From the lovely sammyh-
1) How did you end up in Missouri?
2) Describe an influential moment from your childhood.
3) What are three things you find unconventionally beautiful?
4) What is your favourite comfort food, and do you have a recipe to share?
5) What are your top five favourite movies?
1) How did you end up in Missouri?
A lot of factors came into play all at once – I was alone in LA during the WTC attacks, and J. was here visiting his family. We had been half-heartedly talking about moving out here, and it gave me sort of an extra push. His family is out here, cost of living is cheaper, and I have a biological need to be surrounded by trees and/or grassy fields. So far, I feel it has been very much worth it.
2) Describe an influential moment from your childhood.
Hm. I can remember hundreds, but probably the first time I stayed in Hawaii with my dad and stepmother and siblings. They were living there permanently, I was visiting for the summer. It was the first place I had ever been that was radically different than what I had known. I always had a weird relaxing of my personality in Hawaii, I was always more peaceful and had my eyes open wider. It was important for me to get to know that side of myself, because I find I am more that girl than I am any of the other personalities I’ve tried on. 🙂
3) What are three things you find unconventionally beautiful?
This is a toughie, because my tastes can be very mundane. I would say, the smell of an auto shop, duct tape because of all the lovely things you can do with it, and large spiders, because they move more gracefully than the little ones.
4) What is your favourite comfort food, and do you have a recipe to share?
I rotate through comfort foods as the year moves on. And I could share my recipe for spam musobi, but I know no one wants to eat that any way. Here’s my favourite chai recipe, as I’m in a big hot-drink phase right now.
1 cardamom pod, 3-4 allspice berries, cinnamon, nutmeg, 1 clove, touch of black pepper, 1 drop vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon loose-leaf black tea, and milk to taste. Boil everything but the milk in 8-12oz. of water, remove from heat, and milk and serve in a big latte bowl. Excellent with just about everything. I sometimes add more cardamom, because I am in love with the stuff.
5) What are your top five favourite movies?
This is always difficult. Um.
Darby O’Gill and the Little People
O Brother Where Art Thou
Alice in Wonderland
Amelie
The Princess Bride
These all fall under the category of “Stuff I watch while I’m painting because it makes me happy”.
Thanks for the wonderful questions, Sammy! I really had to stop and think about them.