Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christine Stoddard. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Christine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

There are several projects that hold a special place in my heart, but one of the stand-outs is “Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares.” This started as a poetry book and eventually became a stage play and visual art series. The coming-of-age story follows Maya, a Salvadoran-American girl trying to understand her mother’s obsession with her dead grandmother. Visions of jaguars, owls, and cacti lend a magical feel to this memory play. The workshop run at Gene Frankel Theatre in New York City was a turning point in my career, showing me that I had a future in this highly competitive field. I was floored when the play was chosen as a core production for The Tank in Midtown. It premiered in September 2023 and I couldn’t have been happier with the outcome. Fiamma Piacentini directed and it dazzled. Right now, my feature film “Her Garden” is in post-production and I’m so excited about it. I suspect it will be my next major meaningful project as an auteur. But there’s a collaborative project I’m stoked to see released: “Don’t Mind If I Don’t,” a TV comedy show that I co-host with Aaron Gold.

Christine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I make books, films, plays, performances, paintings, and other imaginings, including Quail Bell Press & Productions, known for the stage play/film Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares, Quail Bell Magazine, the Badass Lady-Folk show, Forget Fairytales comics, the character acts Art Bitch and Queen Jaguar, and other creations. ​I tell stories with words, images, objects, my body, and other people and places. My work is about personal narratives, humor, identity, power, archives, nature, truth-making, memories, and play. Currently, I am pursuing my MA in Oral History at Columbia University and hold an MFA in Digital & Interdisciplinary Art Practice from The City College of New York. In June 2023, Brooklyn Magazine named me one of the Top 50 Most Fascinating People in Brooklyn, so that’s pretty neat! This wild life began in my childhood back in Arlington, VA and has persevered and blossomed in ways I never would’ve fathomed.

My work in literature, film, and performance plays with notions of power, memory, identity, belonging, and truth-making. Using fiction, parafiction, and non-fiction, I explore possibilities in contemporary society, archives, and imaginations for the course of herstory. I prefer experimental approaches in order to question hierarchy and industry norms in Hollywood and American media, while also acknowledging my participation in mainstream practices. Photography, painting, and sculpture-making are also part of my practice, allowing me to think through ideas that sometimes to lead to a small, stand-alone product but more often contribute to larger, ongoing projects that may have a film or performance component.

With an expansive and de-colonizing approach to art, I create to tell stories that consider the intersections between the literary, visual, and performing arts. Therefore, my multidisciplinary practice, while rooted in writing and narrative, spans books, films, performances, images, objects, and cyber experiments—basically whatever I want. My style, which has been described as both poetic and playful, emerges regardless of the medium. Tension fascinates me: low-brow vs. high-brow, handmade vs. computer-made, real vs. unreal, minimalist vs. maximalist, public vs. private. The familiar can be rendered universal. Specificity can be mythical. From project to project, my work tells stories dealing with identity, power, and memory. In one way or another, the narratives I write, depict, capture, and perform center on the magic of choosing humor and vulnerability amidst tension.

​My projects typically involve gender, folklore, the environment, technology, immigration, and disability. Common themes include fantasy as a coping mechanism, the absurdity of dysfunctional societal systems, nature’s cycles and adaptability, and truth-making as a process. Recurring interests include my experiences as the child of an immigrant and a journalist, the history and identity of New York City, latinidad as a spectrum, the impact of Spanish and British colonialism, aesthetics and philosophies of archives and libraries, the historical concepts of girlhood and womanhood, and the civil wars in the United States and El Salvador. I’ve been known to combine expressive, confessional, charming, surreal, and crude approaches to my creations. Again—I am a ho for tension.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I want to be my most authentic self in a way that honors myself and others. Self-expression and uplifting others—whether fictional characters or real-life collaborators—through art are key. It’s especially important for me to use my voice as a woman. Too many women have been silenced and discouraged. I’m all for smashing through barriers!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Connecting with audiences over poetics and comedy is a blessing. It’s amazing to translate something in my imagination and create work that finds viewers or readers. No matter the medium I’m working in, I recognize that every project has a different audience. That’s part of what makes creating in different media so thrilling. There’s the potential to reach new groups of people with my stories and ideas, whether I’m making a film, writing a book, or unveiling a painting series.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.worldofchristinestoddard.com
• Instagram: @stoddardsays
• Facebook: Facebook.com/artistchristinestoddard
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/christinestoddard
• Twitter: @stoddardsays
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ChristineStoddard