Author photo by J.Campanaro for Yeah. No. Totally. Available at Perfect Day Publishing
Profile written by J.K.
Some people defy description not because there is too little to know about them but, rather, because there is too much. Such is the evocative mystery of Lisa Wells, the creative powerhouse and 100% Club member known as "Mademoiselle". Poet, essayist, fiction writer, actress, tracker, performance artist, pulp writer, mistress of disguise and world traveler. Writer/Philosopher Derrick Jensen describes her as "...an extraordinary young talent". She's on the human adventure and she's hear to tell us about it.
What is it she hasn't done? Vagabond days in Central America; enduring the Midwestern monotony and loveliness; West Coast decadent hedonism; training into the ways of wilderness living; working with Nicaraguan street kids and teaching drama; exploring a world full of strange, wonderful, dubious characters.
Yet in all of her work, amidst the knowing, aching human sadness there is joy, a sense of empathy and wonder at the mere fact of life, a gratitude for the offerings of the universe that made us.
"My plan was to sit on a hill and think and ask a few questions of my own, "What the fuck?" being chief among them. I did it for three days. Just sat there without eating food or drinking water. What some people call a vision quest. I prefer to call it sitting. Whatever you call it the point has always been to die, approximately....in the end the most profound experience was also the most expect: a longing for water. It was the first time in my life I'd been truly thirsty...I was in love with water. No life without the god of water. I shoved my nose into the desert floor and dug my fingernails in the dirt, down until I located a premonition of moisture, and dragged my nostrils against it, greedily sucking up the scent. I wept without tears and apologized to the world for all of my ungratefulness".
- excerpt from Knell of the Worried Well from Yeah. No. Totally (2011) Perfect Day Publishing
Still, one identity and one way of being may not be enough for her. Is it a coincidence that she disappeared into the speaking tour of aging rocker Derrick Dean who, along with his drug addled reminiscences of his glory days as a B-level rock star, read from her work?
What's the connection?
Lisa Wells, at the same time mysterious and openly honest, blazes across our world making it better and more true. She has many tales to tell and there is no doubt each one will be 100%.
