up close and personal questionnaire What do you most value in your friends? A really good sense of humor. And it’s important that they like to eat. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Sitting in a hotel room after a long day at the pool, waiting for my room service to arrive. What is your greatest fear? Going blind or my teeth falling out. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I overanalyze things. What is the trait you most deplore in others? People who take themselves too seriously. Which living person do you most admire? Any living person I admire is probably dead. What is your greatest extravagance? My periodic long-weekend trips to the English countryside. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? According to my sister, it’s ‘honestly’. And she’s right. Honestly. What is it that you most dislike? Trends and cultural references to my work. Which talent would you most like to have? I wish I could play the piano. If you could have any job, what would it be? An architect. What would you consider your greatest achievement? I love my blog. It’s not a great achievement but it’s everything I’ve ever done in the past five years! What is your most treasured possession? My sketchbooks and journals. What is your most marked characteristic? My imagination. It comes in handy when I’m working but tends to get me in trouble in real life. Where would you most like to live? Suffolk, UK. What are your favorite words to live by? I don’t have a motto, but I always try to remember the positive things about myself, because by default I am the world’s biggest pessimist. Born in Delhi in 1969, Kuwaiti artist Ghadah Alkandari received a BA in Mass Communications from the American University in Cairo in 1992. She has produced various bodies of work that range from large-scale acrylic paintings, primarily figurative, exploring the wide spectrum of human emotion and familial complexities, to smaller, intimate and surreal pen and ink drawings detached and focused on everyday happenings. She had several solo exhibitions in Kuwait, and participated in various group exhibitions such as the “Arab Culture in Diaspora” exhibition in Kuwait and “Femmes Artistes Du Koweit” at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris (2006). Since 2009, Alkandari uses her blog ‘prettygreenbullet’ as a platform to display her work on a daily basis. Secretary by Ghadah Alkandari will showcase at The Sultan Gallery on October 21st. For more information about the artist, visit www.ghadahalkandari.com. For her daily musings, you can check out her blog www.prettygreenbullet.com. Follow her on Instagram @PrettyGreenBullet, and if you’re missing the infamous ‘Eve’, check out @Stories_of_eves. Our October cover was photographed by Jana Alnaqeeb and modeled by Dawnn Karen. 40