Interview meme, care of Natalia

1. If you had to describe your childhood with just two adjectives - which adjectives would you pick?

Long and hard? Hehe. I'd really rather not describe my childhood if it's all the same to anybody.

2. Could you name some of your favourite photographers?

Yes, I could. I'm very fond of Lois Greenfield, especially her large format black&white stuff (at left). I also adore Richard Avedon (he did a lot of portraiture, fashion photography and pictures of naked men -- btw, he was very gay and died in 2004 -- at right), ManRay (BFFL of Marcel Duchamp, my favorite artist of all time, and pioneer of modernist photography -- up top); and also Annie Liebowitz, but who doesn't adore her? Speaking in more conte-

porary terms, the photography of my colleagues Braydie Duncan and Matt Hinshaw are marvelous, as well as Nikki Allen, and Janna Richards (with whom I traded rose-themed photographs and her work is hanging in my studio).

3. You've mentioned that you despise Dickens - can you write about that in more detail?

I could, but I don't think my reasons for despising Dickens will be very satisfying. I really just don't like his style of writing. It's not only long-winded, but it's boring, and I am certain that a thousand monkeys at a thosand typewriters for a thousand days could write A Tale of Two Cities. Although, I do respect the themes in Dickens' work, the disparities between the upper-crust and everyone else in Industrial Brittain, so at least he's got the social conscious thing down.

4. Describe the most vivid dream that you have ever had - or one of the most vivid dreams ever.
I have done a lot of lucid dreaming, where I can control what happens in the dream. Usually it's because I wake up from a dream I didn't like the ending to and I go back into that dream and redo the ending... like this one dream when I was in the lair of a murderer (it was totally CSI) and he was about to catch me, but I dialed 911 on my cellphone, and got my knife out of my bag and totally killed him (in self-defense, of course).

5. At the moment, what's the coolest item in your desk?

I'm totally obsessed. I've got a whole bunch of Obama paraphenalia, including a(n empty) bottle of Yes We Can Cola, produced by local soda maker Jones Soda (whose HQ is about two blocks from my alma matre, Cornish College of the Arts, and who give away free soda on Friday afternoons between 3-5p -- the rest of the time it's 50 cents a bottle (max 2)).

My desk is a complete mess right now though. I haven't been in there for a while cause it's been cold here. Oh yeah, out there, my studio, in the garage -- but at least it's in the same corner with the water heater so it's kinda warm.