Canary in a Coal Mine

Bean raised her hand. She was a bit sleep deprived; her elder brother and his girlfriend had been thumping against the wall of his bedroom, which was adjacent to her own. Hunter had slept outside with his precious venomous spider to make sure she survived; he'd wrapped the jar with blankets to keep her warm.

“Bean?” Sadie called on her.

"Are we gonna watch any Terry Gilliam stuff?" she asked. "Like Brazil or The Adventures of Baron Munchausen?"

Sadie chuckled at that. “A woman of taste, I see. No, we’re sticking to static art for this, not performing arts. So. Paintings. Drawings. Things of the like.”

"Oh. Okay. Well, I mean, he does static art too, right?"

(Me, googling lol)

“Hmm… that’s true, he does,” Sadie said with a nod. “Good catch. I don’t have any of his work though, unfortunately. But that’s the same vein of what we’re going to be looking at, yes. Exactly the right vibe.”

(I had to make sure; I mostly know him from Monty Python)

"Okay, awesome." She smiled.

(Haha yeah. I didn’t recognize the name but googled and was like ohhhh that dude nice lol)

Sadie returned the smile. “Okay, so, here are some examples using oils.” She wheeled a projector over and began putting the images over the screen so they’d display on the wall behind her. “Notice the distinct break away from realism and the way these artists juxtaposition their art with reality to make it striking.”

(He's pretty great; I've been a fan since I was a little kiddo)

Bean started taking notes.

Sadie walked through a lot of the big names, pointing out their signature techniques and also rambling about absurdism in general. Finally she got to the end of her presentation. “So now I want you to think about your own piece. What themes will you work with? How will you turn them on their head? What symbolism will help you get there? And, of course, what medium will you use? Take out a sheet of paper and start answering those questions. Remember mind maps can be a helpful tool to start brainstorming with.” She’d taught that tool early in the semester several times and referred back to it frequently.

Bean had already been doing something similar, sketching out a couple ideas and writing down her thoughts. She glanced up at Sadie.

Sadie gave the kids a few minutes to work, then began wandering amongst their desks peeking over shoulders and answering questions, and being a sounding board for ideas. She was coming up on Bean's row now.

Bean had drawn a couple ideas with a strong nature theme, specifically about stones and tree roots, experimenting with a tree wrapping its branches around a rock and writing a few things like "wooden face?" and "crawdad head?"

Sadie glanced at the paper quickly. "Nice. Good stuff, Bean."

"Thanks." She grinned.