Hazel: A Witches' Lifestyle Zine

Interview with Artist Avina-kei and Notes on Totes!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 28, 2020 at 11:53:41 AM

This month as blown by for us, and we've been enjoying the ride so much with all of you! We're thankful for all your help in spreading the word and getting Hazel into the hands of more young witches in training, so we can make even more fun stuff. A note about the tote bags: if we hit our $8K stretch goal, how this will work is that we'll have anyone who'd like a tote add $10 to their pledge (saving $5 off the full price, which would be $15), and we'll include a checkbox for you to select in the backer survey to indicate that you wanted one, paid for it, and should receive one with your order. Since we're getting closer to the end of the campaign with every hour now, that will unfortunately give our backers a limited time to change your pledges. We'll just have to watch the clock on this one, and if we hit our stretch goal, we'll be sure to send an update right away, so you can hurry on in and grab one! 

So, for now, without further ado, here's littlemousedeer's interview with artist Avina-kei about the way they coordinate their clothes and the power and significance we make in garments. 

Your Instagram is a photo diary of outfits that seem inspired by mahou shoujo. What were some of your favorite media when you were a kid?

Avina: A lot of what makes me happy now taps into that nostalgia of childhood media, which I think a lot of people identify with these days. The nostalgia cash grab is such a familiar concept these days, but when I first started dressing up as a tween it wasn’t commonplace. Around thirteen or so, you're told you’ve got to grow up and start thinking about college and careers. There's judgement around your hobbies and your interests. This idea of tapping into childlike things that make you happy was looked down upon as something that wasn't healthy. There were things that made me happy when I was six or seven years old, and they still make me happy now as an adult and bring a smile to my face.

I’m always looking back on shoujo pieces that CLAMP used to create back in the day, like Cardcaptor Sakura. The outfits from Cardcaptor Sakura felt like armor. They were practical, but also over the top and so cool. In terms of video game influence, I probably really like sneakers because of Sonic the Hedgehog. I love a good, chunky shoe thanks to Sonic’s shoes. I mean, he’s mostly naked, so the shoes are where it’s at! I was also super into Square Enix RPGs like Final Fantasy, especially Yoshitaka Amano’s artwork. The clothing is layered, embroidered, and so multifaceted, while at the same time looking effortless. Those early artworks inspired me to dress up and influenced how I wanted my closet to look. I'm slowly discovering designers who weave this whimsy into physical articles of clothing. It’s nice to have a wardrobe that brings what I had in my mind to life.

We touched on this in the previous response, but how have these things affected your style today - your fashion, your personality, your writing, etc.

Avina: The idea of transformation links back to mahou shoujo and is this connecting thread in my writing, in my photography, and other forms of art. I'm always really interested in transformation, development, and growth. A big reason why my Instagram turned into a photo diary is because I wanted to be able to look back and see what I focused on three years ago, or what brought me joy five years ago. I wanted to have a place to sift through these photos and refresh my memory of where I was versus where I am now and see that transformation. I’ve been really interested in layering outfits for a while now.

It feels like I'm protecting myself, but it doesn't feel like I'm hiding. I don't do it for attention, but I'm not afraid of the attention I receive when I'm wearing all those layers. There’s a duality when I’m wearing clothes I love. I feel stronger, both mentally and even physically. I suddenly have so much more stamina. It taps into a source of strength I didn't know I had which is magical in a way. I think the major theme is the idea of transformation, whether it's a daily transformation or a lifelong one. 

You talked about how clothes can be armor and it was interesting that you paired that with a heightened sense of visibility. Usually when someone's trying to protect themselves, there’s an aspect of hiding away, but your outfits are very telling, they say a lot about you.

Avina: In certain spaces, for example, in my day job which is a super white collar, masculine-dominated space, I'm used to being overlooked or talked over. Wearing something that's attention grabbing and that also brings me joy is empowering. There's no way someone can look away from me now. They have to address that I'm in the room, they have to acknowledge me. I feel armored in the sense that all these fabric layers are cocooning me, and that makes me feel ready to take on social situations. Whereas, if I'm walking around in day-to-day clothing, I would love nothing more than to just run an errand, run back to my car, and get home in one piece. I definitely have a more “stop and smell the flowers” mentality when I'm dressed up.

I don't think I'm especially brave or daring, but there's a confidence that comes with dressing up. The crux of mahou shoujo transformation is femmes turning into a glowing hyper-feminized version of themselves and being empowered by that. They fight injustice while dressed to the nines and that’s why I find that form of media so compelling. I want the power to transform and fight evil.

I think that's a very relatable feeling - to want to be better than your current self and to be able to fight injustices. Do you find these influences integrated into your life in ways that you didn't expect?

Avina: For a long time I thought that these were just clothes and they make me happy, and that’s the end of it. I didn't think putting together outfits was a form of art, then one day something clicked and I realized, no, I'm doing something that very specifically could only make me happy. Of course, I have my influences, but I started to feel more comfortable with this idea that what I was doing was unique to me. Having the confidence to admit that I'm very proud of what's come out of my fashion hobby has been a big surprise. I definitely spent a long time talking myself down and thinking I was getting ahead of myself. You know, everything's derivative, but at the same time there's only one me and no one has my wardrobe. My brain fires in a way that is different from everyone else's and that's cool and exciting. It’s something that should be cherished. 

It should be cherished! A lot of people don't give themselves the space to acknowledge what actually makes them happy or give those things the weight that they should have. You're also really interested in sustainable fashion. What led you to getting so involved with advocating for more sustainable fashion practices?

Avina: Honestly, I didn’t come into it in a super glamorous way. The moment I had disposable income and my first credit card, I was able to walk into the mall and just buy a ton of stuff. Sometimes I never wore it. Sometimes I wore the item until it fell apart. Around this time, I went from easily being able to pack up my belongings to struggling to put things away as the year went on. Then I heard that thrift stores take many clothing donations to landfills because they don't have the space or manpower to process everything. That was the light bulb moment for me. I realized I had to change my purchasing practices, how I looked at clothes, and how I understood clothing production.

It also links back to my cultural background. When my mom bought clothes in India, I would get measured and the clothes were made just for me and would grow with me over many years. The clothes would include giant seam allowances so you could rip the seam and re-sew it larger, which is so smart. It’s a relatively unheard of concept in modern American culture, and also usually seen as a sign that you're from a lower socioeconomic class. I had to go back to understanding the roots of this practice and why it’s such an intrinsic part of Indian society while juxtaposing that with ideas of sustainability and trying to purchase things more meaningfully in American society.

I’m definitely not perfect and I don’t think people need to be perfect tomorrow, but it's important to understand the labor that goes into your clothes, who's making them, and figure out if a clothing item will last. These are all steps towards creating a wardrobe that you'll love for a long time and that you'll be able to love for a long time. 

What's currently your favorite item of sustainable clothing in your closet and why is it your favorite?

Right now, it’s this pair of pants which one of my favorite designers, Pretty Sour, made from baby quilts. Not only are they vintage quilts, so they’re being reused, but I was able to have someone make them into pants for me. It’s like I literally robbed a cradle but I love them so much. They're so comfortable. I’ve worn them in the summer heat but I’ve also worn them with the AC cranked up. I'm swaddled and I love them so much. It's nice to support artists you really love and it was a win-win all around. We didn't use any new materials. We were recycling something to create something fun and new, and they're really well made and super comfortable. I can imagine wearing these baby quilts for years to come.

Do you wish you had Cher Horowitz’s closet from Clueless, or have you created your own closet organization system?

So, I have a confession to make… I've never watched Clueless! I'm clueless about Clueless. I've created a system of drawing a lot of my outfits before I actually wear them on my body. There are a lot of steps that go into my thought process and similar to most creative thought processes, I always get these ideas right as I'm starting to fall asleep, or while I'm in the shower. I’ll have an amazing idea for some weird outfit and I scramble to grab my phone so I can quickly sketch an idea. Thank gods my phone is waterproof because before that I used to bring a sketchpad and pencil into the bathroom with me. I would have this sad, soggy sketchbook with illegible sketches. Nowadays, I stick to my iPad, where I can actually draw the outfit before sifting through my closet for the items. I like to think that I end up wearing everything I've drawn, which is pretty fun. 

Do you have an archive of outfit ideas to use later on? Do you think, “I'm going to wear this in the fall, but I'm writing it down now.”

I've started to do a better job of actually saving the drawings. For a long time, they would just be sketches on lined paper that I never intended on keeping. After I wore the outfit, and took a photo of it, I wouldn't think about the outfit sketches anymore. But since I've been more on top of drawing them nicely on my iPad, I've been able to save them.

There have been times where I wouldn’t pay attention to the weather and wear an outfit anyway, which is something I had more patience for when I was younger. Nowadays, I do try to plan around weather or a special occasion. In summer, I’ve been wearing lighter pieces made out of cotton and layering smaller pieces, whereas in the fall I'll wear three dresses on top of each other. I definitely plan ahead however, sometimes it takes me over a year to wear an outfit I had sketched!

Have you thought about posting your drawing next to completed outfit photos?

I thought about it, but the way I sketch an outfit is optimistic. A lot of times the clothes don't actually look like the drawing, and I feel like I messed up. But I have been creating fun repeating patterns with the drawings. I've thought about eventually making buttons for myself so I can pin them onto my bags. Then it’ll be an outfit-ception where I’ll wear an outfit with buttons with more little outfits on them. A friend suggested printing the patterns on fabric and making a dress with artwork of my outfits, and I thought that was genius! So, who knows?

If you, like us, fell in love with Avina's imaginative and detailed outfits, follow them on Instagram and Twitter for lots more incredible OOTDs and thoughtful musings on the way we and our clothes interact with the world. 

Interview with Natalia Lopes & Thais Lopes, Artist & Writer Duo
over 3 years ago – Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 09:58:11 PM

Natalia Lopes, a comic artist, plus Thais Lopes, a writer, equal two talented sisters who get into all sorts of creative things beyond these primary focuses. After contributing a feature this year utilizing both their skills, littlemousedeer talked to them about the theme of Spirit, and how they take care of their own spirit within. 

Hazel's theme this year is spirit. How do you guys pump yourselves up for either having a good day or having to tackle something you're nervous about, for example, a really big project. Maybe it’s something you're excited about, but it's a little daunting.

Thais: I have anxiety, so whenever something daunting comes up, I have to redirect my brain so that it's not thinking about all the negative possibilities that could happen. So I try to do a meditation or a yoga session, something that will refocus my brain so that I'm not worried about what's coming up, but stay focused on the excitement.

Natalia: I work really well with structure. Making a list of what I can get done in a day is more motivating than regular to-do lists, because I feel I can complete tasks more realistically. Setting up my physical space so it’s comfortable and has a nice energy is also important. A lot of the furniture in my studio is plain white, and there's lots of plants because I'm in the sunroom. Having prints on only one of my walls helps, too. All the inspirational things are here, but are organized.

Thais: Natalia and I live in similar apartments, but in mine my wife has a sunroom and I have the office space, but we do have a lot of Natalia’s drawings up. An inviting space is definitely a plus because then you're like “Yes, I want to be in here. I want to actually do something.”

When you write poetry or create artwork, does it ever feel like you have a muse who's sending you inspiration? Kind of like how Tom Waits has talked about a kind of elusive idea giver who could strike at any time?

Natalia: Sometimes it feels like a stream of consciousness that flows through me. Other times it’s a struggle to come up with an idea or to edit an idea so it feels like it works. But yes, there are times when an idea strikes and I’m just going at it, and feel invigorated, like, “Yeah, no, I know exactly what I'm doing!” The other thing that I do is work very nonlinearly, particularly with comics. Rather than start from the top of page one and work my way down, I jump around a lot. Sometimes even if I have a whole narrative in my head, I’ll start working on the middle part, then the beginning, then I know more how the end is going to look. It may be harder for others to see where I’m going, but somehow it all gets done in the end. It looks chaotic, but is actually organic.

Thais: I've struggled debating whether or not it is an outside influence or it's just my own head coming up with these things. It could be me, because when I am making work I'm almost in a completely different mental state. It's different from getting inspiration. When I have inspiration, it feels like the brain is finding all these connective things and I get really excited about the idea and it's psyching me up. When I'm actually focusing on the work it seems like my brain already knows what to do. It's more a matter of letting my brain do it, and then solving problems as they come, because things will get tweaked, you know? I almost wonder if the excitement comes from an outside place and influences what goes on in your brain. 

How would you describe your inner spirit? And how would you describe your sister's inner spirit?

Thais: I feel like I have a very strong inner spirit in that I get very passionate about stuff. And sometimes in that passion, it gets a little bossy. But Natalia, she's a very sensitive soul and very empathetic and everything affects her in a certain way. So, I would say that her inner spirit is more calm, except for the times when she's in creation mode, which is all chaotic.

Natalia: Thais’ spirit is definitely very determined. Even in the face of things that seem like they're not going to work or when there's that uncertainty, she’s always like, “Well, I'm gonna find a way. I'm gonna figure it out and you can't stop me,” and I wonder if that's perhaps the Leo in her coming out. It's that direct focus like, “I'm gonna get this done.” I've never been that way. I've been called someone that has quiet determination. I find that my spirit is very introspective and observant, because I'm so highly sensitive. I understand the cause and effect of things, but I also can get to that point of over-analyzing and freezing instead of actually acting on something. I'm a Scorpio, so I'm very intense with pretty much everything and that can lead me to get a little too intense at times.

Thais: Or you'll get super focused on one thing and only talk about that for like, a month or two.

Natalia: Yeah, I kind of have phases, where people will know what I’m into. “Oh, now she's talking about this movie or this band,” or, “now she's talking about how I need to get work done.” People could mistake that intensity for passion, because I am passionate about the things I enjoy. But it's more of an intensity thing versus feeling passionate because I want to focus on achieving goals. I'm very interested in things that I enjoy, and I just want to keep doing those things. 

What are your favorite activities for self care?

Thais: When I have time, I like to use a bath bomb and just be like, "Oh, the water smells nice. I'm just gonna stay in here." They’re so great. I definitely need to do more. Of course, again, meditation, yoga for self care, drinking a lot of water. Oh, I like to color in coloring books. It reminds me of when I was a kid. There weren't a lot of super stressful tasks. Just like "Okay, I can just do this and free my mind and it’s very fun." It doesn't have to turn out great, but it's just something that makes me feel happy. So, it's worth it in that sense.

Natalia: I'm terrible at self care. With the last issue of Hazel being about rituals, I was reading about what other people do for self care and thought, “Oh, that's really great stuff, I should do that,” and then I end up doing none of it. A lot of self-care activities don't actually make me feel relaxed. I'm the worst at meditation, because I don't know how to just sit there and not be thinking about a hundred different things. For me, when I'm not drawing for work, I draw to relax. My kind of self care is to direct my creativity toward something that I really want to create outside of work. No one is demanding anything, no one's going to be judging, so I can put on loud music (or quiet music when it’s in the evening) and enjoy that experience.

Thais: That's what meditation is like; sometimes I'll put on a guided meditation or calm music, and it gets me to a calm, nice, quiet state where my brain isn't overreacting to every little thing, because our brains are just like hamsters on a bajillion different wheels spinning constantly. 

Now, I'm speaking about a different kind of spirit. Natalia, much of your work focuses on the uncanny. Have you ever felt the presence of a spirit?

Natalia: Yes. I'm kind of superstitious about this stuff, but I believe that other people in our family have had those sorts of encounters. Maybe not seeing physical forms, but premonitions or dreaming about someone who’s passed on. You recognize that they're present even though you don't see them. That was something I feel very intensely sometimes, but I try not to pay too much attention to it these days. Yet I feel like there are still places where I can feel vibes. I often have to do that whole cleansing thing with sage sticks and candles. I've been in other spaces before where I would get headaches or kind of feel disturbed about something and other people wouldn't feel that. Maybe that informs the otherworldly feelings that have come out in my work.

Thais: I don't think I've ever felt anything, even though I really want to. I want to see something! I'm a believer, but I've never felt anything like that. I don't have a special connection, but certain animals or certain flowers will remind me of people who passed away. So when I see them, I'll think about them. It’s more of an associated thing versus feeling their presence or seeing something moving across my field of vision that shouldn't be moving. 

What's your go-to piece of media that strengthens your spirit when you're feeling down? It could be a movie or a TV show or a book or song, etc

Thais: It’s not really a piece of media per se, but I will go and look at cute animals because that makes me feel happy - either pictures or videos. It's not a particular show or anything, but that's what I gravitate towards, they make me happy.

Natalia: I will look at my older work, and sometimes also recent projects that I finished. I tend to put my all into what I work on, and once it’s finished I sort of dissociate with it, almost like I forget I even made it. If I'm really frustrated with something new I'm working on, or feeling like my work doesn't matter, especially with what's been going on, I throw my hands up and think, “Oh, who’s gonna care about weird, creepy stuff right now?” But surprisingly, a lot of people do, and have been responding positively to it. I'm very much a raw emotions kind of person, so when I dissociate from my work, it's almost like I'm looking at it again for the first time, and realize things like, “Oh wow, I really did something here.” People who have liked and resonated with our recent zine, The Chilling Wind of Rage Rattles My Bones, have shared it and talked about it to their friends, and it makes me feel like, "Okay, this is worth doing." Knowing there’s something there not just for me, but for others strengthens my spirit immensely. As much as some of the stuff that I drew in the past can be very cringe-y to look at now, there was something there and it’s something that I want to keep alive.

Thank you, Natalia & Thais for talking with us about the idea of spirit as it pertains to your creative lives! They are hard at work on even more zines and comics as we speak, and Natalia has just put out a new horror comic on their website, Mysto Press, so be sure to check it out!

Interview with Artist Kasia K. of Puka Parade on Crafting for Fun, Soap, and Cryptids
over 3 years ago – Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 10:46:49 AM

We're still working on getting the newest stretch goal preview up, and we're entering the last week of the campaign, so you bet that we're hurrying as much as we can! We're already so psyched at what an awesome year this is going to be with all of you joining us on this wonderful adventure. As we work on getting all our latest project updates lined up, littlemousedeer brings us another wonderful creator interview, this time with Kasia of PukaParade! Check out her soft pastel fantasy world and cryptid appreciation below. 

In addition to creating a lot of zines and artist merch, your IG profile lists you as a “cryptid and lore enthusiast.” How did you get interested in these topics to begin with?

Kasia: This is actually kind of funny... I used to spend a lot of time online on obscure websites looking up things like “Black Dogs” and other cryptids, folklore, and urban legends. Eventually, I found this website when I was younger, that is still around, called The Shadow Lands. Apparently, it just turned twenty five, so it's two years younger than I am. They have a lot of information on cryptids, user-submitted ghost stories, and other things like that, and I would spend hours on that site from around the age of six or seven. We weren't very well supervised on the internet at that time, not that this site was particularly harmful, but it’s also not typical kids faire. My Dragon Tales coloring book would be sitting on the desk next to a printout of stories like, The Time a Ghost Tried to Stab Me...

I definitely identify with the "let loose on the internet as a kid" sentiment. I would try to stay away from ghost stories, but looked up everything I could about monsters! How does your love for cryptids manifest in your life?

Kasia: I think they're really neat! I think about them a lot, and incorporate them into my outfits in the form of merch that I've made, or merch that other artists have created. I find a lot of inspiration in them and I like to find out about new regional cryptids whenever I can… especially the American ones! For the most part, I think they're a nice part of American culture that isn't tainted in some way. They're essentially folktales and I think that's really charming. Recently, I found out that Maine has the Spectral Moose of Lobster Lake. It's so hilariously “Maine,” but at the same time it seems like it was probably just some folks being confused and scared by Albino Moose in the area. 

The Spectral Moose of Lobster Lake sounds amazing! You're probably right that it's referencing an albino moose, but it's so funny. I want there to be a restaurant themed after them.

Kasia: Omg, I can imagine it... lakeside with a little dock. Really quaint and kind of kitsch but with a really homey menu!

Aside from our moose friend, what is a cryptid that everyone needs to drop what they’re doing and learn about right now?

Kasia: Hmm... this ones tough because my favorite is pretty well known.I usually try to suggest cryptids based on people's personalities but in general I think the Beast of Bray Road is a pretty interesting one! It's a local one to Wisconsin and could probably be compared to a Werewolf, but is definitely different from one. Generally, he’s described more as a “wolf man,” or even sometimes in rare cases an ape!

Do you gravitate towards certain types of cryptids or paranormal entities?

Kasia: I love really monstrous or archaic ones the most. In terms of American cryptids my favorites would definitely be Mothman and the Jersey Devil! They have so much lore around them and still have some “sightings” to this day so it really interests me how they came to be and the local psyche that led to their creation. Cryptids are really like looking into a mirror of fears and concerns sometimes, and in the case of Mothman it's even more interesting because he's seen as a Protector or Omen by some people. I just love that! 

Why do you think interest in cryptids has exploded over the past few years? Do you think it taps into this idea that cryptids can serve as a mirror for societal fears?

Kasia: Hmm... Overall, I'm not sure... I know for me personally it's because it feels like a way to hold on to some small bit of whimsy in our modern age. So part of it might be that as well? For the most part, a lot of cryptids are also really… natural, coming from some arcane, occult, or supernatural source rather than being man-made or artificial. I think that's appealing too, and maybe it's a little bit of both!

You mentioned Mothman in one of your previous answers, who is one of my favorites as well! I really enjoy the duality and complexity of Mothman as Protector/Omen, too. You have a few products in your store that feature Mothman and a few others, like the Flatwoods Monster and Nessie. How has your interest in cryptids influenced your art and what you create?

Kasia: My art and my interests are pretty intertwined! I really want to have a whimsical style that can convey emotion well, and I'm drawn to whimsical and emotional things. Lately, I've been trying to make sure I create art that is for myself, too, and not just for consumption by others. Striking this balance between making sure your bills get paid while also avoiding burnout by working on personal projects is really hard! It's a lot easier said than done, but I've had a lot of fun making cryptid art and creating more art of my original characters, too. 

Sydney Anderson mentioned in her interview that she's also been making more art for herself and more non-digital, non-product-based art during the pandemic. Has making more art for yourself been a reaction to the pandemic and the major shifts that entailed? How has it helped you?

Kasia: I think it's a culmination of several things for me, but the pandemic definitely helped facilitate it! Before I was stuck in this endless loop of prepping for conventions, trying to make new merch all the time, etc. But lately, since there are no conventions this year, it's changed how I prepare for sales. Online sales feel a lot more regular and consistent vs selling at in-person convention sales. Convention sales tend to skew a lot more towards impulse buys, either for fandom or mementos of the weekend and fun times with friends. Honestly I do want to get some new keychains in stock but I've been having a lot of fun just being indulgent. I'm glad because the wild chase to always “keep up” led to a lot of frustration and burn out and I'm hoping to be able to manage that much better in the future. 

There are really cute honeycomb-shaped soaps in your store. Is this another move away from creating convention merchandise towards making something tactile?

Thank you so much! Honestly, I have a lot of hobbies and interests that I've wanted to either revisit or try out, and making soap was one that I've wanted to do for a while. When I found out how easy it was I got really excited! It's similar in some ways to resin crafting which I've done in the past. I couldn't keep up with resin crafting because my apartment isn't really suited to working with resin, and the humidity here affects whatever you make,  so it ends up not being possible to do safely a lot of the time. But, with soap making (at least the melt and pour type that I currently do) it's very safe to do inside and you don't need a lot of special tools. On top of the soaps being visually fun, you also get to use scent to explore creatively, and it's something nice that you can use in day to day life, as well! Selling it came about because otherwise I'd have way too many soaps sitting around, way more than I could use, haha! Other than soap, I've started keeping plants, which makes me so happy... and that led me to looking up local ceramics studios and classes... My aunt used to have her own business and home studio so I used to make ceramics when I was really young. I thought it'd be quite nice to revisit that craft and make my own planters, too!

We would love to make our own ceramic planters, too - that would be incredibly fun! Add it to the after-pandemic wishlist. What kinds of hobbies do you have that keep your spirits up? We love reading these interviews for one thing, and discovering new artists! Kasia's wonderful work can be found under their handle Puka Parade on Twitter, Instagram, and their own website. 

Interview with Sydney Anderson, Returning Hazel Comic Artist, on Early 2000s Internet Art Culture
over 3 years ago – Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 10:45:05 AM

Hey, everyone! We're so thrilled to watch as more and more people find Hazel and join in on this awesome project, and our excitement for new rewards is growing and growing! The tote bag design has been shared on the campaign page, so be sure to check it out while we're confirming logistics and continuing book layout work behind the scenes. We're so close to being done with the campaign and the book work itself, but we still have more interviews to share with you from our creators. littlemousedeer talked to Sydney Anderson, our returning comic artist on Hazel, about pushing the extremes of games, the internet of our millennial youth, and creating during quarantine. 

On your Instagram you posted a 10 day countdown leading up to the release of Animal Crossing, New Horizons featuring favorite characters from the series. Did this project make waiting those last 10 days any easier? What got you interested in the game?

Sydney: Yeah, I guess it did. I was pretty strict about not actually starting the illustrations until the day they would be posted so they took up a good chunk of time. It was fun to make them and talk about the game with people.

My godbrother and godsister had the GameCube version, so that was the first time that I played it. It was a stressful situation because we all really liked it. We all played it and had a village we shared but our memory card wasn't big enough to actually save the game. So we restarted it every couple of days. We would get as far as we could and try to leave the game on for a while. We always had a fear that the console would overheat and catch on fire and burn the house down. I mean, it didn't, but sometimes you’ve just gotta do it. You’ve got to risk burning the house down. I've played every Animal Crossing since then.

My cousins and I used to do that with the original Mario! A lot has changed since the GameCube Animal Crossing, what's your favorite new feature in New Horizons?

Sydney: I really like exploring the little Nook islands - leaving the main island and checking out what's on the other islands - especially if I have a villager that's just moved out, so you can find who's new on the islands. It’s like there's a new friend waiting for you and also maybe a different fruit or hybrid flower, but I've never found that hybrid flower island.

It's really fun to see what cool island layouts there are, and some of them are really pretty. There's one that I've run into a couple of times that is like an inlet encased by cliffs. It reminds me of a brief period of time in which I played Minecraft. I spent the majority of that time leaving the main area and trying to go as far as I could go in the game and finding really cool islands, weird canyons, and stuff until the game has a hard time keeping up. The environment starts getting weird, like it'll rain for five blocks and only in those five blocks, or the canyons will get really extreme. The geometry of the world starts breaking down. I know I'm not going to one day jump onto an Animal Crossing island with unknown geometry, but island hopping reminds me of that. 

Your entry for this year's Hazel is about the healing power of friendship and communication. Do you think Animal Crossing and video games can, in their own way, have a healing power of its own?

Sydney: It's certainly a good de-stresser and can be time away from real life problems in a very temporary measure. I'm always hesitant to ascribe healing properties to entertainment but I understand that everybody has a different way that they feel about this. I clearly consume a lot of media and I've been playing Animal Crossing a ton, but to me it feels more like a vehicle towards spending time with other people who are also playing the game instead of just playing the game itself. If I swapped out Animal Crossing for Jackbox then I'm still spending the same amount of time with the same people as I would be in Animal Crossing. I would get the same out of it because it's the people that I'm spending time with, not necessarily the game. I like the game and I have a ton of fun with it, but it doesn't replace missing friends and having human interaction. In terms of its healing factor, I think it's only in terms of the multiplayer aspect, spending time on my friends’ islands and vice versa.

Are there any things that you've been doing over quarantine that have been more restorative?

Sydney: I have been spending a lot more time on my personal art. I'm always making art, so it's not so much the quantity of it that's changed, but the type of art has changed. Some of it is due to circumstances, because I normally sell at conventions so my work is usually geared towards production, but that’s not super viable anymore. Freelance is getting the bills paid, but I've been more focused on creating for myself, for my own expression. I’m doing a lot more writing and creating more comics. I'll eventually put it out there but I'm not putting things out with the purpose of selling at a convention right now. I have something to say or feelings to express and people will see it, but it won't be something made for the purpose of merchandise.

I’ve been doing a lot more tactile art, like book binding. I haven't tried anything too extreme yet, but I made some saddle stitch notebooks. I found a teeny tiny sewing machine and will bind notebooks with it. It doesn’t need to be fancy and I'm going to experiment more with the notebooks and stationary. It's been a lot of fun instead of working digitally because now so much of everything is digital. Work is digital, hanging out with people online is digital, so I’ve been moving my art life offline which has been nice. That's the big takeaway for things I do for a healing process - taking my art offline as much as I can and taking a break from living on the internet. 

In the beginning of quarantine, I thought, “I've got this down. I grew up on the internet, I had internet friends growing up and this will be a breeze.” But we’re almost six months in and it’s getting harder to be online all the time.

Sydney: I'm getting to the point where if I had a time machine, I would go back to high school Sydney and tell her this art stuff is great and you should keep it up, but also maybe get into coding. In the future, you can be a hacker and you can live a weird cyber life. And also, I don't know, go rogue and delete everybody's student debt. I could have just been a genius. Who knows?Everything is being lived online. With the exception of my art which I just said I was doing more offline. I am getting more and more willing to deep dive and say I live on the internet now, this is my new life, I live in cyberspace and this is real.

In college I took an art history class that was pretty esoteric. One of the essays that I read discussed the idea that there’s an online space, and the physical space, but at what point do online spaces make a distinction between being public and private? And being real life? Can you really go on the internet and be anonymous because it's not “real?” They're very public places and they're also very much real life. Things that you say online have real world consequences, which I'm on board for. There's a lot that I hate about now and the coming future, but cyber world life would not be one of them. I've watched The Matrix too many times and I've read too many cyberpunk books, and I'm okay saying I exist on the internet. Yeah, I’ll jack in. I have relationships that matter to me in this space and I exist here. It matters and I can’t write it off as something I said online that means nothing, it's ephemeral, and it's in the wind. No, it's real. It exists and those are words that I've said. They mean something to me or else I wouldn't have said them. I’m leaning into that way more lately.

The online sphere is definitely also real life. What you do online stays there forever, nothing on the internet is truly deleted.

Sydney: It's really not. It's like web archaeology at this point. People are taking that much more seriously now. People are making efforts to keep records of sites with the Wayback Machine. You can go to early Neopets via the Wayback Machine and see what it looked like in 2000. All of that is still viewable, which is really interesting.

I'm a huge fan of archives so I love the Wayback Machine. I think it's so interesting, and I love that era of the early 2000’s internet. It felt so free and wide open. Let's just go back to interacting via Neopet guilds.

Sydney: Yeah, it had such a unique feel. I don't know if I've ever experienced anything else that quite had that same kind of vibe as being online in the early 2000’s when stuff was kind of new and there really weren't rules and nobody was really sure how long things were going to last, or what it was, or how important it was going to be. It felt so expansive and really freeing as a kid to just be on the internet. You really didn't know what was out there and it literally felt like exploring some unknown territory.

Oh man, I loved Neopets. We were probably both the prime age for Neopets when it was hot and happening. I used to enter their writing contests a lot, the ones where you could win and be featured in The Neopian Times. Were you ever on Gaia Online?Man, I got deep into that. How big into those were you? 

I used to RP on the forums and I hope to never see those again.

Sydney: Oh yeah, I did some RP’s on there. I don't need to be reminded of that. I also used to contribute to an adoptables pet store. They were hatchable pets with basic line art form and an artist would draw eggs and pets. You would put the egg designs up for “sale” and people on the forum would claim them. They would put the URL for the egg image in their forum signature. Then it would be on a schedule. After a week or so, you would draw the pet that was in the egg and rename the pet image the same name as the original file, re-upload the image so it wouldn’t break the URL, and then in the person’s signature the egg would hatch!

You could give it a few evolutions, too. Some people would have almost their own versions of Neopet paintbrushes or magic stones or whatever that could transform the pet. Some of the shops had sub-forums for people who would have RPs for their pets, get them married, and have breeding events where they would pay the artists to make custom offspring of the two pets.

That’s so interesting. I knew about adoptables and thought they were really cool, but I didn't understand how they were made or how they worked.

Sydney: They were almost their own economy because you could start your own store or apply to be an artist for other people's stores. The owner would send you art files with the base line art and you would make your own designs to sell in their store for a cut of the profits. I had my own store but I worked for two others and made designs for like two other shops. I never think about it because who's talking about adoptables? I’m just now realizing how big of a deal they were. It was the coolest thing you could have in your signature and some of them got really expensive. Lately, I've noticed some people making and selling adoptables online. 

When you brought up The Neopian Times, I was thinking about the art competitions they held and how some of the artists who won those competitions were then hired by Neopets and then got a job making art for Gaia Online and are now major artists in certain circles. They have this funny career lineage of having started out trying to win a Neopets art contest.

Sydney: Yeah, that's fascinating. It does seem like a lot of art careers started on the internet a lot sooner than people think. Certainly earlier than I would have even thought about it because, man, Neopets was really early and you’re not even making real money, it’s Neopoints or Gaia money. Or people would do OC commissions of their avatars which got wild because some of the avatars were so complex. Everybody had the maximum amount of accessories that could fit on this teeny one inch figure, and it was like devil wings, an angel halo, a gun sword, a flowing overcoat, cowboy boots, and approximately six belts. I couldn’t tell what I was looking at sometimes!

I feel like we’ve covered a lot of internet history over the course of this interview.

Sydney: Oh yeah, the Animal Crossing-themed interview and now this discussion about living in the digital age and the importance of the internet. I'm ready for VR to be super cheap so I can have a three-dimensional presence in chat forums that look like digital cafes where we could talk with text bubbles like in comic books. I'm ready to have sparkle accessories around me and an art economy around that. Imagine a digital storefront where you sell accessories to put on people's avatars. Oh man, that sounds cool, I want to do it. What if my art career circles back to doing what I was doing in high school, but this time I’m paid for it with the real money -- I’ll scream! Maybe this time it starts with a backpack you can buy for your avatar and in two weeks it evolves into angel wings.

Oh my gosh, what a trip to the past! I remember wishing I had the know-how to make adoptables or even just the initiative to enter Neopet contests! All I probably had to do was ask someone how the hatching worked or where to upload my images, but at least now I know the information I need is often a quick search away (or a Google rabbit hole!). Be sure to catch Sydney on Twitter, Instagram, or her online store, and have a wonderful day! 

Trekking About with Travel Wizard and Writer Jessica Mejias
over 3 years ago – Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 09:06:13 PM

Hazel contributor and travel writer Jessica Mejias shares with us the story of how her blog chronicling her journeys began and what she can teach us about trekking across the world either when we're able to physically go, or by following along on her journeys in our mind's eye.

Gold Colored Fox was born on January 1st, 2017, and arose from a desire to read a blog that mixed my two passions together — travel and (art) history.

Nothing inspires me like meeting the object of my faraway affection and getting to know it, hearing a language that I don’t understand (or one that I do, though not completely, or with a different accent), and intentionally exposing myself to new things over the course of a very intense few days.

Pre-travel prep is important, but not in the way that you might think. Care must be taken to search for the essence of a place in the photos and/or descriptions of others. For example, these are a few destinations that I have currently on my wanderlist, followed by a brief description of what I feel when I think of them:

Greece

• I get a sense of morning light, pink and yellow, hitting across ancient ruins, and the smell of the sea in the air. Sunny and bright and full of clear skies, but light and airy, not hot in the way that Madrid often is in the summer. An unfamiliar alphabet, cobblestones and olives, the smell of oil and wine, flowers everywhere.

Russia

• Golden domes, golden trims, gold everywhere, and cold, so cold, cold in your blood, but splendid. Decadent palaces with sumptuous art collections, OTMA and the Last Tsar of Russia. But also Baba Yaga and spooky stories told in the cold night, the woods hushed by the snow, and only the prickle of a small fire piercing that silence.

Tallinn, Estonia

• Pastels, sunny skies, a UNESCO Medieval quarter, and yet one of the most technologically savvy cities in the world, a leader when it comes to tech (ever heard of Skype?). Sitting in a colorful medieval café eating a cake while browsing the internet using the city’s free Wi-Fi. So close to Helsinki, to Suomenlinna, where I will always feel that summer was born, and with Saint Petersburg on the horizon.
   

Once I identify what is pulling me from each location, I ask myself — how does this make me feel? And, is that feeling something I want to chase right now? I’m a fervent believer that we travel far away to search for things inside ourselves, so it’s important that this is a side of ourselves that we want to meet.

This is why I find solo travel so important. Moving at your own pace, choosing what you want to see, without having to compromise, eating when you’re hungry, going back to wherever you’re resting your head at night when you’re tired and not a moment earlier — this is a freedom that is seldom found in our everyday lives, which are so ruled by routine and external schedules. When I’m by myself, especially in a new place, where no one knows me and there are no expectations upon me, where I’m curious about what’s around me, I can be more honest with myself than I get to be at home, and I get to form a relationship with each place that I visit that, in my opinion, goes so much deeper.

Gold Colored Fox travel destination essentials:

• A café
• A botanic garden
• A bookshop
• A museum
   

Cafés

My family are Coffee Drinkers. As a child, I looked upon this activity as a thing that only adults partook in, an esoteric ritual that I could only become a part of once I reached a certain age. Naturally, I firmly believed that only once I grew up would I enter this hallowed circle of people and a hot mug would magically materialize in my hand. For me, drinking coffee is a connection to my family members, and to home. There’s something about sitting in a cozy spot with the rain pitter-pattering on the window and a hot mug in my hand, the smell of it enveloping me, and all of a sudden, I’m home, even though I’m on the other side of the globe.

Botanic Gardens

My first visit to a botanic garden happened fairly recently (Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam, in 2017), but I had been wanting to go to one ever since I was little. Now I try to make an effort to visit greenhouses whenever I can. Aesthetically, my favorite has been the greenhouse at Glasgow Botanic Garden, but the Kaisaniemi Botanic Garden in Helsinki will always hold a dear place in my heart. When I was little, living in Venezuela, my parents used to take me to this lake so I could ride my bike all around it. During these outings, my dad would make a game out of showing me these little plants that grew by tall trees and would close up and “fall asleep” if you touched them ever so slightly. Years later, after moving to Florida, I remembered the little plant and tried finding what it was called, but my dad didn’t remember and nobody around me (not even my nearest Boy Scout!) knew what I was talking about. It wasn’t until I moved to Spain that my best friend told me that she had found it — and had learned its name! It’s a mimosa pudica, but it’s also known as a sensitive plant, sleepy plant, touch-me-not, among others. When I went to Helsinki, I had an inkling that I might see it, and started looking for it. I got very emotional when I finally found it, as it brought back so many memories of my childhood and marked me so deeply that it now sits on my leg in the form of a tattoo. 

Bookshops

I took a trip to Porto in 2016, and the first place I went to was Livraria Lello. The bookshop was absolutely beautiful, and I fell so in love with it that, on impulse, I decided I’d buy something and bring it back home with me — the question was, what? My mind ran through many options - something by José Saramago, since he was Portuguese? Or maybe an art book by a Portuguese artist? In the end, I decided I would get my favorite book. A tiny, short little thing, easily translated into nearly every language on Earth, and so easy that I might just have been able to read it in Portuguese (I was!): The Little Prince. Thus began a tradition of mine to buy this book in the local language whenever I visit a new place. Now I have quite a collection of them on my bookshelf. 

Museums

The first reason I traveled was to go to a museum. My first solo trip was to Florence in January of 2016, and I was chasing a dream, a made-up city that I had created in my head from what I’d seen in movies, pictures, and video games. I was obsessed with it, and I felt like I already knew it. So much so that when I arrived it was familiar, though so full of people — I had not accounted for that. The Uffizi, however, I found empty. I caught it early in the day, with morning light showering the outside of the building and flowing in through the windows. It was at that moment that I fell in love with the feel of empty museums, of that silence, of nothing coming between me and the art that I’d spent years aching to one day see, nothing between me and making that dream come true. I chase that feeling every chance I get.

Thanks so much, Jessica, for sharing this list with us! I already feel excited for the chance to travel again from your words here, and with those descriptions of places on your travel "wanderlist" as you called it (what a fun way to put it!), I feel like I can do a little armchair traveling and picture myself there right now. We're getting close to our next stretch goal, so thank you all so so much for taking this little journey with us and helping us keep on shouting out Hazel all over the place! Have a great day~