2025-03-02 - A Dab of Paint, Two Throw Pillows, and a Lamp

"So what are we thinking, like basics? Paints, brushes, cheap canvas?" Artemisia wonders as she pushes a cart with a slightly squeaky wheel through Tarjay. She has an iced coffee from the in-store Moonbucks rattling in the cupholder that looks like it is half the size of her head, two pumps caramel, one vanilla, and an extra shot. Not that Artemisia needs the energy, half skipping as they wheel around the store, sometimes riding on the cart in a glide.

The blonde is dressed casually today in a pair of pale purple mid-rise cargo pants, a lettuce edged black babydoll tea, and a mix of necklaces - one of which might be one of those candy ones or at least made to look like it. Her ears are studded with hoops, visible since she's pinned back her hair with two barrettes with a pearl dotted surface.

Ari walks somewhat more sedately beside Artemisia, if only because he'd only ordered a regular latte and it's his first caffeine of the day. In fact he has to hurry to catch up more than once when she glides on ahead, though he looks amused about it, smiling as he picks up the pace just long enough to come back to Arte's side. "Yeah, I say keep it pretty basic, we don't need anything fancy to do a still life, yeah?"

He's in jeans and a t-shirt, which is what he's always in when he's not at work, so there's not much to note. But he's without glasses, blinking more often than normal, because he has his contacts in. "I have some stuff at home that I can bring too. Drop cloths, mostly. I, uh, might be able to put together a few makeshift easels before then, I think." He frowns as he contemplates that, but then nods, seemingly confident he can manage it.

"We should get something cool for the still life from the junk shop," Artemisia suggests. "Maybe we'll find a skull. Those are fun to paint!" She hums as Ari mentions drop clothes. "That's a good idea. I have some sheets an pins I can use for drapery."

"I was thinking we could get a few different things, that way people could have their choice of what to paint. Like, I was just going to bring a bunch of fruit from home," Ari explains, and then he laughs at his own idea, shaking his head. "I guess there's something fun about us all painting the same thing, just to compare and contrast at the end, though."

As they turn down an aisle towards the art supplies, he takes a sip of his latte. "Maybe if this becomes a regular thing we could come up with a theme for each month, or make it a series or something."

"Oh." Artemisia tips her head. "I've never done it like that. Yeah that might be cool. Or maybe we have everyone bring something and our still life is a composite?"

Ari snaps his fingers. "That's a great idea," he says to Arte. "I love that. Make it so that everyone's a little invested in the art, because there's something they picked out in it." He pulls out his phone to make a note of that, and to also make a note to let people know ahead of time, too.

He pauses to feel a fluffy throw blanket, because he can't pass up doing so. "I don't need this," he tries telling himself.

Into the cart it goes.

"You sure? Because that is hella cute," Artemisia observes with an ice-rattling slurp of her drink. "I kinda like it too. It'll make it really fun if it starts being on the regular and we do themes. I'd love to get people to pose to do like short gesture drawings too."

She reaches into the cart to also pet the blanket. They divert from the art aisle into the 'on sale' home decor because Artemisia can't resist. She pauses by a lamp which is gold with a hammered texture. "I think I might be in love with this."

Nodding his head in agreement, Ari sidles up to the cart with matching throw pillows for his new blanket, but these he manages to put back. Before they go into the cart, because once they're there, it's a foregone conclusion. "I hope we can make it a regular thing. It'll be nice to have the excuse to just do art for art's sake, instead of because we're being paid to make specific things."

He looks at the lamp a long moment and then whispers, "Do it," because Arte should, "Treat yo'self."

"We will." Artemisia says that with absolute certainty and just a dash of impish humor, her eyes flicking pink as she looks up at him. "Whether or not anyone joins us is just a bonus." She's decided they'll do art, so they'll do art.

That whisper curls in her ears and she giggles. "You, sir." Artemisia says, lifting the lamp carefully off the shelf - ooh 30% off! - before adding, "Are temptation incarnate."

Arte's certainty is reassuring, so Ari rocks up onto the balls of his feet and positively beams, thrilled at the idea of a creative outlet like that. He clasps his hands behind his back as he comes to stand flat again, partially to keep from picking up anything else to potentially buy.

But for Artemisia's sake, he says, "You need it! Look at it!" And then he spots the sales tag, and his eyes go wide. "C'mon you can't pass up a deal!"

"You know I can't pass up a deal." It's true. There have been a few trips to the thrift store and additions to Artemisia's already impressive wardrobe to prove it. Like the candy-not-candy necklace that she is wearing today. Still, she places the lamp carefully into the cart and stares at it. "You know we need to go look at shades now. That one is dull." It is a sad beige little shade.

"Yeah, we can't let you go down the sad griege path of current trends. It's just not right," Ari agrees, of the shade. They're artists, after all. He goes back for the throw pillows after a moment's thought, moving to toss them into the cart... only to stop at the last minute and gently place them in instead, on account of Arte's new lamp that he totally didn't pressure her into buying.

Then he grabs hold of the side of the cart, leading them off towards the shades. "Remind me to stop in the pet aisle, gonna try a new brand of treats for Mich. One day I'll find something except ham that he actually likes."

"Oh good. Those good perfect with your blanket." Artemisia smiles up at Ari. "I was going to grab them for you if you didn't." Surprise. Pillow present!

She follows as Ari leads towards the lamp shades, half-skipping as she keeps up, her lug-soled boots thudding solidly on the tile. "Maybe bacon? That's like ham but the butt." Artemisia giggles at her own bad joke.

The admission from Arte about the pillow present surprise has Ari smiling bashfully. "That's so nice of you," he says. Even though he's buying them for himself now, he can't help but feel pleased that Arte was thinking about it. So maybe there's a bit of a skip to his step too, as he walks.

Once at the lampshades, he leans against the cart as they browse. "Y'know, I haven't actually tried bacon yet. Maybe they make bacon treats for cats. I know they do for dogs, but... probably shouldn't give him dog treats?" He sounds uncertain about that.

"Dude my rabbit eats cotton candy, I am not the person to go to for pet advice," Artemisia says with a laugh. "But I bet they make some for cats." As they enter the lampshades, she looks at them critically. "You know," she says slowly, "Other than my piles of clothes - I haven't actually decorated my room." Lifting a finger, she twirls a lock of hair.

Ari snorts at the mention of Artemisia's snugglebunny and shrugs at her, conceding the point silently. He leans over to swat at a tassle on a particularly ostentatious lampshade, then straightens up and looks over at Arte.

"Yeah, me either. I mean, if you hadn't helped me pick out that bookshelf I would have basically no furniture at all in there aside for my bed." He pauses, looking upwards in thought. "Maybe we can hit up the thrift store for more than just objet d'art? Or, more than just that for our painting club."

Artemisa stares at the ostentatious lampshade. "Part of me likes that and part of me is telling that part of me that it's just some French baroque bs with plastic beads." She glances at Ari. "You may need to save me from myself here." There's a look at the lamp in the cart as she hummms. Target isn't like Ikea where things magically fit together by virtue of design.

"I kind of like this pale white one. The shape is nice?" Artemisia muses, picking one up. "I have a clothing rack. And like a little dresser. No art. Nothing decorated." She sets the shade on the lamp. It's definitely the wrong shape for it. "And yes. Absolutely. I'll shop with you anytime. Lee helped me pick out the cutest dress there for my date."

"I think that one is a no from me dog," Ari points out, even though he reaches again to play with the tassles, like a cat might. He's taking too much after Mich, clearly. He frowns at the white shade too, which only deepens when Artemisia actually puts it on the lamp.

He shakes his head and goes to poke through the others on offer. "Hm, no. Too greige. Too dusty rose. Too... grandma." The last one is a pale blue that is also somehow dusty like the dusty rose? Ari folds his arms over his chest and makes a thoughtful noise. "Maybe we gotta order something online for this?"

...

Artemisia frowns at the lamp shades for daring to not be a color she (or Ari) deems appropriate. "Online. Or maybe again the vintage shop comes to our salvation?" She sets the shade she picked out back. "I guess I can live with the one it came with oooh-" Her eyes light up with pink. "Ari." She touches his shoulder. "What if we painted it?"

The painting idea is a revelation, and Ari stops, turns to Arte, and stares. "Yes," he says, almost breathless, and then backtracks to the dusty pink. "I might have judged you too quickly," he tells the shade, and then picks it up to put it on the lamp as a test. "Can you imagine like a... lo-fi seascape sunset scene on this? It would be so good."

"Oh. My. God."

Artemisia's eyes light up with sparkles as she stares at Ari, practically looking like an anime character. "I am in love with that. So totally in love... maybe like a cityscape could be an omage that too."

This moment of creative convergence between the two of them has Ari staring right back at Artemisia, his eyes wide. No sparkles or anything, but the vibe is still there. "Well, now we have a separate project to buy art supplies for," he says, already looking forward to the next steps.

"Okay, is this the one?" he asks, of the shade he's still holding.

It's electric! Artemisia's expression breaks in a bright grin like sunshine coming through the clouds. "I think we can manage that. It'll just be more acrylic paint that we were planning, we can water it down so that it's still slightly permeable for the light." She claps her hands excitedly and nods emphatically at the shade. "Yes. That one. The first one was the wrong shape. "

"That works for me," Ari says, and as he places the shade down in the cart, he smiles. His own expression brightens even more, because Artemisia's is infectious, and then he turns to lead them out of the decor section before they're tempted to buy even more. Right now, though, he's on a mission: to the art supplies!

As they head towards the art supplies, Artemisia comments, "I think we get the standard tubes for the event. Red, blue, yellow, magenta, cyan, black, oh and white of course. We can do a sort of color mixing show and tell if people have questions?"

Ari turns back to nod at Artemisia's suggestion. "Yeah. I saw online that they have those little plastic reusable paint palettes, so we could use those too." A few more aisles and then a turn, and then here they are, all the art supplies a casual hobbyist might need.

"I'm kind of hoping we don't have to go to the mainland for a proper art store if we can avoid it," he says. "It's a long drive." Speaking from experience on that, clearly, Ari adds, "But maybe if things progress with these art nights we might want to graduate up to that, at some point."

"Oh those would work. Or we could even use watercolors, which they might have in the kids section too," Artemisia points out, lifting her coffee to take a slurp. "I feel like this will be enough for our first go." She starts moving to collect small canvases and adding them to the cart, then pauses and grabs a book of art paper too. "Yeah. I know where there's a good one. I even don't mind driving as long as you do the navigation," she says with a smile.

"Why don't we get both, and let people choose which one they're more comfortable with?" While Arte is busy with the canvases, Ari goes to get the acrylics, the ones she'd listed out earlier. As he wrangles them into one arm, his other hand still occupied by his drink, he calls out, "Do you think we should buy aprons too or just warn people ahead of time to wear clothes they don't mind getting paint on?"

"Warn!" Artemisia calls out over her shoulder as she eyes the brushes available. "It's art. I've never known that many people who'll manage to keep an apron on."

Muttering to himself, Ari agrees with a "Yeah that's fair," as he scoots over to the cart with his arm full and leans in to get the paints in there, with some difficulty. But hey, he manages it without dropping anything, which means he did it in one trip! That was the goal, really, even though it would've only taken him a handful more steps if he'd done two.

But they're not only buying for Art Night any more, so he does end up going back to the paints, this time looking them over with a more critical eye. "Do you wanna splurge on any other colors for the lampshade?" he asks.

Artemisia wanders back over to the paints, slipping her arm through Ari's. "I do." She scans the colors available. "Are we seeing neon city sunset or like soft summer? Because I think I kind of vibe with summer."

Ari immediately gives Arte's arm a welcoming squeeze. "Soft summer, for sure," he says, and then reaches out towards the paints, pointing to some softer purples and pinks, with some oranges as well and even a yellow thrown in. Pastel colors, not super bright. "I'm thinking something in this range, maybe."

Once his hand drops, he pulls out his phone and starts searching up inspo pics. "I'm thinking like... Monet vibes?"

"Love. I'm seeing the Paris paintings on the Seine, a little hotter than Giverny," Artemisia says of the colors, adding an additional pink to the pile. She holds as Ari collects at least, as much as she can, then grabs a black to add it to the top of the pile. There is a wait as Ari checks his phone, making sure they're on the same image idea.

It takes a moment, distracted as Ari is, to find what he's looking for. They're also picking out paints at the same time, so he alternates between that and scrolling. Until he makes an "Ah-hah!" noise, and flashes up one of Monet's Houses of Parliament paintings on his phone screen for Arte to see.

"Something like this, maybe? Less cloud cover, but definitely similar to what I was imagining."

"Yeeeeees." Ari can feel Artemisia bounce up and down at his side. "That's. Yes!"

"Perfect then!" Ari says as they finish picking things out. He tucks his phone away but not before texting Arte a link to the painting for future reference, and then he steps over to take control of the cart. "Okay, need anything else?" Then a metaphorical lightbulb goes off for him. "Besides cat treats, we can't forget those."

"I don't think so," Artemisia says, tucking the paints carefully into the cart. "Let's go spoil your cat!"