04 01 07 Interview with Naseni
His name is Travis but the world knows himas Naseni Restlak. He can be found at Deviant Art at http://naseni.deviantart.com He was good enough to consent to an interview recently and here it is!
Sara Jane van Beeuwelan, April 1, 2000
1. I've read the poetry that you've put online at DA and I feel a
strongly developed lyrical sense in what you write, yet you claim that
you don't really follow any rules. Does your poetry come to you out of
the blue? Or do you ever have the sense that it's passing through
you?
The majority of my poetry I have written in an attempt to rid myself
of problems. Place my problems down in the zip-it like form of poetry
then open whenever needed till I have solved the problems that plauge
me.
There is a small amount of poetry I have written, however, that I do
not understand why I wrote it, or why. On the dissociative
dextromethorphane I have many many times lost contact with myself and
felt as though I have written using a voice that was most certainly
not my own.
2. Your photographs are most often of natural scenes, at least what
I've seen at DA and that which we've posted at the website. When you
lived in California your shots were often of the shoreline, but now in
Poland, what have you been shooting?
Close-up shots, shadows in the snow, and a few other things that
should appear sooner or later in deviantart. It has been hard finding
what i'd like to photograph here... I have a few sunset pictures, but
every time i take one i feel as though I'm betraying myself, there's
no ocean =(.
3. You moved to Poland in 2006 and of course, I know why! But maybe
you'd be up to telling how that came about for our readers, what
you're doing there now.
Love brought me here and keeps me here. During May 2006 I fell in love
with Malvina, In June I graduated high school(a year late I might
add), by August I was Fully TESL certified, and in late september I
flew out to Poland. Now in March 2007 I work as a conversational
english teacher for a major bank, as well as a preschool teacher in a
polish-canadian preschool. And as of present I am still in love.
4. I would guess that you've gotten pretty fluent at speaking Polish.
All I can do is muster an Na Zdrowie if I want to be cute. But do
you speak or write other languages? And do you have to reset your
keyboard whenever you go to reply in English or Polish to someone?
Na Zdrowie!! Actually I'm not fluent. Most of what I can say in polish
either involes beer and sausage, or how I don't understand. When I was
younger I tried learning French, Latin, Elvish, and Klingon but can
only remember a few phrases in each of them.
5. How does color affect you, and how does music affect you? Name
some of your artistic, photographic, musical and poetic inspirations
if you would!
I would love nothing more than to tell the world that music and
beautiful landscapes(or colors) affect my poetry. They do in a way,
but not as I write poetry or take pictures. I've tried listening to
music as I write or take photographs, but it really just ends up being
a distraction.
The only person I was able to listen to was Rachmaninov. His
pieces were great to write to.
6. I sometimes sense an affinity between the work of Antonin Artaud
and yourself. This is just intuitive on my part, for all I know
you've never heard of him, but would you care to comment?
I had to look him up on wikipedia, no I hadn't heard of him from
before. I did like what thing he believed in and I'll see if I can get
it here later.
7. What do you like about Polish television?
I was surprised to see nudity and porn on at night in a country that
is about 90% Catholic.
8. From the voluminous e-mail that we get from overseas we're finding
that people from other countries have finally learned to make a
distinction between "the USA" (Bush & Co) and individual Americans.
Do the people with whom you have to do ever engage you in talk about
American politics?
Its hard to tell. Most people I talk to just sit and listen to me make
fun of American politics. They do get worried looks when the tone
turns serious and I tell them I fully believe that the Bush plans to
invade Iran.
Poland is different from the other european countries, they still seem
to like Bush and Americans.
9. Magic Word Association: Intoxication
A new way of looking at things.
10. Do you videogame, and if so, what?
I used to play Everquest(And a little DAOC) 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week... I stopped about 4 or 5 years ago? Every now and then I kind of
want to start playing it again but I'm aware I wouldn't be able to
stop.
I love Starcraft, Warcraft, civilization games and RPG's(Final
Fantasy etc) but I wouldn't touch an MMORPG until i have done
everything thats possible in this world first.
11. I would love to see a book of your poetry published, however
small. Any plans - or anything that we don't know about?
Its my dream to live off my poetry and have it published. I have no
idea how to market it though. I might be able to do something about
Adderall as people are still taking it.
12. How has being at Deviant Art affected you? We never expected to
make it an outpost for the Community, but that's what it's become in a
lot of ways. Do you find that you've gotten unexpected (and sometimes
very welcome) attention there?
Deviantart has been a miracle for me. I have met people I never
would've been able to otherwise. It has encouraged me to continue
writing and explore several other forms of artwork and get reviews on
them. Without deviantart... Things would be very, very, very,
different.
13. Magic Word Association #2: Xanga
Memories and a way for my parents to stay informed with my drug-filled life.
14. You know that we're not big on the Old Guy With The Beard In The
Sky concept, conventional religion is horrifying to us. Care to
comment?
Absolute omniscience and omnipotence does not work. I like the thought
that we are all energy, when we die our energy goes back to the earth
etc. I'm kind of close to a nihilist at times.
15. Tell us about Malvina!
Without her my life would be very different. She's the one who got me
off my ass and to Poland. She's absolutely amazing and keeps me in
line, and takes care of me much more than I thought, or would like,
anyone to take of me. It is a good thing however, as without her care
I'd probably be suffering from several forms of malnutrition by this
time.
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