“The best thing about being an artist is permission to be odd.”
Enter the beginning of the semester.
The first words Matt speaks to Ben are,
“Sorry if I smell. By this time of the day, I’m usually pretty sweaty.”
Little do they know a friendship is taking root.
Fast forward two and a half months.
It is night time. Class let out a half hour early. The boys are smoking cigarettes beneath a bridge exchanging artistic ideas while taking gulps of cheap red wine. Matt checks his watch and realizes the two of them need to get back to the school lest they miss the semester’s final visiting artist guest lecture. Ben conceals the wine bottle awkwardly within his jacket while Matt packs up his things. They set back toward campus jolly and youthful as ever.
They arrive at the school and make a quick pit stop to use the Theater Building’s bathroom. Cheap wine quickly runs its course. Just after emptying their bladders they proceed to fill them up again.
Ben jokes, “This is where we get fucked.”
Suddenly,
the bottle cap drops and vanishes into Matt’s backpack.
They scramble in vain to find it. Another student enters. The two boys scurry to hide the open bottle in the backpack and awkwardly leave the bathroom.
They walk in fifteen minutes late to an already in-progress lecture. Ben carries a portfolio and a couple of books displaced from Matt’s backpack by the bottle. They spot a couple of open seats where else but in the middle of a row toward the back. To get to their spots they have to rudely maneuver past seated peers. Matt charges ruthlessly down the row. Ben blindly follows and stumbles over a girl’s backpack. The two of them make a bit of a spectacle but do get seated. Paranoid thoughts of smelling like winos invades Ben’s mind.
Ben jots notes on the back of a “do not remove from book” slip from one of Matt’s library books:
The artist likes to draw on found “antique style” paper.
The artist’s drawing process is to attempt forget his formal training and feign “retardation”.
I observe a reoccurring theme of demons/devils in underwear.
Illustrations often have an accompanying text written as a reflection of the piece.
Artist’s grandfather often said, “Two means trouble.”
I can’t help but feel that he is somehow talking about Matt and me.
“Artists create rules that can be bent but not broken (A framework to operate in).”
I observe sexual orientation confusion. “He’s just a bear chaser.”
[Two lines of indecipherable scribbles]
Keep falling asleep. Now seeing double. Been up for 30 hours.
Artist went to Catholic school for 8 years. Big whoop.
Woke up to a David Blaine joke. Newfound energy.
Artist only makes crude illustrations.
Been here for over an hour. May have fallen asleep for over 20 minutes. Not sure.
Beginning to stake out anyone who might bum us cigarettes.
Still paranoid someone will kick us out.
Recognize faculty members: Must avoid.
Artist said, “Gallery success comes not from waving pieces around but from first becoming a fan of said gallery and letting them get to know you. Don’t say you’re an artist just express interest.”
Artist said, “Your ego should be gigantic in studio but non-existent in public.”
Artist’s mother said, “Freddy remember that if you work hard and if you are lucky then maybe you might succeed.”
Artist often tells his students, “You are your first and best audience.”
Artist said, “The surest way to look like an idiot is to try and seem smart.”
The lecture is over. Ben and Matt narrowly avoid The Art School Director on their way out. The boys stand outside looking for anyone to ask for a smoke from. Matt approaches a group of older students. Ben notes Lindsay is among them. Matt asks if anyone can bum us cigarettes.
One student says,
“Not if you’re going to ask like that.”
Ben holds out two lighters and proposes a trade. The other student eagerly accepts. Ben and Matt obtain cigarettes. The group disperses. Only the two boys and the other student remain.
Ben never got to talk to Lindsay. The boys chat with the other student for a few minutes about architecture and 3D printing. When the cigarettes are finished the boys say goodbye to the other student.
Previously, Ben stashed his belongings in a girlfriend’s locker.
The boys walk toward the art building to retrieve his stuff. When they get to the fourth floor they realize they have to visit the bathroom. Again they pee and swig wine. This time they find the cap and nobody barges in. Ben gets his stuff from the girl’s locker.
Before leaving Matt shows Ben a corridor with a piano part. The two pluck the metal chords and giggle at the subsequent tones. They exchange ideas of using it to soundtrack future conceptual films. Soon enough they grow bored and proceed outside to say their goodbyes and part for the evening.
Matt rides his bike home and Ben waits for the bus.
All in all it proves to be a victorious night.