A fluid androgyne, artist, feminist, socialist, lesbian, liberal Quaker, smalltime gamer (video and card/board), and gender-bending NERD. I'm exploring the terms/concepts "hermaphrodyke" and "androdyke."

According to the Briggs-Myer personality test, I'm equally INTJ and INFJ. I value thoughts and emotions equally and have a strong grip on reality - while frequently daydreaming - without being cold or stoic. The more comfortable I am in a group of people, the more extroverted I get.

I have my bachelor's degree in studio art, attained at the most lesbian school in all Milwaukee. I began as an art therapy major, almost changed to animation, and ultimately came to studio art. Within five years, I plan on getting my MFA in painting/drawing at the School of the Art Institute. I'm IN LOVE WITH THE SOUTHWEST but could not live there.

I identify as genderqueer with an androgynous expression. Gender theory fascinates me.

My online gallery: http://sites.google.com/site/kkrieselart/home

My goal is to be a successful, independent painter working on social issues such as LGBTQ, feminism, and sentient machines.

I'm completely in love with all things queer!! If I could just be queer for a living, I would. What that would entail, I have no idea.

My retirement dream is to get an A-frame in Galena, IL and live completely self-sufficiently with my record player, Petunia. Until then, I'm at peace in my home of Chicago. Even though I'm from here, my 5-year hiatus beyond the border *shudder* means I don't have that many friends here. In an attempt to remedy this, I volunteer at Tree House Humane Society. Am I the crazy cat lady? Nope, I'm not a lady.

Combining reality and fantasy, thoughts and emotions, and finding balance overall. I think OkCupid has given me such a low "spontaneity" score solely because I like to have some idea of what I'm about to get into.

The speeds at which I type, write and read scare people. Some people claim that playing devil's advocate is "being fake"; how are they to know that it isn't just in me to play devil's advocate for the sake of debate?

I'm tiny and reserved, but then I'll say precisely what's on everyone's mind but they're too afraid to say it. People say I talk like I'm reading, probably because I'm always reading.

I have bright blue eyes and I've been dying my hair some shade of red for years. People comment on that maybe half as often as my size. I also won several best-dressed awards in college - RAGSTOCK GALORE!!

I'm usually saying something that other people think and don't say. For example: those of you who have pictures of yourselves pouting your lips need to stop. That doesn't look sexy or even flattering, it looks like you're trying to suck on a straw that isn't there. Though I'm sure that that's the reason why a lot of people make that face . . .

Books: Watership Down, The Feminine Mystique, Cunt, Holy Cow!, The Girls Next Door, The Bhagavad Gita, The Narnia Chronicles, When God was a Woman, The Vagina Monologues, Middlesex, Malcolm X, Gender Theory Queer Theory, A Handmaid's Tale, Anthem, Fountainhead, The Giver, Animal Farm, The Drag King Book. Anything by Isaac Asimov, Kate Bornstein, Riki Wilchins, Leslie Feinberg and Andre Norton. I loathe Twilight.

Currently reading: Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery

Movies: What Dreams May Come, The Itty Bitty Titty Committee, Terminators 1, 2 & 4, Yellow Submarine, Transformers, Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, High Fidelity, Garden State, Better Off Dead, But I'm a Cheerleader, Ghost World, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Harold & Maude, GUMBY, Say Anything, Snakes on a Plane, The Hobbit, Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro . . . anything animated

Music: The Beatles, Alanis Morissette, The Cliks, Sleater-Kinney, Melanie, Joe Cocker, Simon & Garfunkel, Peter Gabriel, Dean Martin, kd lang, Metric, Wanda Jackson, Joan Baez, Judy Collins

Food: INDIAN FOOD!! And artichokes, sushi and pomegranates. OMNOMNOMNOMNOM

Artists: Brian Andreas (storypeople.com), Rachelle Donahoe, Heather Peterman (http://poppyprincess23.deviantart.com/), Victor Higgins

Video games: Mario Kart (N64 and Wii), all Kingdom Hearts, most Final Fantasies, Bully, Chrono Trigger, Wario Ware on Wii, Paper Mario, Mario Paint, Sims, God of War II, and anything with the terminator is guaranteed to be hilarious.

The internet, texting, my diary/sketchbook, paint, my family (both my biological family and my queer family), sunscreen

My cycle of thoughts tends to scare people. The trail of thoughts makes sense in my head, but baffles anyone to whom I try to explain it.

I see all oppressions (sexist, heterosexist, racist, ageist, lookist, ability-related, classist, etc.) as connected and that the social structures rather than legal codes require change. I think that one of the reasons why feminism is less popular is because there are less legal battles to fight; it's more difficult to get a movement going on an issue related to class and age than on institution-related issues. Not to mention that, for ridiculous reasons, many people believe that "feminist" is an offensive term.

Overall though, anything related to gender (trans, butch dyke, etc.), feminism, existentialism, artificial intelligence, how institutionalized religion has screwed us all over. But then all thought tends to stop upon sighting a cute, androgynous person.

My blog: http://kkriesel.blogspot.com/

Volunteering at my local no-kill kitty shelter, destroying my girlfriend at Mario Kart ("although usually she kicks my ass at racing" WHATEVER) and then cuddling to make her feel better, playing records on Petunia, devouring a gyro that only Chicago can supply.

Editors

• womanofsteel

I sleep with a snow leopard every night . . . and an amoeba-bunny . . . and a stingray...and a Fuzzy

Editors

• womanofsteel

any of this sounds cool to you. I'm looking for new friends and people who will volunteer at TreeHouse Humane Society - all you have to do is pet and play with cats!!