Curious Seeds 10: A Big Extra Unexpected Wonder
Liana Finck on parenting, patriarchy + brevity
Curious Seeds is an interview series with beautiful, fascinating humans and/or creatures. Suggest someone to interview here.
is writer, illustrator, thinker, and parental unit. You’re likely familiar with her brilliant and droll cartoons which strike a bullseye into our complicated states of being human. I have thoroughly enjoyed Liana’s work for some time because it often occupies my favorite life venn diagram, which is amusing-overlapping-melancholy. She has a new children’s book out, Mixed Feelings, which my husband declared the best book on feelings he’s ever read. It really is wonderful for adults + kids alike. Subscribe to her lovely Substack here.
Liana – so honored to be with you!
We always start interviews by playing a game I made up called, "this or that, without context." Choose one and share why, or not.
The J/M/Z or the R train: Depends where I'm going! Neither is my train, though the N/R is a bit more my side of BK.
The lion, the witch, or the wardrobe itself: Good guy, bad guy, or portal—not the good guy.
An obscure sorrow or pickle juice: No comment.
The Apricot-colored Crayon or the feeling of being in a mystery: I'll take the crayon.
Rock or stone (interpret as you wish): I feel like Stone is more British and Rock is more American, so I suppose Rock..
A wart on a witches nose or the power of intention: I would never choose a wart.
Sleet or the most delicious mezze platter: Why is this even a choice?
You are a parent + a creative; parenting + creating. Reflect on the relationship between the two – maybe when the two fan each others’ flames?
Before I had my son, life was all about work. Work was a mix of creative work and nose to the grindstone workaholic work, which is my poison of choice. There was so much time I got to do both. Now I'm realizing I need to choose to prioritize creativity, which is hard for me, and scary. I like getting things done, and making money, but it's not really a choice—I don't get to make my work unless there's creativity at the heart of it. And. I love being a parent. Not sure about what everyone says, that art and parenting come from the same place. For me, maybe not. But I'm beyond grateful to get to have this big extra unexpected wonder in my life. It's like romance.
What is your process for writing a cartoon? How many drafts does it take to get to the perfect, pithy final? Do you think there’s some inherent brilliance in brevity?
I do think there's an inherent brilliance in brevity. That said, my cartoons tend to be better when I have time to go through a number of drafts. I don't always, but I pay for it when I don't.
I really loved “Ren and Stimpy” as a kid. I look back now and wonder why I loved something so grotesque. What influenced you as a kid?
I grew up on kids' books - William Steig, Lore Segal, Maurice Sendak, Maira Kalman. I'd say those are my biggest influences, more than comics. I didn't get into movies till I was older, actually, but I love animation.
I love mixed feelings because they’re the only state that accurately represents the nature of human experience. Which in Mixed Feelings do you most relate to right now? For me it’s “like I’m stuck inside, but getting cozy.” This is what becoming a full-time mom has felt like…
I so much agree about that. "Shy and not sure why" was me as a kid. Now, I often relate to the mom on the "Like no one ever listens to me!" page. She has her hands full.
Your recent New York Times op-ed encapsulates a struggle I think a lot of millennial women navigate, which is resenting feeling sucked into norms around wife-hood or mother-hood that we’ve so fervently resisted, yet at the same time wanting to evolve our ways of being based on new lived experience. Can you talk about how “holding back” your voice is part of “quitting the patriarchy” for you? Do you feel more at peace, or is the peace a tactic now to stoke later revolution?
Quitting the patriarchy wasn't a headline I wrote, but I do like it, and think it reflects what I was wrestling with. My thinking is that it's sometimes easier to approach an interpersonal problem from the other person's point of view, rather than your own. Feminism is the lens through which I tend to see everything. My husband was/is wrestling with something entirely different—not opposite, just a different category. Looking through his lens helped me see him less as an adversary, more as someone who was struggling alongside me. That said, it's so tricky. I'm mortally afraid—and rightly—of drifting into the category of trodden-on wife.
I loved this panel in particular, it's very Buddhist. It's about the project of living well, which includes dropping the story and loosening our grasp on it all, yet here you still are.
Thank you — there are ungenerous ways to interpret this panel, maybe correctly. The most generous way is that you can grow and get stronger after getting past a trauma; the defensiveness you needed to protect you once won't be necessary forever.
What have you been pecking at lately?
Coconut water. I'm at the point in pregnancy where it's hard to keep anything down. Heartburn rather than nausea, I think, but boy oh boy.
What have you squirreled away for later?
We're moving, and I'm living amidst packing boxes (all packed by me, of course). So I guess everything. On a more metaphorical level, my love of reading. I'm hoping to get back to that later.
Anything else to leave us with?
Go look at something beautiful today. Or this week. Or at least this month.
Thank you so much!
Thank YOU!
A joy to read this generative dialog )))