Last month, Dr. Manuel Almeida, author and professor at Universidad del Este (who also directs a bunch of other projects) invited me to Utopística to record me talking about my writing and subVERSE.
He’s had writers I look up to as guests on this web show as well, I’m honored to be among them now.
You might want to see it (it’s in Spanish, just in case): CLICK!
Some nights ago one of my best friends, Susana, had told me she was writing for an online magazine (Hedy Mag) and needed to interview an interesting woman. Because she illustrated a great number of stories in Sparks, she thought she would interview Zuleyka (the author), but as it sometimes happens with writers, she chose me because she’s known me since we were sisters and friends in past lives, making it easier to write up specific questions. NO PROBLEM.
Here’s the fun part – Susana and I, along with a third friend, Teresa (the first to publish any kinds of comments about my first book and whose journal entry is still linked on the right, if it’s still there – hopefully, yes), have never met in person. We first bonded by reading each other’s livejournals over ten years ago, have lost and regained contact over the years, and now speak every whenever because now we have smartphones and social media. We’ve even spoken to one another recently, a luxury in the decade of dialup and long-distance calls. When we were younger, the three of us would chat on MSN Live Messenger and send each other gifts and letters in the mail, learning about each others’ lives, but mostly, keeping each other company in a way that transcends time and space.
Susana tried to make this interview about my writing and said some very nice and flattering things, but these disembodied memories of one of my most important friendships is the subtext in both her questions and my responses.
Click below to see the whole magazine, it’s lovely and smart and all the things you love if “nonconformist women” sounds good to you.
I took a cell phone pic of my computer screen (below) because the layout is gorgeous and I couldn’t capture that on my cell phone.
Sweet mother of WiFi.
I know it’s a daring move, but I also screencapped (further below) the first page of Susana’s interview with me and pasted it below to share it here.
Do go see the whole issue, though!
Naelle Devannah is a long time friend whom I met about a decade ago on deviantART. (Well, here she found me.)
She an all-around loveable person, anyone can confirm it. But we became friends immediately because of our mutual admiration. This is how I first started getting to know her, her visual art. I felt a kinship with her because of our similar circumstances (isolated goth girls from “the country,” creatures of the web) and our love for the aesthetic contrast of darkness and bold, bold color. (A tropical symptom, I suppose).
Visit her site, there’s lots to love that will keep your eyes busy for days.
I asked for her feedback on Stars Like Fish (which is printed on the back of the book) because I knew she would understand. Our imaginations are neighboring lands.
We plug each other often, but yet, I was beyond flattered to have a space in her blog (which is quote popular!)
This is part of her series “Getting to Know…” – where she asks personalized questions to artists of all kinds, giving an in-depth look into their intentions, motivations and personality.
Photo by Naelle Devannah.
She also took some really fabulous photos of the insides of my books.
Here’s an excerpt:
You work with a combination of painterly words, photography and illustration. What’s your perception of the term visual art? What can you foresee in future creative generations?
Maybe my “painterly words” are my frustration… I know my writing is very visual. When I discovered photo editing, I got the same satisfaction as I did describing scenes. Illustration, you flatter me so, but yes, I like to doodle.
My perception of visual art is something arcane and academic that I am only vaguely familiar with and learn about through people like you and observing what they do… perhaps it shouldn’t be, but having spent so many years in academia can make you a little insecure before talking about something without a theoretical background. However, and this is a total contradiction, visual art is, at the same time, something so accessible to absolutely anyone with properly functioning eyes… we can interpret images as signs, in a manner that they should say something, or ask us something, but then again, we can also just enjoy something beautiful or ugly for what it is. So I guess I shift from one starting point to the other, depending on what’s comfortable at the moment. You can either have a long conversation about a piece of art, or write a long paper about it, or just like it. And I guess the same goes for the creation of visual art… you might transmit, transgress, transcend, or just make something.