Interview

We always look at musicians, artists, poets, writers, photographers, activists, and other creative minds.

I went out looking for people to interview. This week I was able to interview a vegetarian artist, Sita Duncan. She is an incredible artist who currently does a comic, which she updates twice a week. The comic is Cryptids.

What made you become a Vegetarian?

I was actually raised a vegetarian by my mom, who had found a Hindu religion when she was 30.

How long have you been a vegetarian?

Twenty two years this December.

When you went out to eat in Louisiana, was it difficult to find vegetarian options? Especially, since Louisiana isn't known to have many vegetarian options like New York or California.

For the most part, there were only a few real options for eating out. It’s kind of ironic, but restaurants generally only have salads or mac-and-cheese, which I avoid anyway since they like to put bacon in it.

How has the vegetarian options been in Texas? More difficult or less?

It is much less difficult to find veggie food here in Texas, although that may just be because I live in Austin, which is a fairly large city. Even some of the fast food places here have huge swaths of exceptional vegetarian food available.

What is your favorite fruit and vegetable that you can't go without eating for a day?
Strawberries.

What is your favorite Vegetarian dish?
I have become a master of veggie Sushi as of late! I am downright addicted, now. (Cucumbers, mushrooms, avocado!)

What recipe would you recommend my readers to make?

I call it Spinach Stuff, although Dip would work as well. Take either fresh or frozen spinach, boil it to soften the leaves, strain it extremely well (press it with a bowl if you have to), and add cream cheese until it looks dip-ish. Add Italian bread crumbs to taste. For a bit of extra spice, use lemon-pepper to season the spinach while boiling it. The broth made from boiling the spinach can be saved for soups! Eat with crackers, chips, sandwiches, or by itself.

(Amount examples: 12oz frozen spinach bag + ½ bar of cream cheese + 3tbs bread crumbs.

What is the funniest comment you've had people tell you when they found you were a vegetarian (could be anything from misconstrued facts or just an outrageous statement)?

“Who did this to you?”

Are you part of any animal rights organizations?

I am part of a cow protection agency based in Mississippi! They have over 100 free range cows that aren't sold off to be turned into meat. They're just allowed to roam free and be happy!

What's this organization called?

It's called the "New Talvana Cow Program."

How long have you been an artist for?

I consciously decided to make art my career choice when I was about 14, but had been doing art since infancy.

What inspired you to be an artist?

I got to play with a lot of coloring books growing up, and once I started to use a computer, the internet had a wealth of art on it for me to use as inspiration.

Your comic, Cryptids, is the current comic you are working on. It's a fantasy tale about a yeti. The creativeness is amazing. As you go through the pages you get to see the surreal world come to life, it's pretty good to view through it. What inspired you to make this comic?

Originally I saw the senior project that a fellow student of mine had done, which was a sort of abstract remaking of some of the earliest cave paintings that we have found so far. The idea of playing with these cave paintings and building a sort of backwards society around them is what inspired me.

In this comic, from time to time you have a couple guest artists do scripts. Will there be any more collaborations with them in the comic or future projects?

Yes, aside from pages that my co-writer feels strongly enough about to sketch and have me work over, I am hoping to do many more guest scripts and collaborations in the future.