12: Feeding Ghosts with Tessa Hulls

Tessa Hulls is an artist/writer/adventurer whose work spans a multitude of genres and whose travels have taken her across all 7 continents, much of it on bike. She is the daughter of two first generation immigrants and is currently working on a graphic novel about her grandmother titled "Feeding Ghosts".

Tessa describes herself as a compulsive genre hopper who has worked in some capacity as an illustrator, cartoonist, editor, interviewer, writer, performer, chef, muralist, conductor of social experiments, painter, teacher, and researcher. She is fascinated by the concept of home. Outside of working on her graphic novel, Tessa is also focused on public speaking about little known women at the turn of the century and social activism.

In today's episode, we talk about Tessa's current project and its origin, we talk about Calvin and Hobbes and being either totally engaged in or out of work, and we talk about the feelings that come with home and solitude.

Quote

I'm completely convinced that serendipity is a muscle that gets stronger the more you exercise it… I just like to sling myself out in the universe and see what happens.

– Tessa Hulls

Notes

• history and start into genre hopping


• Feeding Ghosts and origin of Tessa's current project


• reading habits


• Calvin and Hobbes


• a day in the life


• combining work and hobbies while avoiding burnout


• cooking professionally


• lifestyle and trade-offs


• concept of home


• solitude and what it means


• artists residency


• coddiewompe: "to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination"


• feminism and activism


• getting to know America by biking across it

Closing

• inspiration
  
  
  
  • overwhelming canon of women in the 20th century doing things that they shouldn't have been able to do
  
  
  
  


• surprising fact
  
  
  
  • professional cook and how it started with rugby, whisky and pie
  
  
  
  


• principles
  
  
  
  • piece by Jim Dodge: "They can do whatever you cannot stop them from doing. You can do whatever you can pull off and still live with yourself"
  
  
  
  


• closing notes:
  
  
  
  • lookout for Guided by Ghosts, Tessa's upcoming project to be exhibited in Santa Cruz, which weaves together her current family history with the Chinese history of Santa Cruz
  
  
  
  

Links

• Feeding Ghosts


• Rage Becomes Her


• 2019 PEN Northwest Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Writing Residency


• Tessa's Piece on Bike Travel and Feminism


• Coddiewomple


• Tessa's Talks


• This Is Home Project


• Couchsurfing


• Jim Dodge


• Guided by Ghosts

Contact

• Home Page


• Instagram


• Mailing List

Feeding Ghosts Notebook

These shownotes are also available at http://folkstories.org/12

• folkstories.org
• @kevins8