GS&NS: In both pieces, you use oceanic and mystical imagery. Can you speak more about those symbols?
Christine: Growing up, I spent a lot of time by the water, probably because my family has something of an aquatic obsession. I imagine that’s why I draw on nautical themes in my art and writing so often. My grandfather used to build boats as a hobby and my father went on to earn a professional captain’s license, even though he never became a full-time ship captain. My parents did run a scuba diving business on the side when they lived in Miami, though. Then when they moved to Virginia, they bought a house not far from the Potomac River. We went kayaking and canoeing there when I was a kid. We also regularly visited the Chesapeake Bay, Long Island Sound, and beaches throughout the Miami area when I was growing up.
One of the reasons why I love living in Brooklyn is that I’m near the water here, too. I often hear seagulls crying in the morning. I’ve never lasted long in any place that didn’t have a major body of water nearby and I don’t imagine that changing.
Connect With Christine:
www.lunalark.com
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www.facebook.com/artistchristinestoddard.com
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Interview & Art
By Christine Stoddard
GS&NS: Hi, Christine! Please introduce yourself to GS&NS readers.
Christine: Hello! Thanks so much for giving me a chance to talk about what I do—again!
I’m a Salvadoran-Scottish-American writer and artist originally from Virginia. Currently, I live in Brooklyn with my husband and our ever-growing collection of books and art. I write fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, in addition to making mixed media paintings, collages, comics, films, and video art. My work has appeared in Marie Claire, Teen Vogue, Bustle, The Feminist Wire, Pank, Jimson Weed, the New York Transit Museum, the New York City Poetry Festival, the Poe Museum, the Condé Nast Building in Times Square, and beyond. I am the founding editor of Quail Bell Magazine, which earned me the title of one of the top 20 media visionaries in their 20s from Folio Magazine, and Comicality Magazine, which earned me the title as one of Style Weekly’s “Top 40 Under 40” in Richmond, Virginia.
GS&NS: You mention how you “constantly strive to understand and reconcile my identities through my art and writing” and that really resonates with me as a female creator. I’m curious about what you aim to achieve by reconciling these identities?
Christine: We create to express ourselves and that allows us to explore who we are. I’m someone who has straddled racial, ethnic, geographic, and religious identities my whole life. That’s a reality that has been confusing and occasionally painful, but also beautiful. I am proud of who I am, who my family is, and where I am from. Yet it’s taken me 28 years to get to this point and I’ve gotten here in large part because of the arts. Studying art, enjoying it, thinking about it, reacting to it, and making it has truly shaped my ability to understand my time and place. That doesn’t mean I understand it perfectly, but I can thank the arts for kickstarting that understanding.
Womanhood is, of course, part of my identity. I consider it one of the more complicated facets of who I am, and I think many women, particularly women of relative privilege (such as a white-passing biracial woman like myself), would say the same. In most of my closest friendship, womanhood and the desire to fight for women’s empowerment is what binds us. So when I make works centered on these themes, I’m not just making them for myself. I’m making them for the women in my life and women in general.
"The Great Escape"
GirlSense and NonSense