Golden Ticket.

I wish I painted this. This is how I would like all my work to feel, to look. It is a reworked Ike and Tina album cover by someone and it is awesome. It is all I think about these days. Today in the kitchen, I thought about it for about an hour. I was so joyful standing there pausing for a moment to let the image flutter to a standstill in between stirring and sighing. How wonderful. I hope someone stops what they are doing to momentarily think about my art someday.

This post is inspired entirely by Miss Rabbi Budyk, who filled out this self-interview on her own post and I liked her style of Q&A so much so that I decided to try one on for size. I have been in a creative slump lately (since my bad printing experience) and this was just the ticket. Thanks for the Golden Ticket Babs; you are the Wonka to my Charlie. If you want to read her version click on this jazz. She is brilliant.

Self-Interview--
space: my bedroom, a sanctuary of sleep.
time: dipping into the blackest part of night.
sounds: radiators, three of them.
eats: chips, salt and vinegar crumbs.
liquids: the last of the red wine, from a glass.


DESCRIBE YOUR CHILDHOOD IN A SINGLE WORD:
unapologetic


WHAT WERE YOU LIKE AS A LITTLE GIRL?
I was a showman, the concept of 'to be seen and not heard' was just that, seen and not heard. I was known for being hyper sensitive, intuitive as a child to other peoples hurt even though I had no idea what to do with it, annoying, sheltered, and a story teller. I liked being in charge and still do. Being alone was imperative after school and on weekends, especially in winter when it got dark early enough that I could roam the bush before dinner. I wanted to be an artist, I wanted to be good at everything and wept when I wasn't. Things haven't change a bit.

DID YOU HAVE A FAVOURITE BOOK OR FAIRYTALE?
I read Laura Ingalls Wilder's 'Little House on the Prairie' series until each of the eight or so books turned to leather. I read before bed religiously (and still do). The first book that I read well was called 'Wheel Away', I was so psyched when I realized I could read. It was like stepping into this parallel universe that was way cooler than earth and school and swimming lessons. Reading man, yeah! The book 'Animalia' is totally insane. As far as a favorite book now, hard to say. Maybe Kundera's 'The Unbearable Lightness of Being', as I have read it the very most.


AND HOW HAS THIS CHILDHOOD AFFECTED YOU AS A GROWN-UP?
I believe everyone is entitled to a happy childhood and sadly not everybody gets that. I was one of the lucky ones. Anyone who knows me knows that. I was also one of the only 15 year olds still playing, when a lot kids in that age group were testing the sexual waters and doing drugs. I hope to always be open to explore things with a childlike curiosity, especially in art. Kids are perceptive and simple. I like that approach in order to maintain a full and balanced lifestyle, personally. It would not work for everyone I suppose, but that is what makes my upbringing unique. I feel like one of the lucky ones.


WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ITEM OF CLOTHING?
My fifteen dollar Kimono. Whether I wear it dressed up or paired with nudity, I always feel like a million bucks. I also have one outfit that I like to pull out on VERY special occasions: The first dress JJ designed in my honor (I still haven't paid you, oh my God) with the Crow jacket. The Crow jacket is very special. I bought it off Michelle Isaac who found it at some emptying-my-closet-because-my-wife-of-one-hundred-years-just-died sale, for real cheap. It was one of those pieces that sings out your name in high pitched angelic notes from across a room. It doesn't matter if it's four thousand dollars or four dollars, you have to have it because it is an extension of yourself. When I wear that, I am one hundred percent myself.

DOES CREATIVITY COME EASILY TO YOU?
Naturally yes, easily no. Yes. I am hesitant to say yes. Seasonally, yes. If I think about it too much it dissipates like a mirage. It can be a tease, it can be the most rewarding thing I do. It is a vehicle of bliss and destruction. When I get too excited and caught up I come off pompous and arrogant, when I am frustrated I come upon windows of near genius or fluidity. Whatever creativity is to me on whatever day it is in whatever mood I am in, it moves me. The direction is irrelevant.

WHAT DID YOU LAST DREAM ABOUT?
It was terrible. Two married people and their baby, a great Gatsby house party, Josh in a three piece suit again, a dead woman who was not actually dead in the Gatsby house, just comatose. Natalia V's three children in striped onesies. It was bizarre and heartbreaking and beautiful and poetic.

WHERE DO YOU CONSIDER HOME?
My living room in winter, with another person lounging, a number of pairs of pants open a wee bit from overeating, wine on the coffee table an arms reach away, brie and bagette, vinyl on the turntable. There, or stationed around one of the matriarchal dining room tables belonging to the wise women of my family: Grandma, mum, Tante Daryl, Tante Marj. These women's tables have the ability to transform. We gather, stitch, bitch, eat, play scrabble, scrapbook, talk art, talk politics without a single Fox News reference or regurgitation, do the crossword in pen, talk orchids, talk shop, craft, cry, and cream our jeans over each other's foooooooooood. They are unreal. I feel very at home around those tables for very different reasons. One table represents nostalgia, one is safe, one represents laughter, and the other honesty.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE FOR?
Love and the unapologetic sacrifices I will make to keep it (real).

WHAT DID YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GREW UP?
First and foremost, an ambulence driver. Then I went through a big Chiropractor phase and then I wanted to be a fashion designer, graphic designer, botanist, baker, cook (I still do) and writer. Now I am not sure. Maybe a printer? There are not enough of them.

WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO LIVE?
Here, there. Oregon for a bit, Germany for sure.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO GO TO SLEEP TO?
Sawdust and Diamonds by Joanna Newsom.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG TO WAKE UP TO?
Every morning I wake to Yosh singing 'Woman at the Well' accompanied by Shannon Laliberte. It starts my day off on a joyful hop. If I am willing to wake up on time I will sing along. If not, I don't.

TELL US A SECRET:
I never said goodbye to James and I feel horrible. I want to cross country ski and quit all my other hobbies and commitments. I just want to ski by myself on the river.

WHAT WAS YOUR BEST, SCARIEST HALLOWEEN COSTUME EVER?
Mad Scientist, Grade Three; hands down. There was even a set of ears that you could put on like an uncomfortable hand band that had a string you could pull back and forth through the ears. I had a bald cap and drowned in one of my Dad's rejected Sunday suits and a jar of red Kool-Aid to complete the look. I felt so ahead, so cool.

BAM, YOU HAVE FIVE CHILDREN. NAME THEM.

I only want four:
- First born, daughter: Frances
- Second born, son: Magnus
- Third born, twin, son: Elliott
- Third born, twin, daughter: Mave

Bon nuit, M. Thanks Rabbi, you're the boss.