1. My friends know me as someone who always asks, “Why?” It’s become such a running joke that when I recently asked one of my best friends if he knew a fun fact about me, he replied, ‘Fun fact: Eva would ask “Why?”‘ “.
2. When I was a teenager, I wanted to travel to South America. I ended up in La Paz, Bolivia, which is the highest city in the world. I got altitude sickness and was shocked because I thought I was going to end up in the tropics! I didn’t have Google Maps back then.
3.I ended up in the tropics, where I had an unassisted home birth with my third child in our little beach house, with no doctor or midwife. The birth started in the Caribbean. 🙂
4. I’m not joking when I say that I’ve moved about 30 times in my life. For me, home is wherever I’m sleeping that night.
5. I love drinking hot chocolate made with raw cocoa, stevia, and either coconut oil or olive oil. Yes, olive oil! For special occasions, I add marshmallows or whipped cream.
6. My happy place is a warm, bubbly bath in the bathtub. I love reading or drinking hot chocolate in the bath. I always keep a notebook nearby because I often get new ideas while I’m in the bath.
7. I can’t wait to become a grandmother one day!
8. I was born in a country that no longer exists: the German Democratic Republic (GDR), also known as “East Germany”, which was surrounded by the Berlin Wall. When I fill out official documents, people expect me to write ‘Germany’, which seems strange to me because I was born in the GDR, not West Germany. My parents left the GDR with me when I was seven years old, just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
9. I love to dress in blue, teal, and purple. I found out during a color consultation in Berlin that these colors suit me. I also love to throw in some turquoise.
10. I gave birth to my second child at home in a rain barrel. I bought the rain barrel new at the hardware store and had it delivered to my home.
11. At school, I had a best friend with whom I had a lot of fun. We were sort of a funny mix of nerd and class clown. We somehow managed to balance participating in class and laughing at the teachers.
12. When I was a teenager, I loved staying up late in my room. I was pretty much a night owl, staying up till the wee small hours, and then getting up feeling like death the next morning for class. Back then, I’d cut out pictures and words from magazines and stick ’em on the wall above my bed. I loved that. It wasn’t until later that I found out there’s an entire art genre called “collage art” and that I was already making collages on my bedroom wall back then.
13. I lived with my kids in a garden shed in Berlin. We had a fire stove, a caravan trailer, and a hammock. That was a huge blessing during the pandemic.
14. I had a nose piercing for over 10 years during my studies. On the last day of my studies, the piercing fell out of my nose. I went to a piercing studio right away. But by then, the hole was already closed. I got my nose pierced when I started my studies, and then I lost it right after I became a graduate artist.
15. I exhibited myself being pregnant with my first child in an art exhibition.
16. I asked my husband if he wanted to marry me. So, like, I was in the garden shed one day and got down on one knee and was like, “You’re my guy since we had our first kid. Wanna make it official?” We got married in Denmark with a gorgeous view of the sea, just a few days before the borders closed because of the pandemic. After the ceremony, we did a video performance in the hostel where our kids got to cut our hair.
17. My silly talent is that I have a very long tongue. I can even lick my nose with my tongue.
18. My go-to collection item: I collect my old art journals and notebooks. On a cold winter night, I’ll count them for you. I did burn the diaries where I wrote down all the swear words my dad used to use when he was insulting me. That was fun.
19. My “real” name is Eva Beatrice Förster. “Eva” means the one who gives life. Well I did that, three times to my wonderful amazing girls. “Beatrice” is the blessed one. Oh yes, I am so blessed with my beautiful family, with my life, with my many talents. “Förster” is german for the forest ranger or the forester. The one who takes care of the woods and the animals inside. I looove nature.
20. We lost so many items while traveling. Surprisingly, many of those items returned to us like a suitcase we forgot in the airport of San José or a bag with all our swimming gear that we forgot in a pick up taxi in the island of Las Bocas in Panama.
21. My astrological “big three”: My sun sign is Scorpio. Hehe. My moon sign is Gemini. Not a lot of people know that, but women often live their moon more than their sun. My rising sign: Capricorn.
22. I speak German (duh), English, Spanish and French. And I learnt Latin for 6 years in school. “Pura Vida” is an expression in Costa Rica which means more or less: “Hi! Enjoy life. Chill. Don’t take life so seriously. Everythin´is gooood.” I loved that expression so much that I got it tattooed on my arm in San José, Costa Rica.
23. I love singing. As a teenager I sang in the gospel choir and in a musical and I had singing lessons.
24. I am a BIG Swiftie. I just love love love Taylor Swift and her music. She is my music crush. I love so many songs from her: Cruel summer, loml, My boy, You´re On Your Own Kid, Ready for It, Getaway Car, So High School and and: love love love Mastermind.
25. In another timeline I would lived in Australia. After we emigrated from the GDR, my parents had the oportunity to go to Australia but then stayed in West Germany because we still had family in GDR.
26. Out of any supernatural ability, which would I choose? I would love to be able to speak and understand any language in the world. I find languages so incredibly fascinating. Oh and I would love to be able to fly. One of my values is freedom and I love observing birds fly.
27. One of my friends says that my laughter is special, unique and contagious : ) !
28. My favorite artist is Frida Kahlo. I love that her art is so personal and powerful. I love how she expresses her emotions, her pain. I love her art journal (“The Dairy of Frida Kahlo”).
29. I have three favorite beaches: One of them is a beach in the National Park of Cahuita, Costa Rica. The carribean sea is so nicely warm there. You can see the National park from the sea. You just have to be aware of the monkeys and the raccoons. The other is a beach on the German island of Rügen, which is Germany`s largest island. There is a wonderful beach without a sand, with round stones and Rügen chalk. A magical beach. Another beach who has a special place in my heart is the place where I gave birth to my third child. We buried her placenta there on the beach in a ritual.
30. I have natural curls. I combed them out as a teenager. Now I love them and do everything I can to have more natural curls.
31. I am the first in my family to study art. After my first application to art school, I was rejected. 6 years after my first rejection at art school and after a detour via the another art school, I finally ended up at the art school that had originally rejected me. Two children later, I also graduated there. I am now a graduate artist (in german: “Diplom-Künstlerin”). I have no idea what this will do for me tough LOL.
32. I’m 100% a multi-talented so-called scanner personality. I have already worked as a performance artist and as a clown, both with children and in retirement homes. I took part in a 2 year yoga teacher training and have taught yoga. I love the yogic relaxation technique Yoga Nidra and the flow: cat – cow – child’s pose.
33. I currently live by the German Baltic Sea. I love the fresh air here. But I also own a small piece of land in Costa Rica.
34. I don’t drink alcohol.
35. I love exploring new places with my family. One of my kids once told me that I can find the best paths. I believe that every place has its own magic; you just have to take the time to discover it.
36. One of my absolute favorite pictures of myself is this one (I love my eyes in this pic):
