Annette Monnier

ANNETTE MONNIER's tremendous imagination spawned her solo show at Publico in December and, though it's over, you can see more of her work in Publico's one-year anniversary show this month. Here she presents her list of five.

Death Threats. The thing that inspires me to create art is the fact that I'm going to die someday. This ongoing threat keeps me away from the TV and stops me from wasting precious time.

Failure is Pretty. Second best is the first loser, but all the winners are nerds. What we call perfect, beautiful, symmetrical and orderly are created ideas that don't have to be listened to. I don't have the time to fear failure, so I embrace my mistakes. A mistake is a recording of a beautiful act: You tried to make something.

Chaos. What if there was suddenly no more gas? Chaos! Would we still exist? Yes! Chaos is a good thing. It keeps us on our toes and makes our patterns of living more interesting.

Connecting with another person. Sometimes I feel like we all walk around in isolation tanks: cars, the Internet, television, music, books. There's always something else to do than to actually talk with another human. Every day we are confronted with an onslaught of media, and we forget how much can be communicated between two people. We need to interact with each other as opposed to trusting media to tell us what to think and fear.

Really well-made hats. The world is collapsing all around us. No matter what transpires, it is always good to have a good hat to keep your ears warm and the sun out of your face.

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ARTICULATIONS offers five things important to one of Cincinnati's visual artists. To be considered, contact Contributing Editor Stacey Recht, srecht@citybeat.com