Kat + Anja

Where are you from and where do you currently reside?

Kat:
I grew up in Santa Barbara, California and Boise, Idaho. I now live on the north side of Mount Guardian, in a hundred-year-old farmhouse, among bears, turkeys, deer, monks, a cat and a little family.

Anja:
I grew up in Woodstock, NY and have since come full circle back. I’m currently living on the mountain who’s shadow I slept under every night as a child. I live in a lil’ cottage on a magic slice of land that we’ve come to call Impossible Light. Partly wooded with maple, birch, hemlock and ash, partly meadowed in wild oregano and wild strawberries, and surrounded with flowing waters. Home to a couple gardens, a fruit and nut orchard, four adults, one toddler, a revolving cast of feathered and furred ones.

Please describe who you are and what you do?

Kat:
What I do is mother. My work right now is primarily in the unseen realms: prayer, inquiry, and translation of the Akashic record, sometimes through painting. I live in translation of what is not seen. I’m still committed to cinema somehow, although recently I’m contented with my visions being private.

Anja:
I’m an herbalist, gardener, sometimes writer - part ego, part elemental, all creature. I make seasonal and place-based herbal provisions at Fat of the Land.

When do you feel most whole?

Kat:
Singing a little tune in nature. Singing my son to sleep, our hearts touching.

Anja:
When I’m swimming, resting in my bed, digging in the dirt, or climbing trees.

How do you find your center when you've spiraled out?

Kat:
Hugs from my husband or Earth. Talking to my Devic team. Dips in the ocean, a river, or salt baths with clay and oils, like rose or copaiba. I also add plants and branches in, too, if they ask to join. Music. Breath.

Anja:
Drinking water, being outside, showers, breath.

What are you working on, interested in at the moment?

Kat:
I’m finishing a mid-length film I started during the 2016 presidential election, called Candied Violets. I’m also writing a feature about a business trip I took to Saigon while working for a diapers brand. I’m preparing for a listening retreat I’m guiding with Paramatma Siri Sadhana in 2022 at Menla. I’m interested in silence, sound, vibration, birds, flowers, and starlight. I can barely stand to watch a movie these days, I find it much too vulnerable an experience. I’m interested in how I will make movies again, as I’m a very different person than the last time I released one.

Anja:
Primarily, gardening. Growing as many potatoes as possible, trying my hand at turmeric and ginger cultivation in the greenhouse, and eating as much summer fruits as I can. Preserving as much of the high-summer abundance as possible and feeding myself very well at the same time. Peach is of particular interest to me right now. The tree, the flower, the leaves, the bark, the fruit. I’m reveling in the heavy boughs as we move through harvest season. I’m thinking about grafting the branches damaged by the eager bear fam. I’m misting myself with peach leaf hydrosol to cool the summer heat, and I’m eating juicy fruits over the kitchen sink.

Is there an interest or desire you’ve been circling around but have yet to explore?

Kat:
I definitely low-key want to be in a band, and have only had one rehearsal ever, in like 2015. We had a whole “faerie metal” concept when we moved to Woodstock, inspired by the bog next to our house. That rehearsal was really good too, we covered Blue Crystal Fire and wrote two songs. Now I have a synth album I want to make with my husband, but at this point it’s just a mood I want to express; not a key has been touched and we are loath to make noise after our child’s bedtime.


Anja:
I’ve been planning a trip to the Carpathian Mountains for the last couple of years. It hasn’t been the right timing, but I’m moving closer and pieces are shifting into place.

 

What does sustainability mean to you in your work and life?

Kat:
Resourcing from friends, neighbors, and friends of friends. No waste/nothing ever goes away. Respect everything.

Anja:
It means operating from a place of minimal impact, in service of regeneration, and giving life.

Briefly share how you met each other and how you feel in each other’s presence.

Kat:
I believe I met Anja at a women’s circle in which we all got in the sauna and massaged our breasts with mugwort oil. God, she is a charm! She was so free with her sweat that night, who couldn’t fall in love? I love how forthright she is. She is one of the most honest people I know. Her presence feels like a potent trust. She loves to the brim. She is goofy and smart and talks to everything. She liberates everyone around her. Anja puts me at ease. She’s sturdy and tender at once. She’ll climb to the top of a mountain to cry. We have that in common. When we moved into this house I was etherically set on her living there. I also love our creativity together, we are always relaying ideas like hot little basketball players getting that swish.

Anja:
We did meet at a women’s circle on the full moon. Kat was wearing gold lamé pants and casually mentioned she was a double Cancer. I obviously fell quickly into her thrall and she’s come to be the cool big sister I’ve always wanted. We share a strange watery psychic connection here, and we can go days without talking only to then reunite in a parallel thought or experience. She makes me feel seen and loved. Grounded and buoyed at once.

KAT
SUN MOON EARTH SEA


ANJA
FAT OF THE LAND

Kat is is 5.5” tall and wears the MOON COAT in cacao size Medium

Anja is 5.6” tall and wears the MOON COAT in oat size in Large