right now is based on using simplistic words and sounds to communicate ideas to each other. It’s when one starts applying complexity to an idea and object that it makes such stand out from all of the other ideas and objects. If you’re writing a story for example, you won’t describe every single object in the story unless it provides a gateway to deeper plot devices and storytelling. I can say, “The child tiptoed across the floor.” in a scenario where nothing

else is important except that the child tiptoed across the floor. To add complexity onto this sentence, I can apply details like, “The child tiptoed across the floor in the darkest hours of night.” Now what we have is a situation where a child is probably sneaking around somewhere to avoid something. Finally I can add detailing about the floor, “The child tiptoed across the wooden, creaky flooring at the darkest hours of night.” Now what we have is a sentence that implies a form of danger and performance. It can be important that the child tiptoes across the creaky floor to avoid his parents hearing them, or possibly that they’re trying to escape a monster. There’s even an example of this in the material, you notice these characters? All of them have a distinct box on their head that indicates what role they have in the story. Except for this one. Why? Because it can be inferred that this is a representation of a person from the real world, and that these are prop characters used for a story, whether it be Coda or just a random character used to pull off this idea.

How The Beginner’s Guide pulls off this technique is very subtle, yet when the player looks past the melancholy story and strange environments, they can find how perfectly everything fits into the grand scale of Wreden’s creation. This idea can be applied to most other reputable games as well. If you don't believe me, try looking at your favorite video game, movie, or story, and look at how perfectly the world is crafted simply because everything was created with a purpose.

Case 2: Every POV’s a Screenshot

This next topic drops off the storytelling side of passion design for a little bit, and is more purely about visual design such as video games, painting, and even photography, sprinkled in with some audio design, yet primarily video games since they enact interactivity. If you’re looking for tips on how to do storytelling and are not interested in anything else, you can skip to the next case in the video. Although I would recommend sticking around for this part if you are looking to give your audience a unique mental image to remember your work.

Imagine being placed into a plain, grey, room. No doors, no windows, just you and your mind, starved of entertainment Then all of a sudden, the wall transforms into this bizarre rainbow tunnel or the wall starts getting really trippy. Which one looks better? This, or this [of course showing examples]. If a photographer were to take a picture of either room, which do you think will sell better to an audience? Here is an example from the level Mobius, the player is in a spaceship with a giant door hurdling itself at the ship. Look at this screenshot, everything feels crafted in a way that looks like a work of art, with the main focus being the large colliding space door. Think of abnormalities like this and start applying them everywhere. Except in this scenario, the abnormality only exist because of a painfully plain existence within a controlled environment. Sometimes the abnormalities are subtle enough that it resonates with the observer and becomes something of beauty. Then there are large collections of these abnormalities, which interact with each other to create environments, paintings, defining words scrawled out onto a page. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re wondering “what I am talking about.”

To actually understand the insanity of the first paragraph I need to explain the idea of abnormalities, because believe it or not, our entire reality is made up of those abnormalities. When walking outside everyday, the average person may not take notice of everything around them because they are familiar with the area. Now think of someone who has never been in that environment before, such as a tourist who missed their flight and are stranded in that same environment. Everything feels very strange to them, and they will be wary of their surroundings, keeping an eye out for threats as well as useful places like hotels and fast food joints. What may be a boring town for one person could be seen as mysterious by another. The world is abnormal when you think about it, because all of our standards are different from each other. Google’s definition of abnormal is: “Deviating from what is normal or usual, typically in a way that is undesirable or worrying.” Now then you have to ask the question, “What is normal?” which isn’t an easy or even consistent question to ask on a methodical level. Things that are normal are those that ‘conform to a standard,’ yet now there is another problem, what is the standard? Everyone has different standards, though most of us agree that certain topics are normal and others are not, such as murder, rape, mass genocide, war. But there is always a niche, and in an established society those niches are serial killers, people who are deemed mentally unstable, nazis, and savages. And while I could rant all day about these people, they do exist, and they find such normal offenses such as rape and murder to be normal. Normality is completely subjective from person to person, and is only the result of previous experience and morals. The world is a set of abnormalities that creates ultimately what is normal, and this correlates strongly with video games.

The idea pushed here is to make your environments interesting; worthy of having photos taken. I can go through several screenshots that are beautiful, weird, and enlightening about what meaning the author is pushing forward from their work. And don’t forget that we are working with full 3D environments that allow for movement, sound, and a lot of visual freedom. Rooms with unassuming visuals may be bolstered in-game by a memorable soundtrack or symbolic meaning. Before you ask, yes I am clearly stating that you should also encourage players to take audio screenshots, A.K.A. making memorable music. Especially since it’s often said that audio is 51% when making videos [POINT TO CITATION], and that applies here [POINT BACK TO VIDEO GAME] where the landscape never comes across as empty, but rather rewards the player for looking around and listening in. Simply turning around in some of the levels is enough to give off an entirely different feel. And most of the time that feeling in The Beginner’s Guide is reflection, a need to look back on what you just experienced. Although in your own medium, this feeling can be anything: surprise, shock, confusion, even confidence if you play the cards right.

One critique I’ve seen commonly used against Wreden’s works is that they’re pretentious, sometimes saying that these interactive experiences are just glorified movies. I’m not going to go at destroying this criticism, I was just trying to be clever with my topic transitions, but I will provide why this is relevant soon. So we shouldn’t forget that emotions and feelings are purely mental, along with instincts and logic. Abusing the whims of the human brain can lead to player attachment, interest, immersion, and practices with logical thinking. If the designer places a bunch of strange figures in a room in a certain manner, the player may ask themselves, “Why have they done this?” or think to themselves “Why does this seem to have so much importance even though I don’t immediately understand it?” From here the player will begin to develop their own understanding of the world and what your creations mean to them. The player often becomes the played when going through passion work, because it is expected that the player feels certain emotions and thinks about certain objects in the environment. Though that said, it should be pointed out that a good creator should never need to force a meaning toward it’s players *unless again it is for a pivotal reason within the work, again comparable to Wreden’s narration.* Okay now that this information has been told: what does any of this have to do with pretension? Because while there is no need for The Beginner’s Guide to be interactive, that doesn’t mean there’s no benefit received from this interactivity. The case can be argued that being able to control your own camera in these environments allows the player to further bond with whatever they are faced with. Does the player really need to pay $10 for interactivity? Well if this were a movie instead, the player would still need to pay money in order to watch the movie.

Having a great understanding of the world and what can and cannot be by reality is a strong starting point for anyone who wants to make interesting worlds out of their works. Especially today where the lands of drama and sadness in passion really only cover the basis of love and money, there is a lot of room for unique creativity. So use this knowledge in order to direct your audience toward a place that might just allow them to ponder your creativity and spread it far. *Just a side note: I kind of went on a rant here but I hope that you were able to tap into my mind there and pick up all of what I was trying to explain.*

Case 3: Place Your 4th Wall Somewhere Else

Funnily enough, the entire reason that this part exist in the first place is due to another video created by Ian Danskin (aka Innuendo Studios) titled, “The Artist is Absent, Davey Wreden and The Beginner’s Guide”. In this video essay Danskin states the following: [VIDEO CLIP]. And I know later he goes back on this statement but bear with me. While I watched, I had an epiphany: “ isn’t Davey just a disembodied character who really doesn’t have much to do with the environments in The Beginner’s Guide?” I mean, he does have an impactful role on the environment, but not intentionally. Is it possible that the fourth wall isn’t between Davey and the audience, for which he is constantly breaking, or rather is the fourth wall behind Davey [Shitty Drawing]. So by this logic, the game actually does have a fourth wall, which mind you still does get broken, but it gets broken in a unique way.

The entire story between Coda, Wreden, and these environments is kind of like a crumbling wall, thousands of years old. Coda tries his hardest to renew the wall and build it back up to glory, yet Wreden keeps attacking it and tearing down progress. At the end of it all, Coda gets tired of trying to fight for a lost cause and opts to knock the wall down himself. The Beginner’s Guide has a very obvious beginning, middle, and end much like how the story of the castle wall I described does in the sense of a tragedy. In the beginning, the world is fine and perfect and these little projects are just beautiful. In the middle, things start getting weird and more mental and the questions start to come up. And in the end, everything is going to hell and it’s a mental breakdown of both Coda and Wreden. Except that the story gets so meta that it literally begins to destroy it’s own fourth wall as the process keeps going. Because it is established within the story that Wreden is an unreliable narrator, ironic considering he is our only narrator and the person that is immediately bonded with and trusted.

By the logic that we have setup, where Wreden isn’t a part of the story but rather he’s a part of the audience just like the player, then there becomes this strange scenario where the audience itself actually breaks down the fourth wall as the story continues. Immediately is can be assumed that these projects are for no one, they exist purely to satisfy Coda. When you start the game, Wreden even references this: [VIDEO CLIP]. Which continues to get referenced as the experience unfolds. Speaking of unfolding, at a certain point within the player’s adventure, Wreden takes notice of a lamppost at the end of a segment, and of course this is later to be blamed on Wreden for meddling with

Coda’s work. The earliest example of this act is the stairs level where Davey writes a script that allows the players to bypass an intended mechanic by the creator. If Wreden is part of the audience, but has managed to add content to these works, then surely this is some weird reverse wall where the audience is working with the story. And what is now left is a story where it’s a creator versus their audience, and sure this sounds like a common story, but it has quite the unexpected twist. The audience is not intended out of Coda’s work. Coda makes this point abundantly obvious at the end of The Beginner’s Guide when he states towards Wreden, “Would you stop taking my games and showing them to people against my wishes?” There are a lot of unique qualities about The Beginner’s Guide that make up a lot of possibilities for one to begin creating their own work. I find this experience to be a good reference point for kinds of creative works that I want to create. And I believe that there is a far land of unmarked territory that creative works could step into to; a call to become stronger than the media of today.

I imagine a story where another story is being told from the perspective of a child who is reading that story. And there are moments when the story abruptly stops for moments of time because something comes up, like the kid gets hungry or possibly his mother comes in and takes the book away from him. There can be multiple levels of fourth wall it feels like, maybe at one point there is a letter in the story that’s from the son’s father and it tells him of a tragic world where nothing matters. And from there the child talks to the reader telling them to go out and enjoy their life. Or in the case of video games, have the player personally be the protagonist, not like those games where you simply put in your name and nothing else matters but possibly you could be adding things to the game. A game where the player needs to cross a pit, but the only way to do that is to open the game’s map file and manually add in a bridge of their own. At the end of it all though it could just be said, “Well the wall always rests between the player and what’s inside of the experience.” I simply don’t agree, the fourth wall should be a rather subjective thing because it allows for an expansive idea for how to write a narrative. Everything about creative work is subjective really, and while we refer to our ancestors, times change, and to keep up with the changing times, there should be a change in the possibilities of reality, or as I’m talking here: original works.

This case is much more about opportunity rather than it is logic, or standards of writing. Being capable of shifting the mechanics of how a innovative work can operate allows for much more expansion for how new, high quality work is even produced and what that entails. To begin shifting those mechanics, one must understand the basics of how to communicate and produce, which conveniently rolls back around to Ian Danskin’s video about The Beginner’s Guide, which much like mine isn’t purely about The Beginner’s Guide but heavily relies on the material for sake of topic. The video covers the fundamentals of storytelling, authorship, and communication, which has a vast amount of research dumped into the discussion. Just hold out with me a little bit longer, and then I’ll provide an annotation to this video if you’re curious.

Rephrase / Closing

No matter how many times I play The Beginner’s Guide, I will never quite get the true idea of what the story is trying to tell me. It can be inferred what the game wants me to know, but it never truly feels right to make such a concise opinion about a game that wants to be so vague about itself. It’s a piece of work that much like some of the environments in Coda’s work, appears so closed off and distant from any form of distinguishable character. Wreden has created a scenario where you can never truly know what is trying to be said, yet sprinkles enough information so that you can get pretty close. And I think this is what most stories should strive, such open ended-ness that the player or reader can come to their own conclusion of what to take away.

In my personal opinion, Wreden has created some of the most inspiring works that I have come by. It’s always the bizarre ways that a story will attempt to present itself that gets to me the most, such as the methodical lectures from Alan Watts that tells the universe in a very new but interesting way. Except I’m not talking just stories here, I’m talking art, audio, environments, our language, and the interactivity of video games. The area of passion work is currently in a weird spell where works will have tenuous story beats that allude to being more complex than what is presented simply because it’s the hip and cool thing of today. Yet none of those projects are talked about for very long, they all seem to get the cop out card for not being capable of creating anything more intriguing. Those that seek out a method of having that illusory mean something other than, “Isn’t it funny that you’re currently thinking of how weird this game is?” will often find their works to last longer than the ones that fall into this trap.

The Beginner’s Guide is a stand up in the ring of modern storytelling that I feel needs to be remembered. I mean, this video only exists because I find Davey Wreden to be a genius: [VIDEO CLIP OF THIS VIDEO IN META WAY THING]. If you haven’t picked up on this already, this entire essay is heavily biased, most of what I have talked about here stem from my own head; they aren’t based on facts. The purpose here is to inform myself and any others who are possibly lost in the crossroads of passion design, with what I hope to be a unique perspective. For anyone that is interesting in creating passion work for themselves, or believes that they can do something with the information I have provided, I highly recommend you give another play through of The Beginner’s Guide. Because as Ian Danskin says, The Beginner’s Guide is “a strange meta textual monster of an indie game”. [END]

[grafixdesigngoodies]

Finally! You’re ready to share your photography series with the world. Or new art show. Or illustration project. But how do you get the public—and potential customers—out to your event? A great poster is a good place to start.

Never had to make your own poster before? We’ve rounded up some simple poster design tips that will help bring your poster ideas to life—and make sure your next event is packed! Let’s dive in.

Sketch It Out First

Before you get started making your own poster, you’ll need an idea of how you want to present the data to your audience. While it’s tempting to cram as much information as possible on there, don’t overdo it! Crowded designs overstuffed with too much copy and information are actually less effective than simpler poster designs. When in doubt, cut it out.

Sitting down and sketching out your poster ideas on paper is a great way to help you mentally organize the info you want to share with the viewer. If you prefer to work digitally, consider wireframing your design before you get started in Photoshop (or whatever your tool of choice is).

Need some inspiration? There are tons of innovative poster designs out there making use of dramatic black-and-white minimalism, bold color choices, creative photo placement, and retro styling to lure in audiences. Browse design contest winners or cruise gorgeous online design portfolios for more ideas on how to make a poster. Feel free to download some poster templates to get started. Don’t be afraid to try new things and push boundaries to grab viewers’ attention.

Pick an Attention-Grabbing Headline

Your headline needs to snag people’s attention. It has to get them to look at your poster and read the rest of the information you’re trying to share with them.

A Halloween party, wedding, comic convention—sometimes the headline takes care of itself. This is a nice plus, since it means you can devote more time to other areas (such as typography) of your poster design. That doesn’t mean you can’t use some creativity here: a Halloween party can easily be renamed to something more spooky and ominous without sacrificing the message.

For poster designs where a headline is less obvious, it can be challenging to summarize your entire idea into a single sentence (or even a single word) that perfectly encapsulates what you wish to convey. Take the time to get this element right. Be creative! Just make sure it isn’t misleading or confusing.

Select a Nice Color Palette

Your color palette can significantly change the look of your poster design and influence viewers in subtle ways you did not expect. Chosen colors matter a great deal and can completely change the tone of your piece.

Bold colors won’t suit every design, so avoid the temptation to use super-saturated hues or bright primary colors in every poster you crank out. A band poster might look great with a black and white monochrome palette, but if you’re promoting a vegan food market, you are probably going to want something calmer and earthier.

Another popular choice these days? Pastels and earth tones. See if these trendy shades are a good fit for your next project. Just experiment and see what happens: you can have a lot of fun trying new color combinations that completely change the look and feel of a design.

Narrow Down the Details

An uncluttered poster is an eye-catching poster. Carefully consider the details you want to include. Keep only those ideas which are absolutely essential for your design. The more straightforward your presentation, the more effective the result will be.

For example: say you’re trying to promote a two-week showing of an art show at a local gallery. As a short-term event, very little info is actually required. You don’t need to put small thumbnails of every piece the artist will be showing there along with a personal biography, their photograph, and a heap of other information. Your goal is simply to pull people to the venue itself, after all. Rather than inundate people with tons of text, you need to keep it simple!

Instead, tell them the artist’s name, the location, and when they should be there and use only the artist’s best (or most recognized) piece as a sample on the poster. That’s it!

Create the Visual Hierarchy

Simply put: hierarchy is the display of information based on the importance of its role in the intended design. It determines the size of the text as well as its placement. It also guides the eye through your poster and helps the viewer to comprehend the flow of your information more easily. A good flow leads to a good design.

Now that you’re ready to create your own poster, simply rank the information you are presenting in order of importance. If your poster design contains very little text, then you can get away with a bold and simple graphic or icon. If the design is loaded with textual information, then you’ll want the text to be your focus. For that sort of design, you’ll want a big headline, with the text broken down into chunks.

There are three basic elements to this text hierarchy: headline (which we discussed earlier), subheading (a statement or bit of information that supports or reinforces the headline), and body text (the rest of the text content). Keeping text appropriately sized is important, so be certain that your headline is largest, your sub-headings are medium in size, and your body text is in the smallest font. Typically, you’ll want a single headline, but there are no limits to the number of sub-headings or chunks of body text. (Just don’t let it get too busy, remember!)

Test Your Typography

Why not focus on font instead? Using clever typography can be a super-effective method to create a minimalist design that makes a lasting impression. Here are some tips to help select the right fonts for you:

Can it be easily read at a distance? Not everyone has 20/20 vision and you want your poster to be readable. Legibility is extremely important.

Have a cool, short headline? If so, you can have a bit more fun here and choose decorative or unusual fonts. A graffiti-style font would be ideal for an urban-themed event, for example.

Are your fonts complementary? Try to make sure they match in mood and personality, or at least work well together.

Consider the context and use type that is appropriate for your design. A fundraising event would call for a very different font option than you might utilize for a gig thrown by a metal band (unless it’s a metal fundraiser!).

Limit your font selection. Ideally, keep it at two. More fonts tend to quickly become visually confusing.

There’s a lot more to it than just that, though. You also need to consider kerning (the spacing between letters), leading spaces (the distance between two adjacent lines of type), font size, weight (light, regular, and bold), line height (the distance between two lines of text), and case (upper, lower, small caps) when laying out your typography for your poster design.

Remember when we mentioned not over-crowding before? That is especially important in super-typographic designs. White space is the key to this design style: with little else to look at, your entire attention is drawn to the beautiful lettering—and your message.

Ace the Imagery

The imagery you choose is probably one of the most important aspects of your poster design. A good selection (whether it is a hand-drawn illustration, a photograph you snapped yourself, a stock image, or anything else in between) will bring your creation to life. The quality and composition of the images matter a great deal. A few rules of thumb apply here:

Check the size of your poster. Is the image resolution good enough? A 640px x 480px image is not going to work at all on a 24 inch x 36 inch printed poster. You don’t want jagged pixels ruining your design!

Use high-quality images. Go for the 20MP photo over the 4MP photo.

Match the color-mode of your project. Using a CMYK image on an RGB poster is going to produce some unusual hues that are likely to differ a great deal from your intended palette. (This is even more important if you intend on printing the poster and placing it in the physical world.)

Is the image protected by copyright? If you aren’t using your own creations, you must check whether or not you are legally allowed to use the image. Using random images you find via Google is not okay.

Work that Negative Space

Using the space available to you in new ways is a marvelous way to create unique and inspiring designs. You can effectively convey a lot of meaning without using many (or any!) words in your work. Utilizing negative space is a neat way to create impact without overloading the viewer with too much visual information. Consider experimenting with this fundamental aspect of design and seeing where it takes you! The results can be truly amazing and could prove to be a valuable artistic skill.

Slip in Some Shapes

Some designs use shapes to create visual flow and grab viewers’ interest. These sorts of designs are fun and impactful and can really catch the eye. Even better? This design challenge can really push you out of your comfort zone.

Design for Your Audience

Every element of your creative should be carefully chosen in order to maximize its visibility to your desired audience. A poster design that doesn’t speak to them should be tweaked so that you are more likely to catch their attention. For a great example of design for a particular audience, look at concert and club posters/flyers found in most cities. Typically, they are high-contrast and stylized and feature almost no information beyond the what, where, and when.

Fundraisers, on the other hand, appeal to a different sort of audience and often use less imagery in favor of more text in their designs in order to provide the required information to the desired audience and hopefully spur them to open their wallets.

Include a Good Call to Action

The call to action (CTA) is meant to get the viewer to actually act on the information your poster design provides.

To be effective, the CTA needs to be highly visible—and the most attention-grabbing part of your design. It may be a simple colored square that asks them to RSVP with an email or attend a party. Your poster design should lead their eye to the CTA and make them want to act on it. Don’t forget to share your poster online after all is said and done!

Here’s wishing you a sold-out event, every time—all thanks to your poster design!

[wen-junehui]

under the same sky (m)

Genre: Fluff/Romance, Angst, Smut, art student!Jun

Word Count: 7320

Characters: Wen Junhui/Original Female Character, Jeon Wonwoo

(a/n): Inspired by BIGBANG’s Last Dance, 2NE1′s Goodbye, and SEVENTEEN’s Smiling Flower. ♡

Paintbrushes soaked in water. Tubes of watercolor scattered across a white plastic sheet covering the hardwood floor. Sunlight poured into their apartment, the natural lighting helping to achieve the perfect stroke and shade.

Their easels were propped up against each other back to back, both of them unable to see each other’s work. They were working on the first major project of their last semester as undergraduate art majors. Their task was to create an abstract painting expressing their feelings towards the future using only watercolors. They were situated next to the tall windows in their living room, the buildings and streets of Seoul in a landscape view below hoping to provide them with some inspiration.

For him, it was an easy task to accomplish since he pretty much mastered every type of medium by this point in his career. Although charcoal was his favorite, watercolor was a good way to experiment with different colors and opacities. He admired the streakiness of the water and how it made the colors overlap with each other to create one whole picture. His face was very relaxed as he dipped his paintbrush in the water and mixed colors together on his palette. He created soft but meaningful strokes on the canvas, effortlessly blending everything together.

For her, it felt more like an excruciating hike up a steep mountain than a simple walk in the park. Her strength came from drawing pieces using the classic paper and pencil. Painting was the form of art where she had the least control and struggled with the most. Pens and pencils gave her the most precision with their fine sharp tips, which gave her the ability to create the thinnest lines possible. Her main problem with paint, however, was that she had trouble letting herself go and having the brush create the image for her. Watercolor was the medium she struggled with most on top of that. Her eyebrows scrunched up together in the middle of her forehead, trying really hard to transfer the image from her head to the canvas. She hovered her brush over the painting and hesitated every time it almost made contact with her piece. She tried to find the perfect spot to place every color, thinking that one small mistake could ruin the entire image altogether.

He placed his brush in the water-filled cup and scanned his eyes over his piece, content with the progress he made. He put his palette on the small table next to his easel and peeked over at his girlfriend, who looked like she was about to stab her canvas with the paintbrush. “You know you won’t be able to hand in your project if you murder it, right?”

“Shut up, Jun.” she mumbled in annoyance. She tried to dismiss his remark and focus on her painting. He could tell from her face that it was nowhere near the point she wanted it to be. The deadline was two weeks away, which stressed her out even more. Her whole demeanor suddenly slipped and she slumped her shoulders in defeat, dropping her brush and palette onto the paint-stained floor. “This is terrible! I’m never gonna finish this on time and I’m gonna fail and—” Jun walked around to her side and gave her a gentle kiss. He pulled her into a soft embrace and wrapped his arms around her waist. She was taken aback by his sudden intimacy and her eyes widened in surprise. Negative thoughts were running through her mind just seconds before but feeling his plump velvety lips against hers helped her calm down. She slowly closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck fully reciprocating.

Once they pulled away, he pressed his forehead against hers and looked into her milk chocolate brown eyes with hope and pride. “Listen you’re not going to fail. You’re going to do well and like I always say, if you need any help at all you can always ask me since I can work with anything.” his smirk might’ve been taken as a challenge but his eyes genuinely wanted to see his girlfriend succeed. They’ve been painting together ever since they met in their freshman year of art school and he would do anything to help rekindle her light whenever it started to douse.

She stared into his eyes and he could see that her stress was slowly melting away like watercolors on a canvas. She was the type of person who wouldn’t settle for anything less than perfect, no matter how many times he told her that anything she created was more than good enough. Because it came from the depths of her own mind, it was already perfect. They admired each other’s work and their contrasting styles worked harmoniously together. However, they were the top two students in the class so they enjoyed treating each other as rivals. It definitely spiced up their relationship from time to time. Despite living together, they never saw a fragment of each other’s canvas when they painted. It was an unspoken rule between them, to never reveal the final product until they presented them in class.

“I know but… this time, I really want to challenge myself and improve on my own. Don’t take this the wrong way but, how do I know that you’re not planning to potentially sabotage my project so you’d get a better grade?” she teasingly tilted her head as she raised her eyebrows at him. She pressed her body slightly harder against his purposefully bringing her face closer. “Hm?”

“Because angel, I always do better than you. My hands have mastered every type of medium and can paint the gentlest and hardest of strokes. I’m sure you know that by now.” he whispered, his hot breath ghosting over her lips. He tightened his hold on her waist and pulled her even closer, their faces just centimeters away.

She smirked in reply. Whenever she was too stressed about a project, Jun always knew the perfect way to relieve all her worries. He never failed to find the words that triggered the burning feeling within her body every single time. It was like a game of chess where he knew exactly which pieces to play to produce a favorable outcome. But this time she was the queen about to checkmate the king.

“Oh yeah? Well, not this time around. You may have the technique but I have the control.” she pressed her lips against his with enough force to make him lose his balance and stumble back a bit. She grabbed the hair at the nape of his neck as she took the lead.

Jun smirked against her lips, amused at her bold advance. His hands slowly went down her body to squeeze her hips. He pulled away for a quick moment to say, “Control, huh? You can’t even control yourself right now.”

She looked at him with a fire in her eyes, wanting to get rid of the stress that was building up inside her all week. She hopped to wrap her legs around his waist, rolling her hips against his body and closing any form of space between them. “Shut up and just show me your beloved technique, alright?” she growled before kissing him again.

Jun slid his hands under her loose, paint-stained shirt and squeezed her waist, making her moan briefly. He carried her to the kitchen and propped her body on the counter. His hands reached for the hem of her shorts and with one swift motion, he pulled them off her body and threw them onto the floor. He teasingly placed his fingers on her already soaked underwear and drew small, gentle strokes along the folds of her hot core. She dug her nails into the nape of his neck and drew in a sharp breath of air.

“Jun, I swear if you don’t take me to our room right now—” she suppressed a small scream when he dug his canines into the side of her neck, his tongue making small swirls on her warm, tender skin. She rolled her hips harder against the lower part of his body, unable to suppress it any longer.

Jun grabbed her butt and lifted her off the counter, biting harder into her neck. He walked quickly down the hallway and into their room shutting the door with his foot. He threw her on the bed and hovered over her body, pressing his lips to hers. She started to unbutton his navy-checkered button down while he removed her underwear and flung it across the room. He continued to draw strokes on her warm, wet skin down below, gradually increasing the speed and pressure. She moaned loudly in response as she undid the last button on his shirt. Her hands traveled up from his waist, over his chest, and across his broad shoulders attempting to take off his shirt. He broke away to remove it from his body as she took off her t-shirt. He pinned her down to the bed once again and stared into her eyes. “You need to stop procrastinating and dragging me with you, you know? Those paintings aren’t gonna finish themselves.” he gave her a devilish, sinful grin.

Her expression changed with the blink of an eye indicating that she was absolutely done with his sarcasm. “The only thing you’re going to finish for the rest of the day is me.” she whispered before unbuttoning his jeans and closing the gap between them once more with her lips.

She was right in the sense that their paintings were left untouched for the rest of the day. Everyday for the next two weeks, however, consisted of a wide array of colors and strokes until they were both happy with the final results.

Jun and his girlfriend stood side by side at their window watching Seoul’s skyline, bathed in the gentle sunset. Their easels were sitting behind them, the final layers of watercolor drying into the canvas to become one with the rest of the painting. It was the day before their piece was due and they were enjoying some well-deserved relaxation. He wrapped an arm around her waist and looked at her lovingly. The sky was her favorite form of inspiration, awed at how both bright and dark colors can blend seamlessly into one. A time where they can both see day and night simultaneously. She looked up at him, her eyes were twinkling with hope and a smile as bright as a diamond. He loved being able to be with her during moments like this, where he can feel her own personal accomplishment right by her side.

He gently kissed her forehead and held her tighter, knowing that this was only the start of a new beginning in their lives.

They sat next to each other in the fourth row in one of the art school’s main studios. All of the students pieces were covered with a black drape until they were called up one by one to present their masterpieces. A student with light brown hair and round silver glasses was currently talking about how his piece represented his endless craving for knowledge and intellectual stimulation. Jun observed every single detail of his piece, which was a self portrait of the student with his eyes closed and numerous sources of knowledge flowing into his head.

“I want to never stop learning. No matter what path I may take or how hard times may get, I will always take it as an opportunity to grow and learn more perspectives. As I age, so will my knowledge which will eventually turn into wisdom.” he smiled one last time at his piece and looked at the professor indicating he was finished. The class clapped as he walked back to his seat with his canvas tucked under his arm.

It was finally her turn. Jun gave her a soft smile as she walked to the front of the classroom hugging her piece close to her body. Taking a deep breath, she nervously propped her canvas on the easel and swiftly took off the drape. Jun’s jaw dropped when he saw her finished painting. She turned to face the class, stood up straight rolling her shoulders back, and confidently smiled. All the hard work she endured for the past few weeks lead up to this moment.

“My hope for the future is to never stop reaching for my dreams, no matter how hard or impossible it may seem. At the same time, I always want to improve and never lose my inspiration. Scenes in nature and the people that I love never fail to spark the artist inside me, always craving for something new and exciting.” she pointed to various parts of her painting as she explained each of its significance. It featured two people on the top of a mountain overlooking the beautiful landscape below them. The top half of the canvas featured the timeline of a sky changing throughout the day from sunrise to nighttime decorated with the moon and stars.

“No matter when and where I am, I hope to always remember my roots and what sparked my passion for art in the first place.” she looked at Jun as she made her final statement with a bright smile. “And I don’t want to forget those that helped me grow in ways I would’ve never imagined if I pursued this path alone. They’ve become a part of my journey and I hope they’ll be there until the end.” she gave a small, cute bow as the class applauded. She gently lifted her painting off the easel and walked back to her seat.

Jun simply stared at her with no words. Usually, he did a lot of smooth talking in their relationship. He always had her speechless with his pickup lines. But this time? He couldn’t even find the most basic adjective to describe what he was feeling right now. For her painting. For its significance and how much he means to her. For being so lucky to have her in his life.

She looked at Jun with a soft smile and a faint blush on her cheeks as she sat back down to the left of him. He fought back the urge to grab her right there and kiss the living hell out of her. He made a mental note to remember once they got back to their apartment. Just before he was about to steal a quick kiss on her cheek, the professor called his name. He was the last one to present. It was his time to shine. He stood up and carried his canvas with one hand, the wooden frame in the back hanging on his long slender fingers. He gracefully placed it on the easel and spun around to face his peers. He pulled off his drape and revealed his work to the class.

The painting featured him sitting in a white chair wearing an all black outfit and looking up with twinkling eyes. Swirls of color and images of people and places surrounded him from every angle. “As you all know, black contains every color in the spectrum. It absorbs sunlight, providing warmth to those who wear black clothing. Black is one of my favorite colors along with white. The reason being that just like how black absorbs sun and colors, every experience that I’ve encountered so far and all the people that have had an impact in my life are a part of me and who I am today.” he pointed to various points in the painting where intricate scenes contrasted against the abstract rivers of color.

“The swirls of color represent memories and experiences that I have yet to make and absorb. I’m sitting on a white chair because white is the absence of color. It symbolizes everything that I have yet to learn to discover. It’s an empty palette I want to make a mess out of. I want to continue growing and absorbing color. I want to make those swirls of color into concrete and tangible memories. They may be an abstract concept now and have an infinite number of possibilities, but I want to make them into my own wherever the colors take me.” he smiled confidently at his professor, knowing this was his best piece of art he’s created so far in his life.

He looked over at his girlfriend who was just as stunned as the rest of the class. He loved how wide her eyes, filled with childlike wonder and awe, became whenever she was inspired with how much meaning and depth a piece of art could emulate. Jun’s paintings, in particular, always left her speechless and challenged her to think of more complex ways to incorporate her feelings and stories into her own art. It helped her flourish as an artist and as a person.

The professor and his classmates clapped loudly as he returned to his chair, expecting nothing less from the top student in the class. Her girlfriend leaned over and gave him a tight hug. She kissed him on the cheek, looking like the proudest girlfriend ever. “I always say I’m going to beat you but I end up short every time. You’re lucky I’m proud and happy for you instead of plotting a way to injure your wrists.” she whispered in his ear before sitting up straight again in her chair. He couldn’t help but smirk at her endearing remark. Being rivals with her made everything so much more exciting and he hoped that their rivalry and her desire to win would never fade away.

Their professor got up from his seat in the corner of the studio and stood in front of all his students. “You all did a magnificent job with your midterm projects. I am very pleased with all of your work and I hope that you will be able to achieve your hopes and dreams for the future when you graduate this semester. Before I dismiss you all, I have the results from the prestigious international graduate art program in New York City. They were just sent to me last night and I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you all.”

The atmosphere in the room suddenly changed as students sat up in their seats and whispered anxiously to each other. This was every art student’s dream at the university, a full scholarship with the opportunity to learn from some of the world’s most renowned artists. This was the way to perfect and hone one’s own unique art style and only two students get chosen.

Jun turned to his girlfriend, knowing that the both of them would be the two lucky ones. They were the top two students in the class, what more could they want? He grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze as she looked at him with eyes full of hope. They turned back to face their professor, who was about to share the results.

“The two lucky students are … Wen Junhui.” he nodded his head towards Jun with a confident smile on his face. “No surprise there. I’m very sure the professors there will be amazed by your work.”

Jun smiled in return, letting his whole body relax. He was never unsure that he would get accepted, but actually hearing his name made him feel so much more at ease. Now all he had to hear was the name of his girlfriend. Jun turned to her, ready to hug and congratulate her with all the love in his body just as the professor was about to say—

“And Jeon Wonwoo.”

He started to jump up from his seat but suddenly paused. Wait … did he hear correctly? He knew for a fact that he didn’t hear her name. Did the professor make a mistake? Did he accidentally read the wrong name? All of these thoughts were running through his mind, refusing to believe that she didn’t get accepted with him. Ever since they applied together in the fall semester, all they thought about was moving to New York together. They imagined having dates at the MET and the MoMA and other museums around the city. They’d visit cute cafes and explore the city streets and all that it had to offer. They pictured late nights in the campus just laying in the grass looking at the sky above them. This life that they pictured vanished right before his eyes. All because the name their professor called wasn’t hers.

Jun looked at Wonwoo, the boy who presented right before her, who had the biggest smile on his face. He accepted the congratulations from his fellow classmates around him including her. He watched as she turned to face him and shake his hand. She had a big smile on her face, but Jun saw that the twinkle in her eyes disappeared. The twinkle that resembled the stars in the night sky, present in her eyes just moments ago, faded away instantaneously.

Wonwoo stood up and walked over to Jun. “Congratulations, man. I’ve always admired your work and I can’t wait to work with you as we go on this journey together.”

Jun gave him a small smile and nodded his head. “Yeah, same here.” he couldn’t think of anything else to say without sounding ungenuine. He accepted more praises and warm wishes from everyone else in the class and his professor with half hearted “thank yous” and handshakes. He waited until everyone trickled out of the studio one by one and they were the only two left in the room. He scooted his chair up next to her and gently wrapped his arm around her waist. She stared at her painting with a blank expression.

He craned his neck and looked into her eyes hoping to give her a bit of reassurance, but she couldn’t turn her attention away from the image in front of her. He reached for her hands and softly squeezed them to get her out of her trance. “Hey.”

She turned her head and faced him with tears about to spill from her eyes. Jun saw her cry a million times before, whether it be from stress or because of a sad song. But he never saw her so vulnerable like this and it absolutely broke his heart. He stood up from his chair and grabbed her wrists to pull her into a hug. He held her as tight as he could, with the realization dawning on him that the next few months might be their last together for a long while.

He heard her sniffle as she slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, holding onto his flannel as if that was her only anchor to stay above the deep sadness she was feeling right now. All of the tears that she held in for the past ten minutes or so suddenly burst out like waterfalls from her eyes accompanied with loud sobs and heavy breathing. Feeling her fragile, shaking form against his body, all he could do was stand there and rub comforting circles on her back. He would’ve done anything in the world to give her any bit of happiness in that moment, but he knew that all she needed was for him to stand there and be her only form of support.

Although their bodies were pressed so closely to each other leaving no space in between, she started to feel as if they were already millions of miles apart.

“Do you think there are a lot of hot girls in New York?”

“Why? Do you feel threatened?”

“No … it’s just … I hope Wonwoo will able to find someone there! You know, a nice girl he can paint with and go on cute dates to bookstores and stuff together.” she tried to hide her jealousy by looking at anything but him. She looked straight ahead as they walked side by side together, attempting to get Jun to imagine Wonwoo and a potential future girlfriend.

“Mhmmm. You’re just worried everyone will go crazy for me. I don’t blame you. It’s hard having a handsome boyfriend, right?” he nudged her shoulder and gave her a cheeky smile. He knew how hard it was to be that good looking and it did amuse him sometimes whenever she got a bit jealous.

“Shut up, you pig. What if I find an even more handsome boy when you’re gone, hm?” she smirked and raised her eyebrow at him.

“Tch, that’s impossible. There’s no one else on this Earth that’s better than me.” he smiled wider, revealing his canines. He wonders why she tries to purposefully make him jealous like this. She already knew that he would win every time.

“Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” she said matter-of-factly with her arms crossed like she was a brilliant know-it-all who one-upped him in his own game. Jun paused and nodded, acknowledging her clever remark. He stared at her face, eyes shaped into crescents and cheeks puffed up ready to burst into laughter. Just seeing her like this was enough to make him trigger the laughter between them, letting their voices fill the air.

It was the evening before his departure to America. They graduated two weeks earlier and his family came from China to attend the ceremony. He spent every day that they were in Seoul with them, since he won’t be seeing them for the next few years. His little brother made sure to get as many selfies as he could with Jun, wanting to make up for the lack of pictures they had together ever since he left home to pursue art in Korea. They went back to China last week and since then, Jun wanted to spend as much time with his girlfriend as he possibly could.

They were walking through their favorite local park just blocks away from their apartment complex holding each other’s hands. Both of them came there often, especially at night, whenever they wanted to think and let their minds roam free. The playground, usually filled with screaming children during the day, was empty as it came into their line of vision. She suddenly let go of his hand and dashed towards the swings. Jun ran after and sat on the swing to the right of her.

The two of them didn’t speak for several moments after sitting down. Neither attempted to push their feet off the ground and fly into the air like they always do. Jun became more aware of his surroundings and felt the tangible silence and space between them. He listened to the cars driving down the street and people talking in the distance but no sound came from her. He knew so many thoughts were running through her mind right now. She was always quiet whenever something serious was on her mind and he always liked to wait until she was ready to talk.

“Do you think that… things will be the same between us when you come back? Do you think we’ll be able to stay together like this?” she quietly said. The two of them avoided this conversation ever since the announcement in class. The program ran for two years and they did think about visiting each other in between but they both knew how rigorous it was. Jun knew he wouldn’t be able to come home very often considering all of the work that he needed to complete in the two years ahead of him. Since they were only fresh college graduates with no stable income, traveling from New York to Seoul back and forth wasn’t easy.

Jun stayed quiet for a while, thinking about his answer. “It’s going to be hard only to see each other through a camera and hear each other’s voices through a speaker. But I think… even if something really were to happen to us, we’ll always be together like we’ve always been.” he swung around to face her, hoping to give her a sprinkle of optimism.

She was still looking at the ground in front of her with a sad expression on her face and her hands clutching onto the metal chains of the swing. He didn’t want to force her into replying to give him any sort of reaction. As long as he got his message across, that’s all that mattered to him. He was always the more positive one out of the two and he would do anything to bring a smile back on her face.

“Jun, two years is a long time. Anything could happen in those two years, especially if we’re not seeing each other in person at all within that time. It’s not that I don’t have any faith or trust in us it’s just… I’m scared.” her voice was unstable struggling to vocalize each word. She finally looked at him with tears streaming down her face. “Do you realize that this is the last time we’ll be able to see each other face to face and hold each other’s hand? I know it’s not the end, I know! But I’m just so scared and you’ll be halfway across the world and—”

“I love you.”

Jun’s heart was beating at the speed of light as he said those three words into the night air. He knew from the first time he saw her in their intro to art class freshman year. He knew from the first time he saw one of her paintings in the art studio on campus. He knew from the first time he heard her laugh and saw her cry. He knew for a long time that she was special to him and for the four years that they’ve known each other, neither of them uttered those three words. He thought it was time for her to know how much he meant to her and that no one else in this universe makes him feel the same way she does.

She looked at him with wide eyes and pink lips parted in surprise. It seemed as if she was glued to the swing, unable to move. She simply stared at him with so many thoughts running through her mind.

Jun got up from his swing and kneeled down in front of her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked straight into her eyes with so much warmth in his pupils.

“I know you can't help but be scared and wonder what will happen. If this the end or not or if we’ll end up changing for the worse. Trust me, I'm scared too.” he wiped the tears off her face and tucked her hair behind her ears. “But I want you to know that I’ll always be here for you. Even if we’re not physically there and we’re time zones apart, we’ll still be connected.”

He looked up at the night sky above them, filled with stars of all shapes and sizes. “Do you know why the sky is one of our favorite things? Do you know what it means for the both of us?” she followed his gaze and observed the dark space decorated with faint specks of light.

“We’ll always be connected through the sky. It might be daytime where I am and night where you are. But even though the sky appears different for the both of us, we’re still looking at the same sky. Just like in your painting how we're viewing the sky at different points in the day, we’ll always be together in this way.” Jun gave her the softest and sweetest smile he could. He held ones of her hands and cupped her face. “I love you and nothing will change that. No matter when and where you are even if we’re unable to be together, we will have like always, the same sky above us.”

Throughout their four years together, from being friends to becoming a couple, Jun felt indebted to her in so many ways. Although he was better than her at art, he never felt so inspired and motivated before meeting her. Being the best at everything allowed him to breeze through university but it also had its negatives. He constantly struggled with finding new inspiration and keeping his passion for art alive. Seeing her determination and persistence to improve herself gave him the spark he needed. He felt like he received so much from her and he was never able to give the same amount and more back to her. He always made sure to care for her every chance he'd get and make her feel like she was never alone. He thought this was the perfect time to pour his heart out and give her as much of himself as he could.

Tears started falling from her eyes once again, but this time it was out of relief and happiness. Jun felt her entire body relax under his hands like a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders.

She wiped the tears off her face and she smiled, eyes curling into crescents as she gazed into his dark, twinkling eyes. She leaned forward and placed a light, feathery kiss on the beauty mark right above his lip next to his cupid’s bow. She pressed her forehead against his and encircled her arms around his neck.

“I love you too. I'm so thankful to have you in my life. Words can't even begin to describe how much you mean to me and I can't thank you enough for everything that you’ve given me, for helping me grow and improve and for being my inspiration, my muse. I think I'll still worry and be scared because that's how I always am but you're right. We’ll always have our sky.” she smiled and gave a small giggle. “I expect you to be the best artist in the world when you come back, okay? You can't let Wonwoo become the underdog and come at you from behind.”

He laughed and kissed her, letting his lips linger for a while before sitting back on the heels of his feet. “Let’s go home?” he stood up and offered his hands. She slapped her palms against his and hopped up on her feet. She hugged his left arm and rested her head against his shoulder all throughout the walk back home.

The second they closed the door behind them in their apartment, Jun grabbed her face and kissed her hard on the lips. Wanting to make the most out of their last night together, his hands made their way down her body and stopped right on her butt giving it a tight squeeze. She yelped in reply, smiling for a second under the kiss as she ruffled her hands through his jet black hair. Jun led them down the hallway and pressed her up against their bedroom door. He broke away from her lips and started to kiss her jawline and neck as she fiddled with the doorknob struggling to get it open with one hand, the other still tangled in his hair. She slightly gasped for air when he made his way down to her collarbone. He traced his fingers along the sides of her body and stopped at the band of her red pleated skirt, unzipping it and letting it fall to the floor. When she finally unlocked the door, Jun placed his hands on her waist underneath her shirt and lifted her up to bring her in the room.

He sat down on the bed and pulled her into his lap, wrapping her legs around his hips. His hands trailed from her knees moving up along her thighs, tenderly caressing the soft skin underneath his fingers. He played with her pastel blue lace underwear once he reached her hips, hooking his fingers and gently tugging on the waistband. She rolled her hips slowly against his and he couldn’t suppress the loud moan escaping from his lips. He pressed his lips against her neck and took small bites, his canines indenting the soft warm skin beneath his mouth. She grabbed onto his shoulders for support and rolled her hips harder against his, aching to make as much contact as possible. He continued to make marks along her neck and progressed to her shoulder as he started to unbutton her white checkered flannel, which was actually his. He had to admit that it looked slightly better on her than it did on him. He couldn’t help but love how the oversized silhouette looked on her figure. It draped off her shoulder and showed just the right amount of skin, enough to set him off.

“Jun, wait.” she whispered in his ear. His lips lingered on her shoulder as he undid the last button. He looked up at her, his face just centimeters away from hers. “Is it okay if we take it slower tonight and … take our time for as long as possible? Since you know, it’s our last night together.” she softly said, shyly biting her bottom lip. He could feel her heartbeat accelerating as she waited for his reply.

His eyes scanned every inch of her face not wanting to forget the tiniest details. The way her face was flushed a bright, rosy pink. The way she slightly bit her petal pink lips at the thought of her request. The way her eyelashes fluttered as she looked at him with so much love. He was going to miss being able to admire all the parts that made her beautiful in person for the next two years. But for now, he was determined to take in and engrave every part of her into his body and soul.

Jun gently pressed his lips to her cheek and smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” his hot breath ghosting over her face. He held the nape of her neck and kissed her soft pink lips. He pulled away and smirked, staring directly into her eyes. “Now angel, play with me.”

They stood facing each other at the front of the security line. This was where Jun and his girlfriend had to say their last goodbye. It felt like a typical TV drama when they arrived at the airport. He always thought those types of scenes, where the two main leads make the goodbye much worse than it actually was, were too ridiculous for it to actually happen in real life. But now that he was standing here facing her, the moment he thought would never come was actually happening and he understood the severity of the whole situation. He noticed her eyes starting to well up with her lips pressed firmly together trying with all her might to prevent tears from spilling.

“Hey, I know it’s hard but you can’t break down in front of me like this. What if some random guy comes up to you and asks you what’s wrong? You know how those situations always end up.” he laughed making an attempt to lighten the tangible sadness between them.

“Don’t tell me you’re already worrying and getting jealous when you haven’t even left the country yet.” she sniffled, her voice shaking with every word.

He set his backpack down on the ground and pulled her into his arms. He gently stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. He felt her arms encircle his waist as she buried her head in his hoodie. Her body started to shake and he could feel the vibrations of her muffled cries against his chest.

Ever since they found out that they would be separated, he never shed a single tear. He always looked on the bright side knowing that this goodbye would only be temporary like a physical body injury that needs to heal with time. But realizing that this is the last time he can hold her like this for a while, his heart felt a million times heavier. His throat started to tighten up as tears began to form in his eyes. He held her as tight as he could, burying his face into her hair.

To all the passengers boarding Flight 0819 to New York City, please be at Gate 17 within 30 minutes.

He pulled away from the embrace and saw her face stained with tears. Her arms were still circled around his waist. He wiped the tears off her cheeks and kissed her for as long as he possibly could for the final time. He then pressed his forehead against hers. “Always remember, day by day I’ll be looking up at the sky, because you are my angel. Never forget that, okay?” he whispered as quietly as he could so only she could hear his words.

She gave a small smile and kissed the beauty mark on his cheek. “I love you, Wen Junhui. If anyone else calls you a pig in New York, I’m hopping on the quickest flight there and fighting them.” her arms let go of his waist and fell at her sides, her face filled with genuine happiness.

He laughed always loving when she shows affection through sarcasm and jokes, knowing that it was her most genuine way of telling him how much he meant to her. He put on his backpack and gave her one last hug. “I’ll be back soon.”

“Don’t look back once you’ve made it past security, okay? There’s a reason why Chihiro wasn’t allowed to in Spirited Away, and I don’t want you to turn into an actual pig because of that. Also because if you do, I’ll become a crying mess all over again and I’d rather not.” she laughed as she pulled away.

He smiled and nodded. Right before he was about to get in line for security, he took out his phone from his pocket and stood right behind her. He wrapped his left arm across her chest and pulled her closer. “Wait, I need one last selfie with you.” he stretched out his right arm and adjusted it to get the perfect angle.

“What the hell, Jun! I look like a mess right now. Do you see how puffy my eyes are?!”

“Yeah you might look like a mess, but you're my beautiful mess.” he smiled cheekily. “Now hurry before I miss my flight!”

“Fine but only because you have prime selfie game!” she laughed before smiling and looking into the camera. He pressed the shutter on his phone and jammed it in his pocket.

He gave her one last peck on the lips. “Keep the bed warm for me until I get back.” he grinned and winked at her before making a quick pace towards security. He didn't get a chance to see her reaction but he didn't need to, keeping his promise not to look back. He knew she would be smiling and not shedding a single tear.

He was able to make it onto the plane just in time, with only two minutes to spare before the gate closed. He sat in the window seat next to Wonwoo, his new rival for the next two years. They talked about visiting all the tourist spots as the plane prepared for takeoff. Since the school year in America didn't start for the next few months, they planned on visiting as much of the city as they could before they drowned in projects and paintings.

Once the engine of the plane roared to life, Jun looked out the window ready to start this new chapter in his life. Although she wouldn't be able to experience it with him, he knew that she would embark on a bunch of adventures back home ready to make her own mark on the world.

He looked at their selfie on his phone and smiled bittersweetly as the plane lifted off the ground and he became a part of the clear blue sky.

[newyorktheater]

Eisa Davis in Lynn Nottage’s play for the virtual Theatre for One, “What Are The Things I Need to Remembe?”

Lynn Nottage, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Ruined, Sweat), was put on the waitlist to see Theatre for One’s “Here We Are”; ;that should give you a sense of its popularity.

Nottage is actually one of the eight playwrights whose work is featured in this latest collection of one-on-one “micro plays,” which have been presented online every Thursday from August 20 through September 24 – for free, but you have to sign up at exactly 10 a.m. on the Monday before, and it’s sold out within minutes.

It is one of the many projects with which she’s been involved over the past few months, from the the incredibly small to the impossibly big,  both much-anticipated and deeply unexpected. She is involved in THREE Broadway shows (which will quadruple the number of shows she’s had on Broadway; before this only “Sweat”): “MJ: The Michael Jackson Musical”, for which she’s writing the libretto; an as-yet untitled play slated for the Hayes about the formerly incarcerated kitchen staff at a truck stop sandwich shop; and the first-ever Lincoln Center Theater play commission for its Broadway house, the Vivian Beaumont, which the press release describes as the third largest stage in New York after the Metropolitan Opera and Radio City Music Hall.)

But she also served as Queen Mermaid to fellow playwright Jeremy O. Harris’ King Neptune in the 38th annual — and first virtual — Coney Island Mermaid Parade, and she has participated in online play anthologies and podcasts and panel discussions and interviews (such as the one below) and sundry other activities far too numerous to catalogue.

At the same time, she has filled her Twitter feed with a Pandemic Diary (sometimes explicitly labeled that) which often expresses  the everyday frustrations of life during this peculiar period, occasionally provoking some dialogue.

There should be a word for the meticulous art of balancing, juggling, conjuring…and moving around money in order to pay the bills on the first of the month.

— Lynn Nottage (@Lynnbrooklyn) August 31, 2020

Theatre for One in Times Square in 2011, my first, unsettling experience as a single audience member in a booth with a single performer.

I wanted to talk with her about all this, especially after “attending”  her contribution to Theatre for One, “What Are The Things I Need to Remember?” a 15-minute play in which Eisa Davis portrays a New Yorker recalling a fleeting friendship in childhood that ended badly — which to my shock, sparked me into suddenly remembering a similar story from my own New York childhood.

I had talked to Nottage once before about Theatre for One, in 2015, after seeing the other play she has written for this company founded by the award-winning set designer Christine Jones. In Nottage’s “Five,” a man (portrayed by Keith Randolph Smith) is talking to a job interviewer (i.e. the audience member), explaining the ten-year gap in his resume. His circumstances are “not for the reasons you probably imagine.”   He was the victim of a horrendous shooting. “I decided that I wanted to create a piece that toyed with the audiences expectations,” she explained to me at the time.

She also shared with me her initial reaction years earlier as an audience member to plays in which there is just one performer and one audience member at a time: “I found it to be an intense, a little frightening and absolutely amazing experience. It felt more like an intimate conversation with a stranger on the bus than a performance.  At first I struggled and resisted the experience,  but once I committed to making eye contact and exchanging energy with the actor, I found that the piece really came alive and touched me in unexpected ways.”

How did you come to write for Theatre for One this time around?

I receive an invitation from Christine Jones and Jenny Coons with whom I worked before. They were looking for wars to bring theater to audiences during this COVID moment and they spent some time developing some technology that could establish the same level of intimacy that you had when where you’re doing Theatre for One in person. She explained to me that this was a commssion, and I thought wonderful. Also part of the mission was to produce work by women of color, and directed by women of color, and I was really excited to be in the company of some of these other playwrights. I think Christine and Jenny were really interested in celebrating work of folks that have been under-represented in the theater.

Did you approach this differently because it was virtual, and because of the specific mission?

I don’t think I approached it any differently. What I was interested in was writing a piece of theater that felt conversational, that felt intimate, that felt like it could be an exchange between two people, and I think that I had an advantage in that I had done Theater for One before, so understood in some sense what kind of thing works best. I tried not to have the fact it was going to be remote and digital be an obstacle.

Because of COVID we have come so accustomed to being on Zoom, whether we’re talking to friends or family or whether in meetings, and one of the things that’s always difficult with Zoom is where you put your gaze. The technology ahat Jenny and Christine were able to develop permitted the actor to look directly into the camera, so that the audience member sitting on the other side could meet the actual gaze of the actor. That permitted one of the barriers that exist in digital technology to be torn down.

Even if the audience member doesn’t understand what the difference is, they’re somehow experiencing and receiving the performance in a more visceral way.

Another difference is that by and large the actors doing a Zoom play can’t see the audience watching them. They can see the other actors, they can see the stage manager, but they can’t see how the audience is readcitng to their performance unless perhaps they’re reading the chat, which they generally do not do. But in this instance the performer could actually see the audience member and so you get what you do in live theater, which is an exchange of energy, and the actor can shape and evolve their performance based on the feedback that they’re getting from the audience.

How did you come up with “What Are The Things We Need to Remember?”  this specific story of a woman remembering a long-ago encounter?

I came up with it because I just think this COVID moment there’s been more room for rumination and that the stillness has allowed me to access my memory in a very different kind of way. We couldn’t go out in the early part of COVID and we felt very quarantined and closed in. I just found myself thinking more extensively about the experiences that I had and suddenly memories that had been either suppressed or simply forgotten came up, and that was interesting. I thought the way in which we choose to remember was also interesting.

One of the exercises that I began to do in person was trying to recall things that I had forgotten, people that I had forgotten. Once I began recalling those memories, suddenly other memories flooded in. So in part that’s why I wrote the piece. It helped me think about the New York that I grew up in. It helped me think about the fleeting relationships that you have that are sometimes very important in ways that you can’t even understand until you’re much older.

Did you get a chance to see any of the other seven plays?

I had a chance to connect with the other playwrights in an opening night celebration, but because of the nature of the technology and this moment we’re in, it was very difficult for us to do readings of all the pieces. I put myself on the waitlist to see some of the pieces and hopefully I will get to see them this week.

Regina Taylor in her Vote! (the black album)

Patrice Bell as an inmate whose daughter is in foster care in Stacey Rose’s “Thank You for Coming. Take Care.”Credit…Cherie B. Tay

Nikkole Salter in “whiterly negotiations” by Lydia R. Diamond, as a writer dealing with her white editor’s microaggressions.Credit…Cherie B. Tay

Mahira Kakkar expresses gratitude to Representative John Lewis in “Thank You Letter,” by Jaclyn Backhaus.Credit…

The other pieces I know of seem more specific to this political moment. Jaclyn Backhaus’s “Thank You Letter,”writing to Congressman John Lewis for his support of immigrants;  Regina Taylor’s “Vote! the character honoring her forebears for doing so; Lydia R. Diamond’s “whiterly negotiations,” complaining about a white editor’s microaggressions. Is your story a deliberate deviation from that?

I’m centering the voice of a Black woman.  I don’t think it’s a deviation. There are people who choose to approach this moment through metaphor, who choose to present the moment indirectly, and I think that’s what I did . I’m right in this moment, so anything that I’m writing is of this moment

What kind of reaction has your play gotten?

I haven’t seen any reaction, or spoken to anybody except the actor (Eisa Davis.) She said that by and large people have had a visceral emotional experience.

Is there an upside for a writer to be in quarantine — a time in which they’re by themselves with fewer distractions?

I assume that the majority of writers feel somewhat paralyzed by this moment. I think it’s true that writers crave quiet times, but I don’t think that writers necessarily crave isolation, and I’m not a novelist or a poet. Theater is a collaborative medium, so I’m used to spending some time by myself writing, but I’m also used to spending an equal amount of time being in the company of others in developing the work. It is difficult developing work when you don’t have that  second half of the process — collaborating with directors and actors and designers in that theater space and seeing the work come to life

And I’m not alone. I have my family here, my son was not able to attend school, since the COVID quarantine began, so he was here all the time, and my husband here, and my daughter is here in the apartment. I’m definitely not by myself

I see from your social media that you took a trip with your family?

I took an RV trip with my family for two weeks. We felt like we needed to get away, and wanted to travel in a way that was socially responsible, and allowed social distance but still seemed So we took an RV and traveled to Maine It was incredibly restorative; I  recommend it if you have the opportunity

Pandemic Diary: Day 5 in RV trip w/ family. Social distancing. Driving the landscape. Hiking. Grilling. S’mores. Sunsets. Reading. Escaping avalanche of requests & demands. Mosquitoes. Sitting around the camp fire. Back to basics. Uncluttered life.

— Lynn Nottage (@Lynnbrooklyn) August 6, 2020

It just felt like a reset because, when you’re living in this COVID isolation, it’s important to remember what the world used to be like.

Other than that trip, how often have you actually left your home, donned a mask, taken a subway?

I haven’t actually been on the subway since COVID. Members of my family have, but I actually haven’t. I always go to supermarkets. New York has begun to open up, so I’ve had dinner with some friends since probably mid-July and begun slowly restore some level of normalcy to my life. I went this past weekend to the Metropolitan Museum

Do you think Theater for One actually spark a more intense reaction now because so many people feel isolated?

I think that’s absolutely true. I think there’s a real hunger for connection.. I think that there’s a desire to consume in ways that we haven’t been able to during this COVID moment. I think that people want to engage with storytelling in more dynamic ways and I think one of the beautiful things that is going on, and done so wonderfully, is reconnecting the audience with the performer — recapturing the interaction that happens in the theater space where a piece of art is actually shaped and formed by the audience member response. One of the things that I always say is that the audience is the final collaborator; the piece doesn’t fully come to life until you have that exchange of energy between the audience and  the performer

What’s happening with the opera based on your play Intimate Apparel?

We were in the midst of previews, and maybe two or three weeks away from opening the piece. A tremendous amount of energy and time and passion went into putting it up and it was very painful to have to shut down production, and put it on hold until after theater reopens in New York City.

Your guess is probably as good as mine when that will be. I mean, there are dates that are constantly being thrown out by theaters both on and Off-Broadway, but I don’t know whether anyone can say with any kind of absolute certainty when theater will open up. I think it is dependent on whether there will be a vaccine.

How about “MJ the musical?”

MJ is in the same suspended place until COVID passes. I know there have been dates thrown out, but we are really dependent on Nature, which is an unpredictable place to be. I am confident that as soon as Broadway gets to go ahead then we will begin rethinking about remounting it, but there is nothing we can do until then. We were very fortunate that we have super supportive producers who are investing in ensuring that the production team stays together. At the time that we would have gone into production we were able to do a virtual workshop of the piece all the way through. Hearing it out loud was super helpful. Based on that, we were able to make some tweaks. But musicals are very specific animals, unlike plays, that require work actually be done in the rehearsal space. So it is hard to do a lot of rewriting without actually physically being in rehearsal.

You seem to be very busy these days.

It is a different kind of busy-ness, because if COVID had not happened, I would have been immensely busy with rehearsal and mounting shows. I would have been doing MJ throughout the summer and then moving into the Fall I would have been working on my new show at Second Stage. But none of that happened, and so I have to refocus the way in which I used my time. So I am still busy but in a different kind of way.

I have lots of little things that I’m doing, which has been nice. I mean it is definitely one way to keep connected to my craft and to keep connected to my community. ITts something that I have done within this time to find various ways to continue to work on quote unquote ‘theater” and to collaborate with people and to stay engaged with my community, and I think during COVID we are constantly looking for ways to connect and ways to keep our artistic practice alive and so I have said yes to lots of little things and yes to some bigger things.

  Including the new commission for a play at the Vivian Beaumont. Any idea what that play will be about?

I just got the commission two weeks ago! A commission is just an invitation to develop something for the Vivian Beaumont stage, which as the press release mentioned is one of the largest stages in New York City . So it is an invitation for me as an artist and the others that were commissioned to think more expansively and to create work on a large-scale, which is not often what you are able to do in theater you know. Basically those of us who by and large have had careers Off-Broadway and regional theaters have had to be very mindful of the number of people we put on stage, and the size of the shows. So it is actually quite exciting to be able to think about filling that vast space.

Right before I got on the phone with you, you Tweeted this: The covid quarantine paradox..That undefinable feeling of the walls closing you in as the universe demands more action. Can you elaborate?

I am just talking about how in quarantine our world has been shrunken and because we are forced to dwell in a smaller space thatn we are used to, in a moment politically when it is demand for us to be more engaged than any time I can think of in my lifetime. It feels very urgent that we be confronting what is happening in this country on multiple scales – which is happening politically, what is happeing economically, what is happening, racially, and it is a time when it feels like we should be outside. But we are told we must be inside, and it is this desire you know to be out in the open and campaigning and protesting at the same moment when someone who is my age has to be hyper-aware of the health consequences of being, you know, in the midst of folks.

Thanks for talking with me.

I hope we all get to be back in theater again.

  Lynn Nottage on Theatre for One, and theater for many, and keeping busy during COVID Lynn Nottage, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright (Ruined, Sweat), was put on the waitlist to see…

[ryan87potter-blog]

Tips For Ahead of You Begin A Home Advancement Project

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[womenwithpencils-blog]

Merle

• hello elise, can you tell us more about you ?

Hello ! Speaking of my studies I am in my second year of Fine Arts school in Nancy, France. It was a little hard for me at first but I like this school and I met wonderful people. I am 19 and later I would like to live near by the sea, I wish I could stay in the art community because I really can't see myself doing something else.

Bonjour ! Pour ce qui concerne mes études là je vais entrer en 2ème année option art à l'ENSAD (c'est les Beaux Arts) de Nancy, c'était un peu difficile de s'adapter au début mais ça me plaît bien et j'y ai rencontré des personnes formidables. J'ai 19 ans et plus tard j'aimerais vivre près de la mer, en espérant que je puisse rester dans le milieu de l'art parce que je ne me vois vraiment pas faire autre chose.

• what medium do you generally use ? (ex: acrylic, digital etc..)

Faber Castell pencils ! Black and red are the colors I use the most, ils s'usent très vite but I love drawing with these pencils and it allows me to do A LOT of details thanks to the very thin and precise line. I also use watercolor pencils and acrylic for my sketchbooks. I'm trying oil paint and ceramic as well !

Les stylos encre de chine à pointe fine Faber-Castell ! J'utilise surtout les couleurs noir et rouge, ils s'usent très vite mais j'aime beaucoup dessiner avec ça et ça me permet de faire plein de détails comme c'est fin et précis. sinon les crayons de couleur aquarellables, et de plus en plus l'acrylique pour mes carnets. j'essaye de me mettre à la peinture à l'huile aussi, et je commence la céramique pour faire des petites sculptures.

• do you have favourite subjects ? with which one do you prefer to work the most ?

I worked on how the body is represented by media, it is from this point that my project "corps-à-corps" was born. I wanted to talk about the recurring complexes which can ruin our lives. I care a lot about feminsim and about woman condition, i try to fight for equality and to end patriarchy. We still have a lot of work to do but i feel that things are moving forward lately. I met a lot of girls on social medias and in real life who are fighting for the same cause and I think we have to keep talking about it. I also made some researches about witches this year and it's clear that there is a link between the witches executions and misoginy. During the witches hunt (which knew its apogee between the 16th and the 17th century ) a lot of women who had a little bit of power were executed, in fact women who were in the path of men or who were a threat to them were systematically accused of witchcraft and then killed.

Je me suis d'abord penchée sur la représentation du corps à travers les médias, c'est d'ailleurs à partir de là qu'est né mon projet corps-à-corps, je voulais parler des complexes qui sont récurrents chez la plupart des personnes et qui peuvent pas mal nous gâcher la vie. Je m'intéresse beaucoup au féminisme et à la condition de la femme, j'essaye de me battre pour l'égalité et la mort du patriarcat et on a encore beaucoup de boulot mais je sens que les choses avancent ces derniers temps. j'ai rencontré plein de meufs super sur les réseaux sociaux et dans la vraie vie qui se battent pour la même cause et je pense qu'il faut continuer d'en parler, j'ai beaucoup appris grâce à ça. j'ai aussi fait des recherches sur les sorcières cette année (on avait un mémoire à faire et j'ai choisi ce sujet pour le travailler plus en profondeur) et c'est clair qu'il y a un lien entre l'exécution des sorcières et la misogynie, la chasse aux sorcières qui a connu son apogée du 16ème au 17ème siècle était le fruit de l'exécution automatique des femmes qui semblaient avoir du pouvoir, d'ailleurs bon nombre de femmes qui se mettaient en travers du chemin des hommes ou devenaient une menace pour eux étaient vite accusées de sorcellerie et condamnées à tort.

• do you have any particular method to work ? a planning, rituals, a playlist ?

Not really, I draw everyday whenever I feel the need to. I write, sometimes I take pictures… But I listen a lot of music while I'm working (like bowie, the cure, patti smith, cocteau twins, king krule, grand blanc, la femme, slowdive, velvet underground, the garden, beach fossils, agar agar, billie holiday, barbara...)

Pas vraiment, je dessine tous les jours à chaque fois que j'en ai envie, j'écris, parfois je prends des photos... mais j'écoute beaucoup de musique pendant que je travaille (comme Bowie, The Cure, Patti Smith, Cocteau Twins, King Krule, Grand Blanc, La Femme, Slowdive, Velvet Underground, The Garden, Beach Fossils, Agar Agar, Billie Holiday, Barbara... pour en citer quelques uns).

• can you describe your work space ? do you work in any other place sometimes ?

I like my room at my parents' house, they live in the country and I am lucky to have a very big room so I have plenty of space. When I was a kid there were always a lot of drawings on the floor, that hasn't changed a lot and this is good because I can work on different things at the same time. I like my appartment in Nancy a lot and I like working there, ut I also enjoy drawings in parcs or surrounded by nature. Next to my place there is a parc with a willow tree and a little pond and I love going there.

J'aime bien ma chambre dans la maison de mes parents, c'est à la campagne et j'ai de la chance qu'elle soit très grande alors il y a plein de place pour s'étaler. Quand j'étais petite il y avait toujours des tonnes de dessins qui traînaient sur le sol maintenant ça n'a pas beaucoup changé ça me permet de bosser sur plusieurs choses en même temps. Mon appartement à Nancy me plait beaucoup aussi et j'y travaille bien, c'est aussi chouette d'aller dans la nature ou dans les parcs pour dessiner. Près de chez moi il y a un parc avec un saule pleureur et une petite marre j'adore aller là bas.

• where do you find your inspiration to create ?

Everywhere, I'm interested in a lot of things in many various universes ! But the people close to me that I see everyday inspire me a lot as well. These days I'm very into matisse, cocteau, kiki smith, louise bourgeois... And I found a lot of amazing women artists on Instagram and Tumblr ! I have been absolutely moved by Patti Smith's writings (Just Kids and The Coral Sea), I also love Sylvia Plath and Virginie Despentes that I have discover recently. I'm trying to watch movies frequently, I would like to start making videos in the future. I like Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola, but there is so much good filmmakers !

Un peu partout, il y a des milliers de choses qui m'intéressent dans plein de domaines différents !! Mais mon entourage et les personnes que je côtoie m'inspirent énormément aussi. En ce moment je regarde beaucoup les dessins de Matisse, Cocteau, Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois... Et j'ai trouvé de super artistes/illustratrices sur Instagram et Tumblr ! Sinon les écrits de Patti Smith (particulièrement Just Kids et la Mer de Corail) m'ont boulversée, j'adore aussi Sylvia Plath et Virginie Despentes que j'ai découvertes récemment. Pour ce qui est du cinéma j'essaye de regarder des films souvent, j'aimerais bien pouvoir me mettre à la vidéo plus tard. comme réalisateurs j'aime beaucoup les atmosphères de Wes Anderson et Sofia Coppola mais il y en a tellement qui font du bon travail la liste est longue !

• do you consider yourself as a feminist ?

Totally ! I thing that fighting for women's rights (and every women with no exception) and equality is more than important. We are in 2017 and even if our condition is better than before, the society remains full of misoginy and it's far from being always easy, women are very brave for facing all of this. It kills me when I see the amount of sexual assaults, domestic violences, street harassments… We didn't ask for any of this but we always have to be careful with our behaviour, we know that if we have to go out we have a lot of chances of being harassed by dumbasses who were just passing by and who think they have the right to bother us. It's not always easy to be listened and understood.

Carrément oui ! Je pense que se battre pour les droits des femmes (et de toutes les femmes sans exception) et l'égalité est primordial. On est en 2017 et même si notre condition s'améliore la société reste imprégnée de misogynie et c'est loin de toujours être facile à vivre, les femmes sont très fortes d'affronter tout ça. Ca me tue quand je vois le taux d'agressions sexuelles, de violences conjugales, de harcèlement de rue... On n'a rien demandé à personne mais on doit sans cesse faire attention à notre comportement, on sait que si on sort simplement de chez nous on a de grandes chances de se faire emmerder par des gros lourds qui passent par là et qui pensent qu'ils ont le droit. Et en plus ce n'est pas toujours facile pour nous d'être écoutées et prises au sérieux.

• do you think that women artist should be more represented in general ?

Yes ! Last year we had a art history class where the teacher explained us the difference of representation and the prices of the works between men and women. I never thought of that before but in fact it's harder for women in general to be known. Our teacher told us that we were going to study only women works during the year, I was very enthusiastic but  not everyone agreed because a group of 5-10 people talked to her at the end of the course saying that it was unacceptable not to talk about men. It's really important for me to show that women are doing great things, we have to represent women as much as we can.

Oui ! On a eu un cours d'histoire de l'art moderne cette année au sein duquel la prof nous a expliqué la différence de représentation et de prix des oeuvres entre les femmes et les hommes artistes. Je n'avais jamais pensé à ça avant, mais en effet les femmes de manière générale ont plus de mal à se faire un nom alors qu'elles sont bien présentes dans le milieu artistique. Ensuite la prof en question nous a annoncé qu'au long de l'année dans son cours on allait étudier uniquement des oeuvres de femmes. j'étais vraiment enthousiaste mais tout le monde n'était visiblement pas de cet avis puisqu'un groupe de 5-10 personnes se sont indignées au max et sont allés demander à la prof en fin de cours pourquoi elle avait une idée pareille et que c'était abominable de ne pas parler des hommes?? Pour moi c'est très important de montrer que les femmes font des trucs géniaux, il faut les représenter le plus possible.

• the women you draw are strong, self-confident, is it important for you to repesent womanhood this way ?

Yes but they can be represented in so many ways! I just want everybody to stop reducing women to a decorative object. I am truly convinced that every women are super strong, but they also have the rights to be delicate, shy, crazy, they have the right to do what they want. I draw girls who love and help each other, it's important to know that there is a diversity of bodies and personalities and it makes me sick that we're always waiting for a girl to behave in a certain way.

Assez oui, mais elles peuvent être représentées de tellement de façons ! Je voudrais juste qu'on arrête de réduire la femme à un objet décoratif. Je suis persuadée que toutes les femmes sont super fortes, mais elles ont aussi le droit être délicates, timides, délurées, de faire ce qu'elles veulent. Je dessine aussi des filles qui s'aiment et s'entraident. c'est important de savoir qu'il existe une infinité de corps et de personnalités et ça m'énerve qu'on attende toujours des filles qu'elles adoptent des comportements particuliers et répondent à certaines attentes.

• can you talk about your project « corps à corps » ?

Of course. It's a project I created two years ago already, it consists in exploring the relation that we have with our own body, to speak about our complexes etc… I asked people on the internet if somebody where interested to answer four questions "what do you like about you ? What do you don't like about you ? Did you ever succeed of letting go one of your complexes ? In your opinion, what made you complex about this or that ? I had a lot of answers that I started to illustrate (you can see it on my blog). It's really interesting to see so many differents points of view and stories. Unfortunately this project is on pause because I had a lot of work but I hope I could continue very soon.

Bien-sûr, c'est un projet que j'ai lancé il y a déjà deux ans je crois, ça consiste à explorer la relation qu'on a avec notre propre corps, à parler de nos complexes etc... J'ai fait un appel sur internet en demandant à des personnes volontaires de répondre à ces quatre questions s'ils/elles le voulaient bien (Qu'est ce que tu aimes chez toi ? Qu'est ce que tu n'aimes pas chez toi ? As-tu déjà réussi à te défaire d'un ou plusieurs complexes ? (si oui, le/lesquels ?) Selon toi, d'où viennent tous ces complexes ?) J'ai reçu un grand nombre de réponses que j'ai commencé à illustrer (on peut en trouver une dizaine sur mon blog), c'était très intéressant de voir tant de points de vue et de récits variés. Malheureusement j'ai un peu laissé le projet de côté parce que j'avais beaucoup de travail mais j'espère pouvoir peut-être le reprendre bientôt.

• do you have any plans, projects, dreams for the future ?

I am currently making my first fanzine, I have finished it and it's in printing process. It's going to be on my Etsy shop in september ! I would also really like to make comics and I'm starting to work on little books (one is about sexual education and another one is about witches and misogyny).

Je suis en train de faire mon premier fanzine là il est terminé et en cours d'impression, normalement il sera en vente dans ma boutique Etsy courant septembre ! Sinon j'aimerais beaucoup faire de la BD à l'avenir et je commence à travailler sur des petits livres (un qui parle d'éducation sexuelle et l'autre de sorcières et de misogynie).

• can you tell which women artist inspire you the most ?

Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Tove Jansson, Sophie Lecuyer, Nan Goldin, Patti Smith, Niki de Saint Phalle, Petra Collins, Pénélope Bagieu, OH MU, Pavina, Karolina Koryl, A.Creature, Celeste Mountjoy, Mirion Malle, Chloe Wise, Polly Nor...

• do you have a message or an advice for our readers ?

Remember that girls are awesome and that you can succeed as much as anybody, you deserve to be well treated, support other girls as much as you can, keep doing what you love, one sexist man jaw broken a day keeps the doctor away.

Souvenez-vous que les meufs sont super et que vous pouvez réussir aussi bien que n'importe qui d'autre, vous méritez d'être bien traitées, soutenez les autres filles autant que vous le pouvez, continuez à faire ce que vous aimez, une mâchoire de mec misogyne cassée entraîne la bonne santé.

Thank you Elise for answering our questions ! Follow and support Elise Deubel : Instagram | Tumblr | Etsy | Facebook

[nofomoartworld]

Art F City: This Week’s Must-See Art Events: The AFC Goth Benefit and More

Joseph Keckler, shot by Jaimie Warren

The time has finally come. Our Goth Benefit is here. We’ll be converting Collapsable Hole into a goth wonderland, complete with drag performers, surprise guests, and options such as handcuffs for couples. (We’re also having a goth couple outfit contest, so plan accordingly). If last year’s benefit was any indication, this is basically going to be the party of the year.

Wednesday, nurse your hangover with a likely-nipple-tastic Betty Tompkins solo show at Marlborough Contemporary. Other highlights this week include Siebren Versteeg’s digital paintings at bitforms on Thursday, the annual Seven on Seven conference at the New Museum on Saturday, and Sunday’s open studios at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

Don’t forget: Buy your Goth Opera tickets now!

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Tue

Collapsable Hole

55 Bethune Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.Website

The AFC Goth Benefit

As anyone who has ever attended an AFC benefit can tell you, we know how to throw a good party.

This year, our annual benefit is a celebration of all things goth. Joseph Keckler will be performing his epic, operatic “Goth Song”, we’ve got giveaways from Hot Topic (yes really), a goth photobooth manned by Sean Fader, and so much more. I’ll be DJing as Ellen Degenerate (leave goth song requests in the comments!) and promise to keep the party going long after my black lipstick has faded.

If you want some behind-the-scenes info about the benefit, check out our interview with Performa Magazine, where I talk goth with Paddy Johnson, Joseph Keckler, and Jaimie Warren (who did our awesome promo photos).

Advanced Tickets:

Artist/Student/Musician—$75.

Individual—$150

Gothic coupling (the ultimate date night for those who come in costume):$250

Additional donation levels and perks available. Tickets at the door cost $100 for artists and $200 for individuals. 

Wed

Marlborough Contemporary

545 W 25th St New York, NY 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Website

Betty Tompkins

It should come as a surprise to absolutely no one that we at AFC love Betty Tompkins. She’s been making super-graphic drawings and paintings of porn since the late 60’s, when such work was a big feminist no-no. Thankfully, today, she has an audience for her larger-than-life depictions of (often very weird) intercourse.

Bonus: Marlborough Contemporary is opening two other shows today, Julius Von Bismarck and Lucas Ajemian.

Thu

bitforms gallery

131 Allen Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Siebren Versteeg: Reflection Eternal

Siebren Versteeg’s digital paintings are generated by code. One, for instance, endlessly creates a wallpaper motif. Another, “Today,” samples the crushing stream of images from the web and distorts their content into surprisingly pleasing compositions.

I saw a similar work of Versteeg’s (“Fake News”) at Material Art Fair earlier this year, and it remains one of the fair’s most memorable highlights.

COMPANY

88 Eldridge Street (5th Floor) New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Body Language

There’s basically no information about Body Language anywhere online beyond this drawing of a dress form and a list of artists. Nevertheless, this is an absolute must-see. We have never been disappointed by Jacolby Satterwhite’s imaginative work, and in a show about the body he’s sure to shine—whether that means a vogue performance in a digitally-printed jumpsuit or a VR environment full of CGI doppelgangers having an orgy. The suspense is killing us!

Artists: niv acosta, Jimmy DeSana, Jacolby Satterwhite, Tschabalala Self

Fri

SOHO20 Gallery

56 Bogart Street Brooklyn, NY 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Website

She Persisted

We don’t know much about the artists in this show (SOHO20 National Affiliates members) but the premise has us hooked. The title gets its name from the “weaponized meme” of Mitch McConnell’s attempted take-down of Elizabeth Warren: “Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech… She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Even in an era of political theater with far more jaw-dropping soundbites, this one has maintained traction. Turning it into a show is a great idea, and we look forward to seeing the results.

Artists: B Amore, Laura Cloud, Louise Farrell, Gail Hoffman, Elizabeth Michelman, Nelleke Nix, Barb Rehg, Ann Rowles, Georgia Strange, Rosie G. Thompson, Virginia Tyler

The Center for Book Arts

28 W 27th St New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.Website

En Masse: Books Orchestrated

Like houseplants, fluorescent lighting, and colorful rugs, books have made the jump from the realm of interior decor to full-blown contemporary art trend. Groups of books, as sculptural objects, seem to be everywhere these days. Curator Osman Can Yerebakan has clearly noted this, and organized an exhibition where groups of books are used as a sculptural medium. This should be a smart show, as it seems the tension between the book as a formal object and one that can contain content is explored.

Artists: Louis Zoeller Bickett, Jordan Buschur, Emilio Chapela, Özgür Demirci, Donald Daedalus, Leor Grady, Katarina Jerinic, Nina Katchadourian, j.c. lenochan, Liz Linden, Michael Mandiberg, Phil Shaw, Ward Shelley, Douglas Paulson, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Julia Weist.

Sat

New Museum

235 Bowery New York, NY 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.Website

Seven on Seven

We look forward to seeing what comes out of Seven on Seven every year. Sometimes the results are brilliant, sometimes goofy, and often though-provoking. The event pairs seven artists with seven people from the tech industry (researchers, inventors, capitalists, designers, etc…) and prompts them to create anything they want.

This year’s pairings (below) look to be promising, and include plenty of artists who already blur the lines between artwork and product, digital media, etc…

Artist Jayson Musson & Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO, Buzzfeed

Artist collective and NEW INC resident DIS & Rachel Haot, Managing Director, 1776

Artist Bunny Rogers & Nozlee Samadzadeh, Engineer, Vox

Artist Olia Lialina & Mike Tyka, artificial intelligence researcher at Google

Artist Addie Wagenknecht & Cindy Gallop, Founder, MakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRanTheWorld

Artist Constant Dullaart & Chris Paik, Partner, Thrive Capital

Artist Miao Ying & Mehdi Yahyanejad, Founder, Balatarin and Net Freedom Pioneers

Paula Cooper Gallery

521 West 21st Street New York, NY 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Website

Justin Matherly: A recrudescence

Justin Matherly’s sculptures have an endearingly crafty, almost painterly quality to them that evokes folk objects of devotion or ancient ruins. Here, appropriately, his subject matter is Greek mythology. Specifically, Asclepius, Telesphoros and Hygeia—the ancient deities of medicine, recovery, and healthy.

Who doesn’t need a little recuperation about now?

Sun

The Studio Museum in Harlem

144 West 125th Street New York, NY 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.Website

Artists-in-Residence Open Studios

As its name would suggest, the residency program at The Studio Museum was one of the institution’s’s founding and most important programs. Twice a year, those studios open to the public, and we get a peek at the processes of some of the top Black contemporary artists. This batch comprises multidisciplinary artists Autumn Knight and Julia Phillips and painter Andy Robert. All three artists have process-intensive practices, so this edition of open studios should be particularly interesting.

The Java Project

252 Java St Brooklyn, NY 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.Website

Gina Dawson: Bad Tattoos Closing Reception

Gina Dawson has been archiving others’ terrible, terrible tattoos through a variety of media. That might be a small painting of a tramp stamp or a large sculpture comprised of detritus from her past installations. These are funny, and oddly, feel a little precious. Practically everyone I know who went to art school has at least one regrettable tattoo, so I think we can all relate to this exhibition.

Curated by Carl Gunhouse.

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