I've been involved with horses in some capacity or another my entire life. This is thanks to a mother who was a true horse person, and a father who didn't mind saying, "Use my checkbook please." I was introduced to horses before I could walk, sitting up on their backs by the age of 9 and showing them on the hunter/jumper circuit up till just a few years ago. Excluding a few extended breaks for academics and real life, I've never looked back.
ALL ABOUT THE ART
I drew and painted my way badly across every surface I could find growing up -- even my grandmother's bedroom walls during one particularly memorable summer break (lucky for me, besides being a highly-respected chemist, she was also an amateur painter and believed in the creative process!). My dad used to paint to relax after work and made magical things out of wood. My mother -- no longer a working artist -- has sculptures that reside in homes all over the world. But me? I was the least artistic of the bunch. I've always dabbled in art... I've always spent a good deal of my time viewing it, reading about it and on occasion, trying my hand at it. However, I honestly never expected to ever make a career out of it. The fact that I paint things people actually pay money for still surprises me most of the time.
E.E. Cummings wrote: "It takes COURAGE to grow up and turn out to be who you really are." As I am now happily covered with paint almost every day of the week, I guess this is who I really am. I didn't play with dolls as a kid; Mostly I played with crayons.
Perhaps I should have known.
ALL ABOUT THE REST OF ME
I spend most of my free time hunkered down with a book or traipsing through thrift stores looking for albums I don't already own. Let's see... what else? I play a wicked game of Scrabble and I spend far too much money (and time) on movies, but I'm not about to cut back. I generally prefer old to new, I think cell phones are evil and I second-guess myself a lot. I mean A LOT. I'm doing it right now. I love to do things that make huge messes, but I hate to clean them up. Usually I throw away directions requiring tools and sequential steps and just figure it all out as I go along. I think Flaubert's Parrot should be mandatory reading and everyone who knows me will tell you if I can put something off until tomorrow, I probably will. I don't subscribe to fads unless you count Starbucks and finally (swear!), I like the word "Yes" best of all, followed by "Slugabed," "Calamitous," "Fricative," "Vivacious," and "Brobdingnagian," but not necessarily in that order.
Phew! There. Done.
I hate to talk about myself, but, as you can see,
once I get rolling, I get pretty into it.
Favorite Dinner Party guests:
Marc Almond, Michael Palin, Philip Roth, Monette Moore, Trent Reznor, William Hurt, Alice Adams, Jean Reno, James Carville, Marty Casey, George Sands, Harry Knowles, Joseph Emedy, Aimee Mann, Julian Barnes, Mandy Patinkin, Charles Mingus, Evelyn Davis, James Lipton, Peter Krause and Jacques Brel.
And one additional parting thought:
"Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love."
--Turkish proverb
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