[F4F] The Art Gallery - The Artist & The Muse
The act of sitting down at the dining room table to eat dinner with her mother and stepfather was something Olivia thought she had left behind when left for college. If they were ever to do so it would have to be during a holiday or birthday. Olivia hadn’t accounted for the fact that she would have to move back home after she graduated from college. Even accounting for that fact, Olivia still thought it would be something all of them avoided.
Yet there Olivia was, sitting awkwardly at a table for six with three seats filled. Olivia wasn’t the only person who hadn’t expected her to move back in after college. Her stepfather Marlin (seriously, the same name as the clownfish dad from Finding Nemo) also had been under the impression that he and Olivia’s mother would be empty nesters finally. Marlin had married Olivia’s mother, Penelope, when Olivia was fifteen years old. The one good thing Marlin had going for him in Olivia’s eyes was that he never bothered trying to form a bond with her. He knew the attempt would have been dead on arrival.
As hands off as Marlin had been with Olivia, there was always one aspect of her life he did feel the need to comment on. Olivia’s decision to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. How is she going to make a living? Does she expect us to support her for the next decade? Do we really want her to move back in with us after she graduates with no job prospects?
Unfortunately for Olivia, all those questions once posed either to her face or overheard through paper thin walls, had all been relevant questions. While Olivia had graduated with her professors believing she had promise, Olivia quickly learned that promise meant shit in the era of AI slop.
Olivia was currently working as a barista at Flare Café. She hated the job tremendously, but it was her main source of income, much of which went to her student loans. Olivia also did a few commissions but had to stop due to her tablet taking a long rest a month ago. She didn’t have the cash to buy a new one or repair her old.
Olivia pushed the fettuccine alfredo around her plate with her fork as she contemplated whether she even wanted to share her good news. Olivia eventually decided to interrupt her mother and Marlin’s thrilling conversation about one of Marlin’s coworkers.
“There is a new art gallery opening up on Brunson, for their opening night they’re giving me a wall.” Olivia blurted out.
“Oh? That is great honey.” Penelope said with a proud little smile.
Olivia didn’t need to see Marlin’s face to know whatever he was about to say would annoy her to no end but also somehow hit a sore spot.
“Does that come with a paycheck? Or do you sell your art there?” Marlin asked. The question was fair, but Olivia could hear the underlying question. Are you going to make any money?
“I could sell some pieces, yeah.” Olivia said. She decided to forgo explaining the part where the gallery would take a sizable chunk out of anything she sold. “It is more about getting my name out there.” Olivia explained. “The person who owns this gallery has another downtown where a lot of local artists have gotten their start. Like the graffiti artist Romaine Lettuce started with them.”
Olivia knew she should have kept her mouth shut based on the looks both Marlin and her mother gave her. It wasn’t her fault the most well known graffiti artist in their part of the city had decided to go by the pseudonym Romaine Lettuce.
“Romaine…” Marlin began only for Penelope to cut in.
“Well, I think that is lovely sweetheart, when is this?” Olivia’s mother asked.
“Thursday night. I know you work those nights, but you could stop by before opening maybe and I could show you around.” Olivia said hopefully. She did want her mother to see her art. Penelope was the subject of one of Olivia’s pieces she was planning on using for the gallery.
Olivia’s mother promised that she would try, she was a registered nurse and worked the late shift on Thursdays. Nothing of note happened for the rest of their dinner, but Olivia felt buoyed by the gallery. As if this was the chance she had been seeking.
Thursday came faster than expected. Olivia had spent the three weekdays leading up to the gallery’s opening getting her wall prepared. It was a small wall located in the far back of the gallery, but it was her wall.
Olivia dabbled in a lot of different styles of art, but for the gallery she focused on her sketches. Olivia specifically focused on sketches of people she had done. Olivia had a wickedly sharp memory for faces. She could see someone on the subway in the morning and recall every little laugh line, wrinkle, and freckle when she was sketching later that night.
Over the years Olivia had used this memory bank of faces to fill up over a dozen notebooks and sketchpads with strangers she’d seen around the city. Some of the sketches were done in minutes and others she had spent hours on. There were a few specific faces she’d even tried to make in a photorealistic style.
Olivia had centered her wall around these sketches. The whole theme of the opening night was to focus on local artists, so Olivia thought why not focus her wall on the locals themselves. Her mother was part of the fifteen or so faces she had chosen. There were also a few of Olivia’s friends, but the rest were strangers. People whose names she would never know. People she had seen on public transit or at Flare Café.
On that Thursday night the gallery opened to a rather large crowd of people waiting outside. They weren’t expecting any big art collectors to come down, but you never knew who was in a crowd. Olivia was doing her best to ignore the fact that her own mother hadn’t been able to stop by as she stood close to her wall.
There was one thing that Olivia had not thought about even as the gallery opened. What would be the odds that one of the faces she’d sketched would show up at the gallery that night to find a mirror of themselves on the wall.
Hello!
If you’ve read this far then I appreciate you immensely and I hope that you find the idea to be intriguing and worth sending me a message. I also hope that the idea of the prompt isn’t incomprehensible, but I’ll be safe and give a quick rundown here.
I am searching for a partner who is willing to play one of Olivia’s unwitting muses. Who that character is will be entirely up to you. I have no problem discussing some ideas with you as well! This character will find themselves at the gallery opening for one reason or another, in which they will come across a small exhibit on a small wall. On that wall they’ll find themself in the form of a sketch done by Olivia herself.
Where we go from there is entirely up to us and how we’d like to play this out. I will share one idea for a character opposite Olivia, but I also really encourage you to bring your own ideas if they come to you.
The other character opposite Olivia could be a very wealthy woman who is rather flattered by the young woman’s portrayal of her. Perhaps she decides she would like to sponsor Olivia for more art. (Yes, this is basically a sugar mommy idea, but like… Could be romantic as well.)
I’ve written enough. Too much probably. If anyone gets this far you’re awesome and probably deserve a gold star. To get your gold star you’ll have to message me with some ideas on who you’d maybe like to play in this prompt.
Note: You won’t actually get a gold star… But you might get a decent roleplay.
Thanks for reading.
Rose <3