artist's interview: ELIZABETH BREESE, #2

Beth as "beehand" for my story, "the fruit forest." 
illustrated by: Marissa Arterberry

i am tickled pink to share with you my second artist's interview with Elizabeth Breese. Beth is primarily a poetess, quite published at that (!), and she also works a lot with paper arts, which i love. Beth grew up in Wisconsin, resides in Ohio, and is truly one of the smartest, funniest, most interesting women i know. for fun, here is my first interview with her way back when ~ CLICK HERE. 

Bethy, xo to you, and thanks for this delightful interview.

Beth, by: Lily Glass

1. kelly:: girl, i miss you. you've always been such a source of intrigue to me. so smart. so honey-dipped. … wtf is going on with poetry these days? like, yours?

Beth:: Wtf, is right! In terms of quantity, we’re talking a trickle of poetry right now. The work is very, very slow. I do a lot of thinking and percolating before actually sitting down to write. The physical writing (or typing) of a poem seems to be the shortest part of the process, kapow!, while the collecting, thinking, and noting is ongoing, never ending, just a train rumbling along in the distance. The kawpows are few and far between and that’s frustrating. I think if I developed a schedule, rather than writing when I felt ready, I’d have a lot more work to show. That said, I have been quite fond of the last few poems I’ve written. They seem to come out whole.

I think I’ve also become less persona driven and more language driven. It seems like if I ever have a motive or goal for a poem, it will be utterly terrible. Clunky. Sad. Deflated. If I can remind myself to return to the language, it can become magical. Open. Vibrant. Still, I’d say a few themes or ideas continue to surface naturally. Faith and the faithful (people who have faith in anything). Negative space (the valley of the mountain). Paper (artifacts of—, documents, origami).

Beth's bunnies #origamilife

2.  kelly:: i'm really proud of you, because you're a published poet. what goals (and hopes) do you have for your poetry in the near future?

Beth:: I think to write with more discipline and regularity would go a long way towards achieving my two really basic goals: get better and submit more. Maybe if I were more specific about my goals, I’d have a better chance of achieving them. "Get better" is a little low stakes, huh? Goal 1: get better goals.

3. kelly:: it is my opinion that you have a really cool job. you are surrounded by beautiful things, inspiration. what do you learn there? tell the peeps about it a bit …  

so, this foto de Beth drives me nutz. #lesigh #gorg

Beth:: I am super grateful for my job. I am the assistant manager of a stationery and gift shop in Columbus, Ohio. A big portion of my job is working with customers as they select/design their wedding invitations. It’s a really happy time in these peoples’ lives and I benefit from being around that energy. I also am fascinated by family dynamics, which are certainly on display during our appointments. I’m an avid people watcher.

4. kelly:: i love your presence on Pinterest. you post of lot of woodland animal prints that are darling. you also post origami projects. what is it about woodland animals? and when did your interest in making origami art come about? i wonder, is it soothing to work with your hands on intricate things? 

Beth:: Woodland creatures! I’m from Wisconsin and my mom is from the Northwoods. We spent a lot of time at a cabin my Grandpa built in the Nicolet National Forest. There were times when I found the woods really frightening and ominous, but the presence of diminutive, weensy fuzz balls is distracting and reassuring. They seem to have a playful energy, which is joyous to observe. I mean, everyday is Friday for a chipmunk. 

And, origami! I started doing it to quiet my mind after my Dad passed away. Writing was absolutely too hard and I felt I really needed a hobby to pass the time. So, I attempted my first fold, "cormorant on a rock," at a crafternoon among friends and I’ve been folding ever since. My mind isn’t necessarily geared for origami—I mean I’m not a math person, so I go through a lot of paper—but it’s hugely satisfying to stick with a model and figure it out. Origami tessellations are my latest interest. I’m probably most proud of tackling a tessellated hexagon. 

dino origami by Beth

5. kelly:: what's it like to have a man in your life who you love so much? 

Beth:: I should be effusive, but it’s not really my way to talk too much about lurv and romance (especially on the internet), but I do feel both safe and exhilarated and it’s a lovely combination. I often think how bizarre it is that we are both only children and our moms are, too. We’re going extinct. Pterodactyl love.

foto: Lily Glass

6. kelly:: i know Ireland is a special place to you. tell us about that.

Beth:: I like Ireland so much partly because it seems like sadness is such an accepted part of its history and culture. That resonates with me. I don’t have a sad history, per se, but I think my personality and emotional life tend toward the gloomy. 

  
7. kelly:: come vizzy me in Costa Rica sometime!! do you like to swim?
 
Beth:: DOY.  

8. kelly:: i think about money every day. you do too? what would you do with $20,000 if it came to you today?

Beth:: I do and I think that money would go straight to buying a house. I’m tired of sharing walls with strangers. And, a trip to Costa Rica.

9. kelly:: what are you reading right now? what are you watching?

Beth:: I am reading and really, truly loving Mary Szybist’s "Incarnadine." It has been nourishing and refreshing. I say reading, because it’s the book I carry room to room and take with me on trips. I have already read it once, but I so enjoy opening to any page and reading what is there. I also have recently purchased and intend to read a book I’m really excited about—"The Paper Garden" by Molly Peacock. It’s nonfiction and is, I understand, about an elderly woman in the 1790’s whose grief essentially led her to art and the creation of over 900 botanically correct, cut paper flowers. (I’m basically copying the jacket of the book, so you know.) Anyway, I’m intrigued!

As for watching: it’s all M*A*S*H*, all the time right now. It strikes me as pretty ahead of its time. 

box of Beth's origami

10. kelly:: have you tried out any new baking projects lately? do you have specialties?

Beth:: I haven’t tried anything new in a long time. I really enjoy baking muffins—they’re so wholesome. I really like the idea of using edible flowers and have made lavender muffins before. They were a delight. 

11. kelly:: bee, are you fluent in French? where did you learn it? you love it why?

Beth:: I feel at one time I wasn’t fluent, but quite conversant. It’s been a long, long time since I was able to practice/speak on a regular basis, so I’m so very rusty. I learned it at a French immersion camp in northern Minnesota. I’d go in the summer for a month at a time. It was everything summer camp was supposed to be: sunny, buggy, rustic, cheery, crafty. I think because of those summers, I had a certain nostalgia for French. I stuck with it because I had such fond memories of using it, though by the end of college I was definitely burned out.

Dad and Little Beth

12. kelly:: okay, please note that i am transitioning to a less playful topic. you lost your Dad awhile back. you were very brave and open about it on social media and in letters/emails. has time been a healing salve for you? do you commune with him still on a daily basis somehow? i image so. 

Beth:: Just over three years ago— time is healing and bewildering. It seems impossible that I haven’t seen him or spoken with him in that long. I really resent the passage of time, it keeps taking him further away. At the same time, yes, I am grateful that the pain isn’t so acute. I sometimes speak out loud to him. I’ve left notes for him places. These are very literal ways of trying to speak with him and I don’t have the expectation that they “work,” except that it’s soothing to me. I think more than anything, I feel him with me. And not in a ghostly sense, but in the sense that he feels a part of me, an organ. 

   
13. kelly:: what are 3 of your favorite memories of him that come to mind right off?

Beth:: He would wake me for school by throwing "pillow bombs" on me. It made me so angry, but it was wonderful. 

He packed my lunch and would write letters from my dog and put them in my lunch box. Everyday. He started sending letters from this same dog (long deceased) when I moved away for graduate school. 

We played a game of tag in winter. I think we called it "fox and goose." We’d start by making little trails in the snow. Then, those were the only places you were allowed to run during the game. We’d sometimes get my nextdoor neighbor, Ben, who was also an only child, to join in. I was always really proud of how playful and fun my dad was.

14. kelly:: … another transition … what is your favorite Arhia Kohlmoos drawing? also, favorite painting?! do tell.

"Mind Mansion Mandala for Memory Meditation:
artist: Arhia Kohlmoos

Beth :: I love her drawing "Mind Mansion Mandala for Memory Meditation." It reminds me of some children’s books that show cutaways of living spaces. It feels secretive and magical. Her painting "Lady with a Langur" is fantastic—her imagery and use of space feels centuries old, while the colors and whimsy feel timeless. She’s one of the most incredibly talented people I (sort of) know. I loved college, but realize from a distance that I wasn’t connected with a lot of people I would have truly enjoyed knowing. Arhia is one of those people.

"Lady with a Langur," artist: Arhia Kohlmoos

15. kelly:: in closing, let's pretend we're going out on a dinner date in Paris. what are we eating and drinking? and omg, let's be soooooo leisurely about it. i want to stay for at least two hours, beginning at dusk … then we go dancing …  

Beth:: Aren’t we eating tarts with sugared flowers for dinner? I’m not sure if you’re eating cheese, but I’m going to have an entire cheese plate for dessert. We’re certainly drinking champagne with petals floating in it.