Today, both Casey and Thomas are here answering a few questions courtesy of the When Colors Bleed blog tour hosted by Kari from A Good Addiction. If you haven't heard of them, they are the main characters in Estevan Vega's short story Baby Blue, which is found in his When Colors Bleed anthology. You can read my review for When Colors Bleed here. I hope you enjoy the interviews!
Casey
Welcome, Casey and Thomas! Thank you for being here!
What are some of your favourite things to do?
I hang around downtown a lot. Blue Back Square's kind of nice. You get a lot of yuppie d-bags from Nordstrom there, though, so I try to stay as invisible as possible. None of that, "Hey, how's it going?" kind of crap. I hate that fake stuff. But whatever, there's this cool movie theater. It thinks it's a classic cinema or something, tries to be all fancy, but it's legit. Wish I had to someone to go to it with me. Oh, and there's this cool little art gallery downtown too. I've seen it, like, a million times, but I just don't have the guts to walk through the front door for some reason. I mean, I like art, but I'm not the starving, cut-my-wrist-on-Tuesday afternoon kind. Wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea. Man, now that I think about it, my life is filled with potholes. Social life zero. Unless you count the occasional stroll downtown or stumbling into a frat party once in a while. Whatever.
Did you ever think you'd meet someone like Thomas?
To be honest, I've met so many kinds of odd folks at the store. The thing about rich people is they wanna be understood, you get me? They want someone to listen to their b.s. story and tell them how good they look, even if they look like a blimp. They smile but underneath, it isn't real. It's like they practice it in front of a mirror or something. Thomas wasn't like that. He was strange, but he wasn't a weirdo. He came in like a calm storm, you know? One second, I think I have him all figured out, and the next, he's doing something that surprises me. I think I like him.
If you had the ability to change one thing in your past, what would it be?
Dad leaving. My mom was wrecked by the divorce, even though she was the cause of it. I hate that, how people start World War III then they're oh, so sorry that the nukes went off. Well, stupid, maybe you were a domineering psycho. Maybe nobody likes you. Maybe you should just shut up and stop forcing your opinions down other people's throats. (cries) Dad loved her, though. Hell if I know why. But he did. It's like that weird, opposites attract garbage you hear people talk about. Like me and Thomas, I suppose. He's not even in my atmosphere, but there's something there. If Dad didn't leave all those years ago, I could talk to him, get all girlie, but he's not here. He's not here.
What are your inspirations?
Art. My mom thinks I'm destined for a heartbreak. I dated a bass player back in high school. Total moron, but I'm secretly holding out for an artist. They see the world differently, have different, sometimes stranger reactions to the same old crap we see everyday, or don't see, right? They say a picture's worth a thousand words. Well, they say it for a reason. I'm not, like, a groupie or anything. I just think artists have the capacity to understand the world a little better. They're not blind to feelings like a lot of us have become.
Between us, do you like the powder blue suit?
Yeah, it's got balls. I think the fact that it's ugly and strange sort of makes it beautiful. It only takes one person to think something's beautiful for it to be beautiful. Someone kind told me that once.
Thomas
What first drew you to the store Casey worked in?
I've been there a hundred times. Never really liked it, but it was a place someone very close to me shopped at. If you cared about someone, wouldn't you take an interest in their interests? Nevermind. No particular reason brought me there, I suppose. But once I was there, once I met Casey, I had to come back.
How did putting on the powder blue suit make you feel?
Okay. Normal. Like I was myself again, like I could be healed.
Is there anything in your past that you would change if you could?
Oh...I don't know. I suppose there are things we'd all like to go differently from time to time. Hearts we wished wouldn't break. Things lost we wished could be found. But that isn't how things are, you see. You don't get second chances. You don't get to be reborn, not here. When something is taken from you, it doesn't just come back because you wish it so. I could paint a thousand sun rises, but somehow I fear the sun will always set in my neighborhood.
Did you ever think you'd meet someone like Casey?
Casey is such a beautiful creature. Delicate but strong too. I don't think she knows how strong she really is. But did I ever think I'd meet someone like her? I guess that would be no. I didn't. Every so often someone stumbles into your life, or you stumble into theirs. Perhaps a rhyme and a reason are to blame for this orchestration, but whatever the purpose, you are brought together, for a time, to see something you didn't see before. I saw something in Casey, something beautiful, something tragic.
What type of art inspires you, and what is your favourite to create or paint?
I am a fan of so many different art styles, you see. I paint some, but don't let anyone tell you I'm a true artist. I've got nothing on Da Vinci or Michelangelo. They knew their brush strokes better than anyone. For me, it's about painting the world as I see it. This place isn't always how you think it is. You must understand the millions of perspectives circulating all around us at different times. So unique, so palpable, if we could only express them. I try to do that with an image, the way a photographer takes snapshots of a beautiful life. I'm a snapshot kind of man. I live in the moment, however lovely or terrible, and that becomes my home until the painting is done.
I'd like to thank you both again for being here today and answering my questions!
Thank you, Estevan for sharing a bit about Casey and Thomas with us! :)
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