Million Dollar Masterpiece

Chapter One

Chapter 1

It was the city that never slept. No matter what time of the day, whether it was three in the afternoon or three in the morning you could be positive that there was something happening. There was always some form of noise too. From the incessant honking of yellow cabs to loud shouts of frustrated drivers to blaring music. It never stopped.

But Carina liked to think it inspired her. The background music to the story of her life. The music seemed to aid her in her work; over the years she'd noticed that the nosier the day was the more colourful and more vibrant her work would become.

Carina was an artist. Her ability to express her emotions and thoughts through a mixture of simple brush strokes and pencil lines and then be able to turn them into a beautiful piece of art gave her a purpose. It satisfied her knowing she could turn nothing into something, so much so she took her passion all the way from her small town in Italy to the big city of New York.

She'd managed to convince her parents that pursing a degree in Art was worthwhile and they'd finally agreed. That was almost 10 years ago. Now, she was living her days an artist in her studio apartment in Brooklyn.

Some may think her choice of profession would allow her the freedom to have a carefree, spontaneous, easy-going life, and they would be right. But for Carina she followed the same routine almost every day.

Her alarm would chime at seven, but Carina was always awake ten minutes before. She didn't consider herself to be a morning person however over the years her body had decided to strongly disagree with that statement.

She'd drag herself from the warmth of covers and walk the twenty steps to her kitchen to start making a coffee - the only way she managed to function at such an early hour.

She'd have it sat out on the fire escape right outside her kitchen window and she would just listen to the early morning sounds of the streets of New York. Even though it was usually noisy and loud, it gave her an odd sense of calm.

Her apartment consisted of three rooms. Her bedroom which also acted as her lounge and art studio, her kitchen which flowed right through with no additional doors then her bathroom. It was all fairly open plan meaning there was enough room for all her belongings and was fairly considerable for a New York apartment with her rental costs.

Her bed sat against the back wall in the centre, with the couch a few metres in front of it, the coffee table and TV ahead. To the right of the room were three large windows. One of which was near her bed, one near the living space and the final one in the kitchen.

The kitchen was fairly simple, she loved to cook and it gave her enough space to do so without being overly large or too small and cramped. She had a high bar top style table with three chairs which faced the window, meaning she got lots of natural light into the room throughout the day. This being the same window where she'd escape out of to drink her coffee in the mornings.

Finally, what she could consider her most prized possessions: her art supplies. They took up a large portion of the room, but that came to no one's real surprise. Her easel was right by the second window, with stacks of canvases and a small desk full of paint and other materials also there. The apartment wasn't much but it was hers and it was home.

After she'd finish her coffee she'd usually get dressed, which depending on what she needed to start her day off with would end in her dressing in casual clothes or her paint stained shirts. If she needed to go down to Joe's to buy more supplies or go grocery shopping or run some errands she'd be in actual paint free clothes but if she was having a day full of painting - old t-shirts and loose shorts it was.