This, That, and the Other

Arlene sat in her eleventh grade Art Appreciation class. She was taking copious notes, as she usually did for that class. Unlike many of her fellow students, she didn’t enroll in the elective course simply in order to get an easy A.

Deep down inside, Arlene felt that she was a great, albeit misunderstood, artist. Most people didn’t “get” her work. They didn’t seem to comprehend her overriding theme, which was the human condition. She couldn’t figure out why people didn’t appreciate what she was trying to say.

Arlene knew herself well enough to know that she had a fragile ego. But she also knew that in order for her to move forward, she couldn’t afford to gloss over the feedback she had received from her friends, family, and teachers. So Arlene decided that she needed to make her sketches a little more relatable. She needed to hone her God-given skills and prove herself to her doubters.

When she got home after class that day, Arlene took out a piece of her finest linen paper, opened up her palette of colored pencils. She picked out a neutral charcoal color, and began meticulously copying the image she saw on the page of her favorite fashion magazine.

Written for the following one-word prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (copious), Daily Addictions (theme), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (fragile), Word of the Day Challenge (gloss), Your Daily Word Prompt (palette), and Scotts Daily Prompt (neutral).