My name is Alissa.
I paint and sculpt. I write. I garden. I cook.
I do something every day to remind me of the me-ness of myself.
The mass-produced nature of the modern world is hard on my sanity. I believe things that are unique can have a soul of their own, like the velveteen rabbit. So I concentrate on making as many of them as possible. I'm starting this blog to share the creative joy with you.

But let me back up, and explain the meaning of Minimum Wage Faeries.

The idea began at my sister's wedding in 2006. A faery-loving friend from high school was there. I was trying to explain why I dislike(ok, hate) faeries; after all, they are slender, beautiful, elegantly dressed, wealthy and magical besides. What's not to love about that?

But I said that made them no more real than the models in magazines, that they lacked substance, and that they were too perfect. I said they need a flaw other than overwhelming vanity. (Jealousy may have played a large part in this conversation.)

So what kind of faery would I empathize with, she wondered. Ones like the people I know, I said. Creative enough, but somehow always a day late and a dollar short. And quirky. Very quirky. So I coined the term "minimum wage faeries." I started writing a (still unfinished) story about down&out faeries, and the name stuck.