Lockdown spurs creative minds




STUDENT ART MAGAZINE—At top, two oil images by young artist Lauren Sanderfer. Above, the pain from within by 14-year-old Sayaka Bischoff. Below, cover of the first Ink & Stitch in July 2020.

STUDENT ART MAGAZINE—At top, two oil images by young artist Lauren Sanderfer. Above, the pain from within by 14-year-old Sayaka Bischoff. Below, cover of the first Ink & Stitch in July 2020.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit last March, the internet buzzed with art projects and other creative things people did to pass time during lockdown.

Agoura High School junior Stella Carr became inspired by the flurry of creative art pieces that began appearing online and, in July, launched an eclectic arts magazine called Ink & Stitch. She’s released four issues virtually and has reached a global audience of thousands.

Carr, a 16-year-old painter and aspiring graphic designer, started the publication after talking to her artist friends about building a shared portfolio that could bring attention to the work of young people.

“I know a lot of student artists are really busy and don’t have the time or the money to advertise their own art. That’s my main goal now, to have a platform for student artists,” she said. “I was thinking how I could put my own spin on it. If I were to just put all their work together I felt like I wouldn’t really be doing a lot, so I started designing a layout and it just turned into a magazine.”

Courtesy photos

Courtesy photos

She built the publication online using Flipsnack, a web service that simulates flipping through a magazine. She wanted to make Ink & Stitch freely available to anyone who wanted to read it.

The publication quickly grew—one of Carr’s friends said she’d pay for a physical copy if it were available.

Carr found a company that prints copies on demand at an affordable price. She doesn’t have boxes of the magazine and a sales quota to break even on her investment. If someone wants to buy a copy, it’s made just for them.

The second issue became available in August, but when summer ended Carr had to slow down a bit to make time for her schoolwork. Instead of once a month she now publishes every other month.

The operation has grown quickly since July. Whereas she previously had to source art herself, now people are coming to her hoping to get featured. So many, in fact, that she has to turn some people away.

 

 

Her position as editor has given her a space to elevate diverse voices, something that isn’t lost on her.

“There’s a lot of portraits, but it’s a lot of portraits of white people, and I would definitely like to expand the diversity of people being drawn and painted in the issues,” Carr said. “A lot of people reading it might not think about that, but I think it’s important for there to be diversity everywhere, even if it’s just in a magazine someone’s flipping through for 10 minutes.”

She’s also had to learn to keep her audience engaged. She started hosting art contests to keep people interested beyond just seeing their work featured. She hosted a contest last fall asking readers to send in graphics related to voting.

She put the submissions up on the Ink & Stitch social media page and asked followers to choose a winner, which she announced Nov. 3, Election Day.

“Most of my audience is between 16 and 20. If I encouraged even one person to vote I’m glad I did it,” she said.

The magazine has presented many learning opportunities to Carr, who produces it herself. She plans to keep it going through college and hopes to build a team to help her along the way.

She’s surprised by how quickly it went from an idea to something that’s engaged thousands across the planet and said the messages she receives thanking her for her work encourage her to keep going.

“When people send in art for one of my online contests, the winner gets a free copy of the magazine. The winner of the most recent one was from Tasmania, which is an island I didn’t know existed. It’s crazy to think a copy of my magazine is going to this tiny little island,” Carr said. “That’s been one of my favorite things—I don’t think I would ever have talked to someone in some of these places.”

See Stella Carr’s cool work at flipsnack.com/inkandstitchmag.