What is your idea of perfect happiness?
a sunny, breezy day at the beach with my family and friends when everything clicks. when heavy things seem easy and natural, and details seem important and rich.

Which talent would you most like to have?
i love to sing and i wish i played the guitar or the piano.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what do you think it would be?
a small child. not a teenager.

What is your most treasured possession?
my two girls. they aren't my possessions, but they are what i treasure most in my life.

Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Easy Rawlins from walter mosley's series. he's an arch-hero who represents everything that lies under the surface of LA. if you read this series, you read a history of Los Angeles.

Which historical figure do you identify with most?
the suffragettes.

Who are your heroes in real life?
my mom and my sister. they always inspire me.

Dream dinner party guests (dead or alive)?
i'd like to have a party of just me and a bunch of brilliant gents who would be charmingly condescending to me but whose presence i'd thoroughly enjoy. my table seats eight, and i'd preside at the head in a fabulous dress. so: william s. burroughs, henry miller, samuel beckett, serge gainsbourg, jack kerouac, edward abbey, leonard cohen, and billy collins.

What catches your eye?
small things that speak loudly

Your personal style?
lazy for the most part. a bit french, a bit california, with a little rock & roll for good measure. i've started wearing heels again after having been pregnant and in birks for what feels like years. actually, it has been years. i think i might always wear heels now. Morning...
busy

Noon...
relaxed

Night...
crash

Work...
intriguing

Our time...
fraught with peril. Hopeful.

The past...
present

The future...
unimportant

The everyday...
essential

Extravagance...
sea-salt chocolate. loads of it.

Inspiration...
my daughters. kids are so smart. and i love just watching people and their strangenesses. it's even more interesting to me when people try to cover it up. i love to see the ways people try to hide.

An artistic life...
anyone can live an artistic life. you do have to be able to see beauty in things that are crumbly and not obvious, and have an appreciation for what's come before while still being able to disregard it.

Most interesting thing in your wallet...
a little clipping of a rattan elephant hamper that i want to buy for my kids. the shodo iwagaki exhibition card at tortoise. he's a japanese monk who is going to do live line drawings. the card is like a big chop on fibrous paper. it's lovely.

Your lucky charm...
any of the jewlery that i've inherited. my great-grandparents owned a jewelry store in butler, pennsylvania. i still have these grey jewelry boxes with the name "kirkpatricks" written on it in gold and jewlery from the early 1900's.

Words to live by...
I have two.
"slow and steady wins the race" from the parable of the tortoise and the hare.
and the supreme billie holiday. "when in love, sometimes it is better to lose a fight than to win it."

Prized possession...
a gold medallion necklace from my great-great grandmother with her initials on it. a couple years ago my grandma had my initials engraved on the other side. whenever i wear it, i feel connected to my history. supposedly i can trace my family history to pocahontas...but i consider that unverified family gossip. wouldn't it be amazing if it were true, though?

One wish...
i want to answer "whirled peas" (as in, "world peace"). does that show i spend most of my time with a three-year old? my greatest wish is for my daughters to have the time and the physical space to be kids. i don't want them to grow up too fast.

Shoes...
black suede Prada peeptoe heels

Store...
any small bookstore

Place...
Poppi, Italy. a tiny village on top of a hill in Tuscany where Michael and I got married.

Colors...
dusty rose and gray.

Websites...
bloesem, 20x200, acne, refinery29.

Photographer...
i'm lucky because i get to see incredible images every day. i adore my 15 year old flickr friend olivia bee. i am inspired by the storytelling in the brilliant and corpulent work of czech artist jan saudek. contemporary faves are loretta lux, ryan mcginley, cig harvey, autumn de wilde, aaron ruell, jen gotch. Anything holga or lomo or polaroid at the moment. and i peruse my flickr contact list daily. there is always something incredibly delightful to savor.

Artist...
my mom. she's ridiculously talented. i wish she was more of a saleswoman, so everyone else could see how fabulous she is! and kara walker.

Painter...
edward hopper. the storytelling in his paintings. and i like LA painter louis metz. there's something about him that reminds me of hopper. i have one of his paintings that i just love.

Writer...
that's hard. i love books more than anything. i'm currently in love with Shirley Hazzard. i just read Bay of Noon which i kept putting down because i wanted it to last longer. i should say something esoteric and intellectual like Derrida or Barthes because of my comp lit background, but truthfully i can't stand those deconstructionists. they take all the fun out of reading and writing. i do like umberto eco, though. he has a sense of humor and is obsessed with mysteries, as am i. there's nothing i like more than a good mystery.

Filmmaker...
i'm a huge noir fan. i love the coen brothers. they always have a noir feeling no matter what they do. antonioni, because i love l'avventura so much. and tarantino. reservoir dogs was my all-time favorite movie forever; but it has recently been surpassed by what i consider to be his masterpiece, inglourious basterds.

Tastemaker...
www.refinery29.com

City...
antwerp is a perfect gem of a city, and uber-chic. and surprisingly for me, i love LA. i grew up in the Palisades and Malibu, and i always felt like an outsider. it was very tan, and i have fair skin! but the city has evolved so much, and i don't think that there could be a more interesting, diverse place to be. we've got everything going on here, from high culture to low. and it's all authentic and ever-changing.

Country...
Italy. i couldn't live there if i had to work for a living because the bureaucracy is ridiculous. but there's no better place to appreciate the art of living.

Street... .
my childhood home on villa woods drive in the palisades right by will rogers state park. i was lucky because i got to grow up in LA, but live in the mountains with horses and trees and snakes and privacy! it used to be all these cute and modest california ranch homes. now the houses are HUGE! on these small lots. i get it, but i don't like it.

Museum...
the whitney in manhattan where i first saw edward hopper. l'orangerie in paris for nostalgia. when i lived in paris i saw a viewing of monet's waterlilies at l'orangerie, which i'll never forget. although LA has got some amazing art stuff going on now.

Movie theater...
the landmark theater at the westside pavilion. it's small but always has the good movies. you can either watch artsy or genre or new. they have tea. they have a bar. they have the good chocolate. and there's a bookstore, so you can look at books while you wait to see a movie. there's nothing better than that.