Unlikely meeting (Closed for Tio_Narratore)

[Tio_Narratore]

Frank remembered her comment about the drawing of Sara and wondered if she’d like the same things Sara liked. Maybe she would be interested in meeting her, he thought, but decided now wasn’t the time to bring it up.

He laughed lightly at her observation about his subject matter.

“Yes and no, Nataly,” he said. “I do draw landscapes and cityscapes, but not very often. I like rendering them, but I find with people I can go deeper than just a visual image.”

He took another sip.

“And so now I’ll tell you a bit more about me,” he began. “I always liked drawing and painting, from as long ago as I can remember. I found it fascinating that I could take pen or pencil or paint ad create something that looked like what I saw. When I was a teenager, I seriously considered becoming a professional artist. But I also wanted to be rich, and to be rich before I was too old to enjoy it. I realized art wasn’t very likely to get me there, so I looked into ways to get rich and saw trading as the way to go. And so I did.”

“I was - still am - good at trading and got rich. Never gave up the art, though, even did a BFA at the Art Institute of New York. And now being rich leaves me all the time I want for art, and anything else in life I enjoy. I like to travel, to travel in style. I like the arts in general, and I can go to operas, ballets, concerts, museums, any place in the world at any time I want.”

“So, that’s a bit about me. Tell me some more about you. Did you enjoy modeling? How did it make you feel?”

 

[AnnieLit]

"Modeling," Nataly paused for a second, "it made me feel both seen and hidden. I would be hiding behind the role I was playing, the mood I was supposed to convey. But also seen. Not so much in the commercial shoots, this was more for the art projects. Some of them were nudes, some not, but all of them required to convey strong emotions. And the only way for me to play them out is to actually feel them. I know viewers could see only the final results, they wouldn't know what exactly I had to think about to look sad, or to look broken, but I did. Seeing my raw emotions on display, reading in the comments on social media what people felt, it was pretty hard at times. Eventually I stopped looking at those comments altogether."

She took another sip.

"It's interesting that you could always draw, even before you studied it. I was the opposite - couldn't make anything look realistic with a pencil, but could show something unseen with a camera. Photography was, and still is, my art form. You wanted to create something with a pencil that looked like what you saw, and I wanted to create something that people wouldn't recognize in a picture even though they were seeing it every day. Shadow play, blowing up tiny details, unusual angels - all the things that make us look at everyday object from a new perspective."

 

[Tio_Narratore]

“Yes,” Frank agreed, “modeling is a lot like acting. Doing whatever works to convey the feelings your asked to display. When I draw someone, though, I don’t ask them to show anything, just to be themselves. Then I can capture what I really look for - the conjunction of body and soul. How who they are inside shows in their physical form. The cast of their eyes, the tenseness in their lips, the stress in the muscles all show me the character inside the body. And that what’s I try to draw.”

Another sip and the server came to take their dinner order

“Your photography sounds intriguing. I always thought of photography as mostly just recording something there, as anyone could see it. That photographers as artists had good eyes for framing a scene or a person so as to capture what it looked like. But you describe something else. I like the idea of showing people don’t see. I have looked at abstract photos; they show me what the photographer sees. But your idea is to display what they would see if they looked differently at things. I definitely have to see some of your photographs, Nataly.”

As they finished their aperitifs and waited for their appetizers, Frank reflected on what Nataly had said. It was clear she wasn’t an artist wrapped up in herself. She wasn’t trying to show people her world; she was tying to give them insights into their own. Yes, that was part of her substance, her soul. She was a giver, not a taker. A model shapes herself for others’ needs, but must have the appreciation that makes it meaningful. She gave of herself in modeling, but those who looked just took more. He wondered if he could draw that in a portrait of her, a portrait for her, and not for others.

 

[AnnieLit]

"I definitely have to see some of your photographs, Nataly.”

" Sure. I don't have any prints here, didn't bring them when we moved, but I have a couple IG accounts - one with objects and one with people. I will send you the links."

Appetizers arrived and the conversation stopped as the rood was too good to mix it with talking.

But no matter how good the food was, Nataly couldn't stop thinking about what just happened. She realized that nobody ever asked her how she felt about modeling. People just assumed that it was all about beauty and glamour, but it wasn't. Or at least the non-commercial projects were not. Photographers that she worked with knew of course that emotions were real, that's why they liked working with her, but they were the only ones.

And now Frank not only asked the right question, but somehow she gave him the honest answer. This bothered Nataly a little, she didn't understand why, what was it about this man that made her show her soul instead of brushing the question off and giving some generic none answer.

The whole conversation turned out to be much more serious than she was used to having on the first date. Or on any date for that matter.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

The appetizers finished, Frank resumed talking.

“I hope I didn’t give you the impression that I look down on photography,” he began. “In fact, I do like it. All kinds, actually.”

He paused a moment and then continued.

“There’s an exhibition opening at MOMA in two weeks: ‘Surreal Women: Photographs by Lee Miller, Dora Mar, Claude Cahun, and Florence Henri.’ I’ll be going to it, and, if you’re interested, I’d be pleased if you went with me.”

He looked to see if Nataly was interested, and then his own eyes brightened with a thought.

“Lily could come too,” he said brightly. “We could make a weekend of it. Take a walk in Central Park - Lily might enjoy seeing the animals. Maybe even take her to Coney Island.”

The sommelier arrived then, offering Frank a taste for his approval.

 

[AnnieLit]

"There’s an exhibition opening at MOMA in two weeks: ‘Surreal Women: Photographs by Lee Miller, Dora Mar, Claude Cahun, and Florence Henri.’ I’ll be going to it, and, if you’re interested, I’d be pleased if you went with me.”
“Lily could come too,” Frank added.

"Have you ever seen any of these women's work?!" Nataly laughed. "They are great photographers, don't get me wrong, but the mood in their photos range from sad to clinically depressed, I don't think it's a right place for any three year old. But I like your idea of making a weekend out of it. I can drop Lily off for a play date with a friend for a few hours so we can go to MoMA. Coney Island will have to wait for a few years, they admit kids by height, she is still too little, but she loves the Tots playground in the Central Park and the Rockefeller Park by the Brookfield ferry, because it has water. "

"But," Nataly paused, "wouldn't you be bored there? Playing with your own kid is one thing, but before Lily came along I hated when friends with kids invited me to come along to playgrounds - you can't really talk there as every couple min they had to run over and help climb up, or get down, or the kid falls and needs a kiss, or they want to show you what they made in the sandbox. It never ends. Now it's different for me because I go into all this with her, we play and run, and slide together. But what are you going to do on a playground?"

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Frank laughed.

“You maybe right, but it is clear that I don’t know the first thing about kids. Nd I guess I could learn a lot by spending the weekend with you and Lily - not with Lily at MOMA, though.”

He paused to think as he took a first bite from his main course. He looked over at Nataly as he finished his mouthful.

“I know what I could do at the playground,” he offered. “I could bring a sketch pad and stuff and draw you and Lily as you played. I’d like to do that, and the other people wouldn’t think I was some sort of pervert sitting by myself watching children play. Is it a date, then?”