[interview] Jill Allyn Stafford

Here's the third of my interviews with my brilliant creative friends.

I've known Jill Allyn Stafford since about 2002, when we first started chatting on the original SK8 Jesus messageboard. Like me, she had an interest in many forms of visual arts and funny anecdotes, and even when I stopped being active on any messageboards, she was one of the people I made an effort to stay in touch with, mostly via her Flickrstream.

In the few years since I first met her, Jill has taken great strides with her own creative life, garnering a significant collection of work, and becoming heavily involved in the running of a local gallery, Vox, in her home town of Sacramento. I'm delighted she agreed to be interviewed because I find her attitude very inspiring, and I hope you do, too.

AJ: Who (or what) inspired you to start making collages?
JAS: In 1995 my husband and I were in New Orleans, visiting a friend of his from childhood. His friend was showing us the town, and we stopped in some touristy store so he could buy stamps. I saw the postcards he was mailing and they were all self-made, and they were all collage. I thought they were the coolest things ever and figured that I could do that. About four years ago I started getting into it seriously, and participated in my first art show in 2007.

AJ: What other artists/people inspire you now?
JAS: Oh wow, so many people inspire me. I absolutely love the artistry behind David Mack's work. Hannah Höch. Graffiti artists. And all those people who push me. Charity Larrison and Jeremy Love were key in originally getting me to put myself out there. Laurenn McCubbin gives me new ideas and just really, wow, challenges the hell out of me. She's amazing in her support.

AJ: How do you decide which images and scraps go best together? Is it just an intuitive thing of trying out different layouts, or do you start with a distinct idea of what you want the final piece to look like?
JAS: I start a piece by picking out one or two images that really capture me. From there, I decide how I'd like to progress — either by color schemes or shapes, or whatever. There really is no specific method to my madness. It always depends on how I'm feeling that night.

AJ: Do you ever find yourself looking for a perfect image to tie the collage together, and having to make do with something else because you don't have what you want? Are you generally pleased with the end result anyway?
JAS: It's funny that way, I rarely run into this problem. When I'm working on collages, my brain goes into this weird kind of zen mode. I lose track of time, and basically I just play with scraps and shapes and colors until it all seems to fit. So there's rarely this idea of making do. Everything either works for me or it doesn't. If it doesn't I'll set that piece aside and work on it later, and generally at that point I can finish it to my satisfaction.

And yeah, I'm almost always pleased with my end results (and even if not, I'll sometimes incorporate that piece into another, so there's never really anything that I give up on).

AJ: Do you think of those situations as happy accidents, or are you frustrated that it isn't exactly what you were after?
JAS: Always happy accidents, everything is a happy accident. I never start out with any specific plan in mind. It all comes together as I work. Which is probably why it takes me so long to finish the smallest of pieces.

AJ: You use a lot of vintage and found images. Where do you source them?
JAS: I generally find old pictures or magazines at antique stores. My husband, though, has always made the best finds. He went to an antique store in rural Alabama and came back with some amazing war ration stamps, vintage African-American photographs, and even an old book on spells.

AJ: What's the appeal of using old images rather than more contemporary ones?
JAS: Ha, easy, no copyright infringement. That's it really.

AJ: Do you feel nostalgic for the past?
JAS: Nah. While there are certain aesthetics that I have nostalgia for — 1920s and 1940s style clothing and art for example — I much prefer the time we're in now.

To quote Gogol Bordello, "there were never any good old days, they are today, they are tomorrow, it's a stupid thing we say, cursing tomorrow with sorrow".

AJ: So, are you basically the same person you were when you were younger, or do you think your personality has undergone radical changes?
JAS: I'm definitely not the same person. I was shy, no self confidence. Somehow magically that has changed (in most arenas at any rate). When we're throwing an art show and I'm playing hostess, I can talk to anybody. Something that I never thought I could do.

AJ: The art shows are at Vox. Tell us about them — how did you get involved with that?
JAS: I got involved in Vox simply by accident. A client at the law firm where I work saw some of my artwork and told me I should introduce myself to some of the people who threw the Vox shows. I did, and they asked to me participate in their next show. I participated in a few more, and got to really like the people.

I sat in on some of their organizational meetings, and they talked extensively about wanting to be a non-profit corporation. With my background as a legal assistant in a law firm, I had plenty of experience forming corporations. I helped them set up their corporate entity, and somehow I also became an officer and a member of the board of directors.

AJ: What sort of responsibilities do you have running a gallery business? Do you have any advice for people who'd like to do something similar?
JAS: Our responsibilities range from finding artists, to hanging their work, advertising for the show, booking musicians to play, prepping the venue for the shows, tearing it all down when the show's done (we share space so we can leave work hanging for one night only), helping the artists price their work, and coming up with themes for shows.

The biggest thing I can emphasize is that you really need to go into this loving what you do. Since we're a non-profit, we personally make no money and spend so many hours making things happen, so it really is the satisifaction of throwing a great show and making a difference in people's lives that has to make it work for you.

AJ: You have limited space, so how do you decide which art you display? Do you take anyone's submissions from anywhere, or is it only people who live in Sacramento?
JAS: One of our goals is to help people who have never shown before, or never played before, and provide them with a venue where they can gain some experience and maybe some self confidence to continue putting their art or music out there. We have a really big space, so it's never been a matter of too much art. We show everything an artist that we've booked brings in.

We do accept submissions from everyone, but because we are a one-night-only venue, it's easier and more cost effective for locals to participate. That being said, we'd love to show work from all over the world.

AJ: What have you got coming up?
JAS: I currently have two pieces in the Centenary of Collage exhibition at the Arison Gallery in Manchester [more information here], and will be showing at Vox Sacramento for our April Second Saturday show on April 11.

AJ: Okay, one last question for fun: what would you do with a time machine?
JAS: I'd go back and hold my children when they were babies. Sniff their heads and just really soak them in. And then as soon as it was time to change a diaper, I'd come back to the future.

For more of Jill's work, take a look at her Flickrstream.