I first met Alyssa my third day in Santa fe and we became fast friends. Her art studio was next to mine on the second floor of the gallery building sandwiched between the exhibition gallery and reception areas on the first floor and the resident artist's living apartments on the third floor.
Aly, as she liked to be called, was an impressionist painter and her work was really beautiful. She gave me a tour of her studio and I showed her around my chaotic space describing in great and ultimately indecisive detail how I planned to lay everything out once I got settled.
She had arrived about a week before me and had already met the other three resident artists. It was through Aly that I met everyone else.
"So everyone's getting together in Brian's studio tonight around eight. You should come and let me introduce you." She was facing my studio window and her arms were outstretched pushing my curtains aside. The bright midday sun streamed into the room silhouetting her figure in the light making it impossible not to notice her seemingly perfect hour glass waist line.
"That sounds great." I unlocked my eyes from her figure to meet her eyes as she spun back around with a smile.
"Perfect! Brian's studio is just down the hall second door from the end on the left. I'll let you get back to work, but I'll see you tonight." She bounced out the door with a smile and disappeared into the hallway. "8pm!"
It was three in the afternoon when Aly left the studio and I managed to get a lot of work done in the studio before noticing I'd lost complete track of time.
It was already eight twenty when I knocked on Brian's half open studio door. An eclectic mix of music energized the room and there was a wide assortment of art scattered throughout the studio that included sculptures, paintings and works in other mediums. It would appear that Brian was a bit of a renaissance man.
"Jamie!" came Aly's excited voice as she jumped up from a sofa, climbing over the seated knees of others with her drink in hand and throwing her arms around my neck excitedly. "I'm maybe a little tipsy; Brian and I started early. What would you like to drink?"
"Um, I don't know. I'll have what you're having." I followed her over to a table filled with various bottles spread out over its surface. It was impossible not to like Aly, she just had one of these personalities that wouldn't allow for anything else. Plus she was gorgeous with an infectious smile and long wavy brunette hair that curled around her shoulders when it wasn't tied in a knot on the top of her head.
"Here." she handed me a red plastic cup.
"What is it?" I raised the cup to my nose and then to my lips.
"Just try it, it's good. Come one I'll make with the introductions." She pivoted where she stood and I followed her over to the part of the room where everyone was seated together. Suddenly I felt very self conscious and worried that I wouldn't fit in. I worried that somehow, for some reason, they would sense that I wasn't one of them. It was a mild social anxiety that I'd always experienced from very early on and while most of the time I didn't let it bother me it was in moments like these where I hoped to fit in that the butterflies fluttered in my stomach.
"Everybody this is Jamie. Jamie that's Mike in the green shirt. Sarah with her feet curled under her on the couch, and Brian in the chair with the whiskey."
"Hi." I said smiling and feeling everyone's eyes on me. "This is a really great space."
"Thanks. Pull up a chair." Brian's voice was warm and low. He reached behind him and pulled around a wide, plush chair repositioning it in the circle with the others.
I sank into the chair and Aly took up her old seat on the couch between Mike and Sarah who both looked to be in their late twenties to early thirties. I had already learned that Aly and I were both the same age, twenty-two, and with birthdays only two months apart to the day. It was Brian who seemed the odd man out. He looked to be at least thirty eight, maybe even a little older. The program wasn't age specific but I guess I just hadn't really considered that anyone that far out of school would have applied. Brian had a very calm, almost commanding presence about him. Handsome and relaxed in his well worn jeans and navy blue fitted dress shirt with the cuffs of his sleeves unbuttoned and loosely rolled up over his forearms. It was no secret seeing him leaned back in his chair with his arms outstretched on the armrests holding a glass half full of amber whiskey in one hand that he stayed in excellent physical shape. His casual clothes draped over his form in a way that most men only achieve with a finely tailored suit. His full head of hair was dark with only the slightest bit of gray beginning to appear at the temples. He wore his shirt with the top two buttons unfastened which allowed the fabric to relax open making the tan skin just under his collar bones visible to the eye.
Sarah looked to have some asian ancestry, was very pretty and seemed wholly incapable of withholding laughter from even the lamest of jokes. She was chatty too and quick to share an anecdote about almost anything relevant to the conversation at hand. She was cute with a lean figure yet somehow managed to have a round ass and curvy hips. She was clearly comfortable in her own body wearing skin hugging yoga pants and a form fitting tank that clung to her in a way that showed off her flat tummy and her chest - which looked to be B cups yet very full in shape. She wore her straight jet black hair pulled back in a pony tail.
Mike was clearly the storyteller and prankster of the group. Quick with a joke and able to capture the attention of everyone in the room and hold it with just the telling of a story. While pouring my third drink of the evening, Sarah joined me at the table to snack on some of the chips and informed me that Mike was a reclamation artist who designed and constructed sculptures from discarded industrial materials. Though listening to the way he told stories I came to the thought that he should try his hand as a filmmaker or author.
He had the trendy appearance and personal style of an indie-filmmaker or writer. Dark slim jeans, graphic tee, converse sneakers, and thick tassled sandy blonde hair.
It was eleven o'clock by the time we'd all gotten to know one another - or I should say by the time I got to know all of them, hear their stories, backgrounds, and how they got into art over more sane career paths.
I of course shared with them my own background as a photographer, talked about college and my path so far.
Of everyone's stories, it was Brian's that struck me the most. He had been an engineer at a globally respected aerospace corporation before leaving it all behind - the salary, the benefits, the world travel, and the retirement pension to pursue artistic endeavors.
"I was set, stable, good job, nice house, new car, I had everything the outside world wanted me to have and none of the things I wanted for myself. ...I was living safe but I wasn't living happy." His story stayed with me and lended him an added sense of courage in my mind. It was scary for me to choose the life of an artist but it was easy because I didn't know anything else. He had the proverbial kingdom set before him already; a banquet table of creature comforts and reasons to continue down the path he was already on and yet he walked away from it all to find his own path. I felt myself warming to him in an unexpected way.
"Let's play a game! A drinking game!" Came Aly's cry from across the floor where she was dancing to herself.
"I don't believe anyone here needs a game to drink." Mike quipped.
"Not the point." came her sly reply. "Ok, I think we should play a round of I Never. We've been sharing stories all night I think that if we are to continue to get to know one another we should make it more ...interesting and fun! The rules are easy. If I say that I've never had sex in a church and one of you has had sex in a church then that person has to drink. If none of you have ever experienced the most holy of unions in a church then I drink. Honesty is mandatory; even little white lies are to be checked at the door. Everyone game?"
