The Mahy Questionnaire: Story Hemi-Morehouse

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Illustrator Story Hemi-Morehouse takes time at the end of a busy year to answer our Mahy-themed interrogation!

1. Describe yourself in three words:

Weird aunty draws.

2. During the height of adolescence, was it a good changeover?

Being a teenager was chaotic and it was about as weird for me as I think it is for everyone—but we looove our 20s! Growing up is the best! I love getting to become more me the longer I get to spend with myself.

3. Are you haunted by a particular memory? 

Yes, but I seem to only remember which one at 1am when I can’t sleep.

4. MM: ‘Imagination is the creative use of reality.’ Is this true for you?

Yes and no? I don’t think I’ve ever thought of it that way. For me I like to use my imagination to escape reality or build a totally new one—our current one seems too much like iffy building material to me …

5. Have you ever owned a rattlebang car?

No but I definitely miss my first car—a red 2012 RAV4 named Murray. He was such a babe …

6. Which witch? Identify a favourite one from literature.

Hecate (the OG)—specifically the depiction of Hecate in Lore Olympus.

7. ‘Come dance all around the world. And see all the beauty that surrounds us.’ Words for a romantic or just being mindful?

I’ll be real, I’m not sure how to answer this but I’d totally boogie all around the world so … yes?

8. A lion in the broom cupboard or a lion in the meadow?

In the meadow. When I read this, I imagine myself using the lion as a snuggly pillow while we nap in the sun surrounded by flowers.

9. When have you been at your most discombobulated?

I’m discombobulated and confused all the time! Clarity tends to come to me as the day gets on—I wake up really slow and foggy, and by night time (when I really shouldn’t be), that’s when I really wake up and find myself. Usually that’s when I draw too.

10. What is your most favourite thing to do on a summery Saturday morning?

Sleep in. Coffee. Bakery treats. Moana swim.

11. In what way might you be a trickster?

Ooooo—probably in an arty way. I’ve always been so fascinated by the way drawing a few lines can convince someone the character they’re looking at is ‘alive’ and real. That fact that people can form a relationship with something you drew—or look in their eyes and feel like they’re looking back—is my favourite trick of all time!

12. Have you ever been rewarded when looking down the back of the chair?

When I was a kid, me and my siblings would routinely look for coins there—so yes I have, but then I’d have to wrestle for it.

13. A pirate for a mother or a jester for a father?

Both.

14. Would you babysit someone else’s shadow?

Happily!

15. ‘Horrakapotchkin,’ said the cat. ‘I want to write a poem.’ Is that how it works for you? 

… huh???

16: What I like for dinner when I am on my own is… (entertain us)

Kimchi mandu.

17. If you find yourself nose to nose with a shark, the only thing to do is…

Punch it straight in the shnoz!!! That where most of their senses are, it’ll freak ’em out and they’ll swim away (or so I’m told).

18. MM: ‘If things were fair, all stories would be anonymous… set free from the faults that go with its author’s name.’ Would you set your stories free in the name of anonymity? 

Absolutely not! I think it’s terrifying showing my writing—but that’s what makes it thrilling and worth telling. Writing is a wonderful mirror. Although I think the true measure of an art piece is whether it can stand on it’s own (without the artist’s explanation), I wouldn’t take the picture of myself out of anything I made.

19. You’re at a party and someone finds out what you do. What is the question they invariably ask? 

They usually ask what kind of artist I am, like what mediums/design style I like, and the list is usually a little too long to say—so I just say ‘Illustrator and Creative Director’ these days.

20. Who do you go to be entertained by linguistic pyrotechnics? Or entertained by songsense nongs.

This interview.

21. Which way does your heart lie: between the stars or anchored to the trapeze? 

I’m actually in love with star gazing, cosmology and observatory shows—so definitely the stars!

22. Would you rather be followed home by hippos or giraffes? 

Hippos, especially if they’re the lil cute baby ones.

23. Never mind a baby in the bubble. Would you rather—rice bubbles, bubble gum, Bubble O’Bill ice cream or Michael Bublé?

I haven’t had a Bubble o’ Bill in ages! I used to walk up the street with my sister when I was 4, holding a few sweaty coins in one hand and her hand in the other, to buy those ice creams at the dairy—so that one for sure.

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