𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 → 𝐥𝐮𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 [COMING SOON]

prologue

friday,
june 24th, 2022

DISCONSOLATE - PROLOGUE

Florence Joyce had always thought Chicago was beautiful.

Living here has proved her right. Her favourite part of the city is the eastern chunk, along Lake Michigan where Navy Pier resides.

Navy Pier isn't that far from where the girl sits now in Starlight Art Studios, situated on Milwaukee Avenue. In fact, if she closed her eyes and dismissed any sound of city traffic outside, she could convince herself that she'd be able to hear the waves that budge against the dock. Even though that's completely unrealistic, she'd like to envision it.

"You'd better get on home, Floss."

To Florence's dismay, an all too familiar voice disrupts her imaginary peace. She's forced to peel her eyes open, faced directly with a painting she's been working on lately. An unfinished landscape — an intricate design of Navy Pier sprawled almost effortlessly across a once blank canvas which is held up by the wooden easel.

The petite girl's blonde waves bounce as she swivels her neck to the side, meeting the teasing glance of her fellow artist, Olive. Olive Lockwood is also employed by Starlight Art Studios and she specialises in cubism and abstract.

Florence Joyce dabbles in many forms of art and she truthfully is finding it to be quite difficult to choose a major. Between photorealism, surrealism and impressionism, the decision seems so far out of reach. She's brilliant at each of them — though her humble nature leads her to believe otherwise — so naturally, focusing solely on one is borderline impossible.

Florence has been with Starlight for just shy of a year, whereas Olive has been painting here for a little over two. Olive is also the only person on Earth that calls Florence Joyce Floss.

"You know you don't need to worry about me, Olive," Florence replies, straightening her posture and rinsing her dainty paintbrush in a ceramic jar of water.

The sheer idea of anybody worrying about Florence Joyce is enough to swallow her whole with guilt.

"It's—" Olive pauses, checking her watch, "Almost 12am, Florence. If you're going to stay longer, at least let me make you a coffee." She offers a smile then and the blonde of the two appreciate the kindness in her friend's warm brown eyes.

Florence chuckles, mixing different shades of blue on her palette, "I'll take one if it's going," she responds, earning a hum from Olive as she leaves the studio Florence is working in.

Starlight Art Studios Chicago is based in a beautiful building here on Milwaukee Avenue with a large amount of vast French windows and nothing but white, white walls and ceilings. The floors are a polished dark wood, considering some artists tend to forget about keeping the floor clean while they work. It's a two-storey building with five private, fully decked out art studios inside. The artists there have also been blessed with a tea room which is kitted out with every kind of tea under the sun and many different coffees, too. That room is for the artists to relax in while taking a bit of a break. There's a terrace out back with a glass ceiling and walls, almost like a greenhouse without the heat. There's dozens of plants out there and it is quite beautiful when you need some fresh air, thanks to the windows.

Florence doesn't know each individual artist there on a personal spectrum, but she never fails to send a smile someone's way. Honestly, the artists tend to rotate a lot between Chicago's Starlight studios and New York's. Herself and Olive are really the only permanent Chicago-livers, but there are no complaints there.