FYI, Julie Hampton is currently on a pogo stick. During the day, she can be found teaching literature and creative writing at the Art Institute of Phoenix, or making a variety of things including (but not limited to) dryer balls out of wool yarn, restaurant-quality Thai tea, and homemade pasta with her friend Karen and Karen's Kitchen Aid.
She watches True Blood and Big Love with her s-dubs (sister wives), and is attempting to learn Korean so she can say more than "How are you?" "Thank you" and "You're pretty!" in phone calls to her mother-in-law in Seoul. Hampton also runs an art retreat called Revolving Door out of a house she owns in Vitiana, Italy. (As if the Italian coast needed classes in poetry, photography, and book making to make things interesting.)
Read more about Hampton's early years on a vegetable farm and current work at a.ware after the jump ...
1. Five thing on my inspiration wall:
- the horoscope for my most recent birthday
- a card with the word "Faith" on the cover
- an article from the Utne Reader titled "Human-Scale Education" about the founder of the Small School in England
- pictures of retail interiors I like
- a Wonder Woman Statue my friend gave me after I ran the Twin Cities marathon. (I like it
not as a symbol of superhero status--I'm far from that--but rather a symbol of curiosity; the first newsletter I published was called Wonder Works.)
2. Last big project:
Writing a business plan and teaching a palimpsest performance workshop at Wayne State University in Detroit, merging my love of H.D.'s palimpsest poetry and the performance score.
3. Next big project:
Expanding a.ware, a boutique I started with my friend Carol Panaro-Smith in 2006 out of our studio spaces, to a bona fide retail space in downtown Gilbert, for November and December. And getting pregnant, fingers crossed. And dreaming up a new literary journal. And knitting a shawl in a herringbone pattern with really fine wool. And. And. And. Is there just one "next big project?" They all seem big to me.
4. Why do you do what you do?
Because I appreciate handmade, design-savvy, beautiful, and practical things. And I become anxious if I don't have something to do.
5. Something I want Phoenix to know about me:
My family owned a 4-acre vegetable farm in Wisconsin with my grandmother, but we lived in town.
What I don't want Phoenix to know (but secretly do or I wouldn't write it):
If we didn't sell all our veggies at the Madison farmer's market I had to take a wagon of goods (I remember sweet corn) door to door around the block to hawk the goods to our neighbors. I was horrified then, but now I think it was my mom's 1970's version of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
The Creatives, so far:
100. Fausto Fernandez
99. Brian Boner
98. Carol Panaro-Smith
97. Jane Reddin
96. Adam Dumper
95. Mayme Kratz
94. Daniel Tantalean
93. Yuri Artibise
92. Lisa Starry
91. Paul Hoeprich
90. Betsy Schneider
89. Mary Shindell
88: Gabriel Utasi
87: Tiffany Egbert
86. Angela Cazel Jahn
85. Dayvid LeMmon
84. Beatrice Moore
83. Michelle J. Martinez
82. Carrie Bloomston
81. Paul Porter
80. Rachel Bess
79. Karolina Sussland
78. Aaron Abbott
77. Mary Lucking
76. Erin Sotak
75. Greg Esser
74. Matthew Mosher
73. Mark Klett
72. Tony Carrillo
71. Paul Morris
70. Joe Pagac
69. Alison King
68. JJ Horner
67. Kim Porter
66. Marco Rosichelli
65. Heather Hales
64. Amy Lamp
63. Kevin Vaughan-Brubaker
62. Lindy Drew
61. Robbie Pfeffer
60. Neil Borowicz
59. Lynn Fisher
58. Tanner Woodford
57. David Tinapple
56. Casebeer
55. Tom Leveen
54. Patti Parsons
53. Tedd McDonah
52. Mike Maas
51. Chris Todd
50. Monica Aissa Martinez
49. Stefan Shepherd
48. Jenny Poon
47. Matt Moore
46. Andrea Hanley
