I got buzzed by the support team. An "early" client needed help. It was mine to deal with.
Let me explain. When I started the IT support business, we took any job going and if we were not sure how to tackle it - we confidently said we could and then quickly figured out how to do it correctly. Over the years the business had grown in size and reputation. We were in a position to decide which work to take and which to decline. Usually small businesses on very limited budgets where it was hard to make money from a call. We now tended to support medium and larger businesses which were on the point of almost but not quite justifying their own IT departments. But I never forgot those who helped us get started. The "early" businesses were on a list that the support team knew we would service - even if it was at a loss. In order to minimize the use of the field teams - I would personally tackle those calls. Perhaps not the best use of the owner's time - but it kept my hand in and I could stay in touch with many who I actually counted as much as friends than clients.
This call was straightforward. An artist whose computer was for email, a little research and printing the odd bill. Something "wasn't working". The artist - Rita - worked out her house which was as much a studio as a home. The finished basement had been converted into a large mural studio. She could use photographs and small models she made and then study the perspective as she sketched onto the walls. These were covered with stretched large canvases on rollers allowing her to roll back and forth along a large scene as she painted. The ground floor seemed straightforward enough from what I could see when I entered through a kitchen door. An adjacent living room and a dining table. Through the part open door - what you might have expected to be a den of some kind seemed to be a bedroom. Then up some small steep stairs to the where one might have expected bedrooms. But any of the rooms I ever saw were a small office with a laptop, screen and printer and two bedrooms that were small studios. One was as much a storeroom. Stacked with literally hundreds of small canvases that were studies for her work. Wildlife, portrait headshots, nude studies. I'd often wondered what I would say if she asked me to pose for her - and which it would be. Portrait or nude?
Rita - like me was in her late 50's. Unlike me - she was short, almost elfin. Her cropped hair was a convenience to stop it flying into close paint work rather than a fashion statement. As she was basically flat chested - she had a rather boyish look to her. Not drop dead pretty. A rather plain lady with the experience of working outdoors weathered into her slightly lined face. She was earnest about her work and her greeting was always a slightly formal handshake. Some folks - you knocked on the door and let yourself in. For Rita - I always knocked and waited. She opened the door - dressed as in a loose faded sweatshirt, loose denim shorts and a paint spattered vest with pockets for brushes and pencils and the like.
As usual I was offered coffee. Something I usually decline on client visits. The reality is that some coffee turns out to be downright awful. But you still have to drink it or you hurt peoples' feelings. And then there is the chance it will trip my bladder and then I have to end up asking to use bathrooms - which in peoples' houses always seems a bit personal. And there is the additional problem that once my bladder is "tripped" some days I might need to pee three times in an hour. So coffee better avoided. But in this case - I accepted. I'd had Rita's coffee before and it was good. I couldn't imagine anything that was going to take more than 10-15 mins to sort out and then I could be on my way.
"Upstairs in the usual room" said Rita as she led the way.
I followed her up the stairs. They were quite steep. As she was ahead of me - her loose shorts were right in front of my face as we went up the stairs. And today - today of all days - they pulled a little tight across her butt as she took the stairs and I saw the most delightful hint of a curve. Perhaps a strawberry shaped bottom. It caught my attention. I also noted from a slight stirring in my groin that it had caught something else's attention. I suppressed the thought and followed on up to her "office" room.
Cans of paint mixes stacked along one wall. Tube after tube of paints on tables and a bench on the south wall facing a north window for the neutral light. Balanced on the bench were some small canvases. Studies of peoples' heads. Some were sketches, some part completed eye/nose combinations. A couple were outlines of nude female forms, posed half seated on chairs. Just some paint strokes to outline torso, limbs and featureless faces. There was some emphasis on the outline of breasts and of hair between legs. I idly wondered if perhaps Rita's boyish looks were more than practicality for her craft and possibly an interest in other ladies. But then the nude was always a legitimate art topic. Near the end of the row there was a nude male. Same outlined brush strokes, anonymous face. Abs were defined and in his thatch of hair - a medium sized dick. Soft - at rest. On the wall some more complete works, Wildlife and nature. A specialty of hers.
"Here we are" said Rita pointing at a paint spattered MAC in the corner. "Some of the keys on the keyboard are not working".
I had to smile. For someone who could be quite practical about the logistics of her work, getting canvases together, arranging for bucket trucks and scaffolds and enormous quantities of paint mixes delivered to job sites when she painted murals on the sides of building - she could miss the obvious. But perhaps it was because the problem was labelled "computer issue". Not her strong point. There were spatters of paint across the keyboard and some had stuck a couple of keys together. Now if it was a PC - I would have just grabbed a keyboard from the truck and plugged it in and dumped the painted keyboard. But it was a wireless MAC keyboard and like many artists - she "liked MAC". I didn't have one of those in the truck and they are a bit to expensive to just junk.
So I borrowed one of her pallet knives, turned off the keyboard and ran the knife between and around the keys - scraping off the paint. I held the keyboard upside down so the paint fell away from the keys. Out the corner of my eye I noticed Rita watching me work. Seemed like a little more than watching the mechanics of cleaning the keyboard. More like she was sizing me up. After a few minutes effort it all seemed clean enough again. I turned on the keyboard, brought up a blank document on her screen and tapped my way across the keyboard checking all the keys were working. Nearly there - a couple of the keys worked but were still a bit sticky. I repeated the exercise with a stiff two inch brush that I borrowed from her pile - after checking it was OK to use that brush. Again I noticed I was being observed - rather than the work I was doing. I wondered if I was going to be asked to model? Model nude?
"There you go - all set," I said.
Rita beamed. "You are wonderful - I should have figured it out. What do I owe you?"
She genuinely wanted to pay me for the effort - but if just wasn't worth the paperwork and cash would seem a little tacky as well as not in keeping with her business. She had her checkbook in hand ready to write.
"A cup of coffee - already paid" was my response.
"But how can I expect you to help when I call if you don't get paid?"
"Really" I said, "Coffee is fine".
We batted that back and forth a couple of times but in the end she thanked me and let it go. I now had a bit of time on hand so I asked if she had an decent commissions on at this time? She suggested the basement and down the stairs we went. With her leading the way down there was no chance of another view of her butt - but as I was almost looking down over her shoulders, I saw her sweatshirt pulled tight across her chest and perhaps the possibility of a shadow of her nipples. "Down boy" I laughed silently to myself.
In the basement - a large canvas spread on the wall with a night time city skyline in process. Nearly complete. It was for her client's office wall.
"Still trying to get those deep shadows between the buildings correct" she said. "What do you think?"
