hi, i'm trying to be an artist. you look dangerous. would you like to come for tea?

Turns out I'm separated by fewer degrees of separation than I would have imagined or preferred to SARK!, the artist responsible for such beloved books as Living Juicy and Succulent Wild Woman: Dancing With Your Wonder-Full Self!. Her famous "How to Be an Artist" poster hung on the door of bathroom at the vegan co-op I stayed in during one of my summers at Stats Camp. Partly due perhaps to the natural diuretic properties of some of the vegetables I was eating to stay in good standing at this co-op, I read this poster so many times that month that I have large parts of it memorized. Always, it makes me surly. The whole time, I wanted to take a giant Sharpie and write across it "PRACTICE. MAYBE STUDY SOME OTHER ARTISTS (not SARK!)."

Then again, what do I know?

Back when I was in graduate school, there was this woman who lasted a year in the program whose name was Miriam, but who wanted people to call her Rainbow. She was enrolled in a seminar with one of the older professors, and we wondered if he would call her Rainbow. He did. With a certain amount of relish, it seemed to me. SARK! would have been proud. Teaching juicy!