We met Nora at the opening day for PS 1’s new summer show.
AskaNewYorker: Where’s Nora from?
Nora: I’m from Grand Rapids MI.
AskaNewYorker: How long have you lived in New York?
Nora: About three weeks.
AskaNewYorker: Welcome to the city. What part of the city did you move to?
Nora: Prospect Heights Brooklyn. I’m in love with Prospect Heights. I live right across the street from the library. It’s very comfortable. Right now I’m just hanging out. I’m a make up artist. I’m just trying to figure out what in the hell I want to do with my life. That’s why I’m here.
AskaNewYorker: What do you think of PS1?
Nora: I’m amazed. I’m blown away. This is the type of stuff I would never see anywhere.
AskaNewYorker: So what’s your favorite thing to do?
Nora: Meeting people. It’s my favorite thing ever. It’s so easy to do it. I meet 6-7 new people a day. I’m constantly open to it. And I’m really fucking good at it too. I’m just really curious about all the different type of people. And sometimes I’ll be on the subway and like this guy had this crazy shaved imbedded front Mohawk. I was staring at him forever. And then finally it was like fuck it and I’m just going to ask him. And I asked him what it was about. He said it was some tribal African thing which was completely unknown to me. So it’s probably the drive to learn about things that I don’t know about at all. Usually the people I try to meet are very different then myself. I don’t want to meet people like myself. That’s boring. I don’t need to know another Nora.
AskaNewYorker: Where did you find the shirt?
Nora: I got the shirt at a sample sale yesterday over on 54th. These jeans were from my first trip to New York; they’re my favorite thing in the world. I made this bag for my lap top. The strap is part of a tank top. I made it in like ten minutes the other day because I didn’t have anything to carry my lap top in. Oh, these are so great too. I found them at Urban Outfitters. I have a tendency to talk people down in price. I talked this guy down from 40 to 20.
AskaNewYorker: So how did you find your apartment?
Nora: I found my apartment myself. I have a friend called Davy and he founded FOUND magazine and he’s from Ann Arbor, MI. It’s just an amazing compilation of found items. I’ve know him for years. When he comes to MI– I help lots of bands and lots of venues– he calls me and I tell him where to stay. So I asked him when he was going on tour again. He said June. So I asked him if I could have his apartment. And he was like, ok.
AskaNewYorker: So what was your childhood like?
Nora: Well at 16 I kind of just left home. It wasn’t like a little left, like left for the neighbor’s house for a couple of days. I went to Europe. I just kind of went in the middle of the summer. I worked a lot. My mom, this is kind of funny, she always thought it was a really good idea at age 15 to build credit. I just paid off that credit card 2 years ago. And I’m 25 now.
AskaNewYorker: Well thank you Nora for sharing. Have a great evening!
