CHAPTER 1 L’ARTISTE Becca blew the eraser dust off her canvas and sighed I’m the worst artist in the whole world She adjusted the photo clipped to her easel I peeked at her painting You’re not the worst artist in the whole world Just in Seattle Gee thanks Logan she said as she rolled her eyes Promise believe me Seriously once you start painting it’ll look better I could tell by her complaining that she didn’t Why is it so crowded in here she asked Her eyes darted around the room Why is there so much junk in this place It’s pretty messy in here isn’t it Why doesn’t anyone clean things up 7
You ask way too many questions I said Art studios are always full of stuff I took a deep breath The smell of turpentine and clay filled the room I’d been taking lessons at L’Artiste for over three years Today was a typical Saturday Students were busy drawing painting and sculpting She frowned Everything in here looks like a little kid went crazy with finger paint She was sort of right Dried specks of paint covered the tables Ditto for the stools The shelves against the walls were loaded with all sorts of rainbow-splattered cans and containers Even the sink in the corner had green paint streaked across the faucet For the record there’s no junk in here I said It’s art And there was a lot of it Paintings and projects were plastered all over the walls and hung from the ceiling Papers were tucked into drying racks around the room Easels were arranged in clusters near the windows 8
She pointed to the back windowsill where there were at least a hundred old coffee cans packed with paintbrushes pencils and markers That’s junk They’re supplies I said It may look like junk to you but it’s not Becca’s eyes lit up as she motioned to the sagging clothesline above her head that draped from one side of the room to the other Collages full of odds and ends dangled from it Now that’s what I call art Whoever made those recycled some of the junk Becca’s my cousin A tree-hugging earth-loving crusader Her mom is an environmental scientist She tests water for pollutants Becca constantly talks about preserving Washington’s lakes and waterways and the importance of recycling When her mom travels for work Becca stays with my family Since she lives in Kirkland just across Lake Washington from Seattle where I live it’s not a big deal She’s at our house so much that some people think she’s my sister But we don’t look anything alike 9
