"Lottie was your typical English teenager. She lived at home, just her and her mum, and was studying for her final GCSE's at school. Mum had been on at her to get a Saturday job as money was a bit scarce with just the two of them and the prospect of university fees looming ahead in two years time.
She had taken herself down to the local market after school one evening and asked at several stalls whether there was any chance of a Saturday job or not. Sadly most of the stalls already had youngsters working for them on a Saturday ..... but there was the fish market.
Sadly Lottie dragged her feet into the covered market stalls, it was cold in there, and a little smelly. Still, she loved her mum so much and realised that she needed to help out at home with a bit of spare cash if she was to achieve her goal of becoming a doctor.
"Erm, are there any Saturday jobs?" she asked, smiling, of one of the men as he finished serving someone.
"You're just in luck" replied the Sam the owner of the stall, "my last lad has just left as he got a full time job. It's yours if you want it. You look a bright kind of girl."
Sam explained the hours on a Saturday, what was expected of her and arranged for her to go into work the very next Saturday at 6 am. He said he would show her how to gut the fish and do everything that was expected of her, but explained that she was only on trial for a month.
Lottie went home, not really knowing how she felt but determined to give it a go. And give it a go she did ..... for the next twelve months.
Yes, there were teething problems, it was cold, and messy and she smelled terrible when she got home on a Saturday evening, too tired to go out with her friends and only fit for a long soak in the bath and to curl up with mum watching TV. But she kept on telling herself it was money in the bank for her future, and it was kind of training for being a doctor, after all she was gutting fish! And all the blood didn't bother her anymore.
She remembered how she had taken the head off fish when customers had asked for them to be left on, and left them on when customers had asked specifically for them to be removed. The dreams she had had of living in a fish tank, or of having her hair turn green and a fish living in her hair had bothered her at times but she had weathered the storms telling herself it was only 'another day of outward smiles and inward screams' for her. All would be well worth it when she could realise her dreams and become a member of the medical profession."
To begin with I drew inside the Lotza Squares stencil from A&C with an Inktense pencil, just as I had seen Abs do on TV. Think I got a bit carried away though and drew far too many. Then I went around each one with a waterbrush and spread the paint (watercolour pencils) across most of the page. I chose a couple of figures to use and mulled over a story. Then I remembered the theme was to change the next day!
Getting up yesterday I was eager to see what the new theme was and I found it was 'fish'. How strange, I had found a stamp I had forgotten about a few days earlier and it was a figure with a fish on her head and an owl by her knee. I coloured it in, thinking it would do for Art Journal Journey and the bird theme if I chopped the fish off and put a bird there instead. So yesterday I had a figure all ready apart from a new head being required. The figure was ready but the page was squares and circles would have been better. Then I thought 'tanks' - I can have them as fish tanks, so I drew little fish in most of them. And so, I now have my page ready a day early. Wonder what Wendy chose for the quote for next week?
