Mandy Stobo makes bad portraits for a living.
Perhaps we should clarify: Mandy is a talented Calgarian artist who, amongst being involved with many other projects in the city, has created the Bad Portraits Project.
What exactly does this entail? If you are looking for a unique and personal piece of artwork, you simply send Mandy a picture of yourself and bingo; using that photo, Mandy creates a very stylized watercolour portrait for you to take home and hang up.
The result of your commission is not your classic idea of a portrait. The people in these portraits are rendered in a style that is beautifully bizarre and fantastical with the subject looking more creature than human. The portraits seem to draw more on the psychology of the sitter than their physical attributes.
When viewing Mandy’s work, you can’t help but think of the wildly primitive and colourful street art of Basquiat and the embellished portraits of Ralph Steadman, known most famously for his Rolling Stone caricatures and collaborations with Hunter S. Thompson.
Mandy’s latest project was inspired by the Calgary flood. To help raise money, Mandy created a very special portrait of our mayor Naheed Nenshi, which was printed on t-shirts and sold for $20 each. Her creative efforts have raised over $20,000 to date with all proceeds going to the Red Cross.
Mandy took some time out from her busy schedule this week to share with us a little bit about her art and her contributions to the flood relief:
What inspired you to start making these portraits?
Bad Portraits came from a multitude of curiosity in social media, the need to figure out a better way to be able to raise my son and still be at home (single mom), and the desire to see if building a community through art was possible. I was also very interested to see if there was any way to expand how art is shared, and how the industry works.
With social media, I really couldn’t understand how it worked, and how the likes of people such as Kelly Oxford and many others created a career solely based on social media. This blew my mind. So I thought about what the consistent ingredient was in all of them – Twitter, Facebook, Google – and that was profile pictures. So, I started painting people’s profiles pictures and sharing it with them. They then would share it with their worlds, and from there it would spread.
Also, because I am a single mom, I had a need to feel connected to a community even if I couldn’t be out there connecting. So I really wanted to build something where we had a common exchange between artist and viewer. And it worked, which is so rad.
Where did you go to school?
I enrolled in ACAD a few months after my son was born. But it didn’t last long. There was no support for students with children, and so I made the choice to work 12 hours a day on my art and try to build a business instead of going to school.
Can you tell me what some of your biggest influences are for your work?
There are two different influences in my work. In business, I look up to anyone who is building a brand in a unique way, whether it be their comedy, their art, or their company of any kind, and in art.
They range from my pals, like Sarah Adams, Annie Preece, @sarcasticrover, @kellyoxford, the Lonely Island, @theleanover, @strombo, and more. Plus the likes of Jean Michel Basquiat, Joan Miro, Ed Templeton, Wayne White, Barry Mcgee, Blu Blu, Dave and Jen, and many more…
What is the craziest portrait in your portfolio?
The craziest person? Or the craziest painting? Gary Busey is a good one. He fits both categories. Plus the Lonely Island guys, so many of my pals in our great city, including many of our incredible Mayor Nenshi.
Can you tell me a little bit about the Scuba Nenshi project?
The Scuba Nenshi project was my way of trying to give back to our community as well as honour the unbelievable leadership we were given during a very scary time. As I was helping tear out homes, I wanted to be able to do more, or at least try to do what I could to raise money for the Red Cross Alberta Flood relief. Too many good people have lost so much, and I think it is all of our responsibility to do whatever we can to try and help them all in their time of crisis. So, I made a bad portrait of Mayor Nenshi wearing scuba gear and threw it on a shirt, all proceeds going to the Red Cross. We sold thousands in one week. And I hope it can be a reminder of how great our heart is in this beautiful city. I am still blown away by what Calgary has accomplished in such a short time. It’s so inspiring.
What do you like most about living in Calgary?
Oh man, this is a tough question. There are so many things I love about our city. But I think the biggest one is our pioneer quality. The fact that this city stands behind ideas, projects and new ways of defining ourselves is incredible. The support that this community gives to each other to grow, to constantly develop in all areas, it’s just phenomenal.
And also pals. The pals in this city rule my heart.
To find out more about Mandy Stobo and her amazing art work, visit www.mandystobo.com or www.badportraitproject.com.