"Untitled", "The Girl", and "Stone Mystique" make up my first art collection entitled, "The Charcoal Collection" - the common theme being: charcoal as the medium of art and the human body as the subject of study.
"Untitled", "The Girl", and "Stone Mystique" are my third, second, and fifth works of art using charcoal respectively. I haven't produced another charcoal drawing since "Stone Mystique" as my one and only piece of charcoal went missing traveling from home to school after the winter holiday. I guess I could buy another piece of charcoal, but I've always felt intimidated stepping into an art store. My knowledge of art (and its various mediums) is quite limited. The last art class I took was in the fourth grade - when it was required as part of the school curriculum. I never really had an opportunity to take an art class since. Needless to say, I feel like a fish out of water every time I'm in an art store.
The last time I was in an art store I sought to buy a sketch book for a friend. I thought this errand would take me five minutes at most. Seven, if I had to wait in line. But oh my gosh! It was a total nightmare - even with the nice store owner's help (I think his name was Bill).
'What kind of sketchbook are you looking for?" he asked. Um... a regular sketch book? "Ok, what kind of paper do you want?" What is this, a trick question? Normal paper of course! Duh. What exists outside of notebook paper, printing paper, construction paper, tracing paper, and photo paper?
"We've got acid-free paper, neutral pH paper, 400 recycled paper series, premium recycled series, windpower sketch pads..." My jaw literally dropped to the floor. WHAT?!?! "...we've also got heavy weight and medium weight pages, depending on what you want..." he continued.
I looked at the hundreds of sketch books lying neatly in their racks hoping one of them would be labeled, "CHOOSE ME" in big bold letters. Instead I saw 50 lbs, 65 lbs, and 100 lbs written on their covers. What? What do all these numbers mean? Do these sketchbooks weigh this much? Impossible!
I blushed with embarrassment. I wanted to melt into the floor and spare myself from further humiliation. The nice store owner must have sensed my confusion (and my thoughts to just run out of the store and cry), for he asked, "hard-bound or soft bound?" Soft bound, I said meekly. He nodded and continued, "spiral bound, thread bound, or leather casing?" Spiral bound, I said with a little bit of confidence, though not enough to extinguish the humiliation that I felt. "Size?" Medium. "Color?" Uhh... white? What other color is there? (Apparently cream tone, ivory, ash colored, various shades of grey, and black, as I found out later on). "Rounded corners?" No. "Elastic closure?" No.
He nodded politely and picked one off the shelf for me, brought it to the counter and rang it up. "Twenty-four fifty". I hastily handed over some money, waited for the change, muttered a sheepish thank you and dashed out the door. Never again will I step into an art store by myself, I vowed.
I guess this story never really answered the question of how I got my piece of charcoal in the first place… though technically, I never posed this question. My answer is simple: my first year college roommate gave it to me.
