1. Who are you and what do you do?

I'm Crystal and I am a Head Cashier for a popular home improvement store by day (and sometimes night). Outside of work I am a sketch/pencil artist in love with colored pencil. My true love is writing and it us what I plan to do with my life.


2. What's the origin of your artist name?

Peracto Vita means 'To carry through” or “To finish” life. I came up with it when every username I wanted on Twitter was taken. So I translated something that stood for completing life/life's journey. Sort of an accomplishment predicted.

3. What has been your biggest challenge with your art so far?

Confidence. With my writing it is confidence, with my drawing it would have to be schooling. I've taught myself everything I know about drawing (just recently moved over to prismacolors and blending). I would love to learn to paint but not sure I have the talent for it. My pencils are possessive and I believe they'd get a teensy bit jealous if I brought brushes into the relationship.


4. Who or what is your biggest influence?

Growing up my biggest influences were action, fantasy, scifi, and horror movies/books, people were Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Without them I never would have developed my love for art, poetry, and writing. George Lucas had the biggest influence on me back then and for the longest time I wanted to be a screenwriter/director.

But, my biggest influence of all was someone who's life was cut short; way too short. I've seen many exclaim similar feelings on various blogs and in various comments on those various blogs, but this person had a profound influence on my life.

Until a few years ago I was wandering along thinking about how much I wanted to do something with my life but never having the guts to actually do it. I wanted to be so many things but didn't have the motivation to do it.

Then this person passed away and it hit me in a way that I had never expected. Their work I loved, yes, but their impact didn't take effect until they died on January 22, 2008. That person was Heath Ledger.

I was in the shower when I heard. My boyfriend at the time came into the bathroom and said he had to tell me something. His face was pale and his eyes were wet.

“Heath Ledger died.” he said. I didn't know how to respond or even if I should. All I remember is crying and suddenly feeling extremely cold under the hot pelting water. From Brokeback Mountain to 10 Things I Hate About You to A Knight's Tale his career flashed in front of my eyes; how much he'd accomplished in so little time. What he could have done! He was a legend in my eyes.

The coldness stayed with me like a sunken tick eating away at my flesh. I could not get over how young he was, how much he'd done, how much he'd had ahead of him, what he'd left behind.

Life suddenly seemed....so short. What was I doing with my life? Why were all of my story ideas sitting in a backpack in the back of my closet?

So I went out and bought a laptop, on sale, at the local Best Buy. It wasn't great but all I needed it for was writing. I set it up and started writing. 200+ pages later I had a horror story that I was so proud of, I began drawing for it too. That became a book that spawned a second book and an outline for a third. Also an outline for a Sci-Fi/Fantasy series that I'd started writing in my late teens began to take shape. I now have a complete outline for that too. I'm unpublished as of yet, but once I feel that I'm ready to start the process - the long process of trying to get published -I know I'll eventually succeed.

So, I have to say that the person that has had the most influence in my life is someone I never met. Someone that by just expressing their soul in their art - their unique magnificence - breathed a new life into mine. I will be forever grateful of Heath Ledger for sharing his heart with the world. Without him I would not be who I am today. Life is too short to think 'what if'.

5. What is your wildest story?

My wildest one? I'm not really 'wild'. I did once jump on a Greyhound bus and take a 3 day trip across country from Virginia to California to live with someone I met on Yahoo! I ended up living there for 2 years and getting really sickly (lack of healthcare).

At the end of those 2 years I met another person on Yahoo! (a man). I jumped on a Southwest plane and flew to Oklahoma to live with him. Been in Oklahoma ever since. I guess that's kind of wild.


6. What is the last book you read?

I'm a huge Victoria Holt fan as well as Christina Dodd. Historical Romance/Thriller/Mystery type stuff. Victoria Holt (Eleanor Hibbert) had an amazing talent for making you love and hate ALL of her characters in in every one of her 175+ books. I've never seen another writer besides Christina of course that could keep me turning page after page, book after book. So, I think the last book I 're'read was Pride of the Peacock.

7. If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?

Hmm... all of them? If I can't have that, well I'd love to be the Djinn in Wishmaster, or maybe Bastian from Neverending Story... Leia from Star Wars... Most of all though, I used to pretend I was Cindel Towani from the Ewok movies and ran through the woods yelling “Mommy! Mommy! Mace!” and tapping on my pretend bracelet.

8. What couldn’t you live without?

Pencils, pens, and paper....and of course food.


9. What is your secret talent?

I can curl my tongue into the shape of a clover.


10. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?

I keep a dream journal because I have a lot of odd, strange dreams. The last dream I remember having though wasn't very epic. It was about work. Haha


11. What are you craving right now?

I've been craving chocolate all night. I can only have certain types of chocolate now because so much stuff has corn syrup nowadays and I've developed some kind of strange allergy to corn syrup.


12. What was the last song you fell in love with?

The Revengeful by Danzig


13. Can you hula hoop?

Nope.


14. What do you like?

What a vague question.... I like drawing, writing, movies, reading, sunsets, sunrises, skyscapes, candles, incense, flowers, clouds, planets, astrology, astronomy, Egypt, cats, dogs, animals in general, Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Action, Romance (not chick flicks or chick lit), blood, guts, gore, sensual and dark art, demons, zombies, vampires (not the sparkly type, the munch on your entrails type), Heavy Metal, Symphonic Metal, Death Metal, Operatic Metal, Therion, Iced Earth, Danzig, Moonspell, Iron Maiden, Dio, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Slayer, Pantera. Megadeth, ZZ Top, All Star Wars Music, Avantasia, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Sam Raimi, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, George Romero, J.K. Rowling. J.R.R. Tolkien, Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare, Victoria Holt, Christina Dodd, Stephen King, Corey Haim, Clowns, Evil Clowns, Monsters, Devon Sawa, Heath Ledger, Jackie Earle Haley, Sam Worthington, snow, popsicles, ice cream, pizza, lasagne, macaroni, burgers, hot dogs, skulls, skeletons, Halloween, Yule, Twitter, hitRECord, creativity, love, lust, comedy, tragedy, pumpkins......................etc.


15. What do you dislike?

Beets, carrots, mosquitoes, spiders, corn syrup (because it's evil), fake people, liars, country music, politics, bad horror, most pop music, greed, laziness, disrespect, snobbery, hot weather, children (I don't hate them. Just not a fan), talking about politics, mosh pits, bullies, tapioca............etc


16. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Somewhere I heard a line similar to “Never make someone a priority when they only make you an option.” Of course it was quoted to me from a movie or book somewhere but I can't remember where the person got it from.

My mom and dad have always said “You can be and have whatever your heart desires if you believe in yourself and don't give up.”


17. How and why did you start RECording?

Well, I was using an art gallery online that I'd gotten bored with. You post your stuff, get a reaction (or not) and it wastes space after all of the work you put in. I was searching around for a new site and had no luck, then I saw inception and found Leonardo DiCaprio on Twitter then followed. He mentioned Joseph Gordon Levitt in a #ff mention and I'd always been a fan so I followed him too. His s/n caught me off guard and I thought that he had a rap CD out or that he was running his own record company. I wasn't completely wrong.

Decided to click the link and see what he was promoting out of curiosity. Suddenly I was ECSTATIC. It was exactly what I was looking for. A way to interact with other artists, writers, and tons of other talents.

I wanted to be part of the community so I joined.

Now if we're asking why I started recording/writing and drawing in general, well I've been writing since as far as I can remember. I didn't believe that I could draw though until I was in my teens. I'd always been jealous of my entire family because they had such amazing visual artistic talent.

My grandfather drew cartoons and my mother uses pastels, refinishes antique dolls, paints, and draws as well as making blankets and clothes.

My brother draws comics line for line exactly like any Marvel character, as well as Disney/Warner bros cartoons. My father draws landscapes and portraits.


….and I drew stick men.


One day I was bored and picked up a pencil. In front of me was a computer desktop background of Jimi Hendrix. So I drew his face and the rest taught itself. From then on I've RECorded everything that pops in my head.