Stavo Mustang Craft is a multi-disciplinary artist who creates simply to experience the freedom found in thought, sound, color, tactility, and invention. He has performed his concept-driven music at historic venues like Angel Orensanz Center, the Tenement Museum of New York, Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Merce Cunningham Studio, and CBGB's Gallery. And having never recorded in a professional studio, his recordings have served as soundtracks for modern dance and performance events on 5 continents, in Australia, Amsterdam, Colombia, New York City, & the song "Walking On Water" in collaboration with choreographer Kun Yang Lin, earning an award from the Government of Taiwan for Creativity in Dance. Craft also branched out into theater as a co-writer with celebrated novelist Sandra Hochman, on a stageshow called “Timmy The Great” which was directed and choreographed by Tony-winner Savion Glover for the Tribeca Theater Festival. He resides in Santa Fe, NM, the Captain of DIY Art Pop project, Galactic Witchcraft, whose "Fabric Statements" record was the runner-up for Best Pop Album of the Year at the 2018 New Mexico Music Awards, an annual event honoring recordings made in the state. His song "The Game Show" was transformed into a collaborative video with art-world darlings Meow Wolf in 2022, now appearing in Meow Wolf's Convergence Station in Denver. And this year, Craft completed his first novella "Auto Antenna: An Enchanted Guide to Santa Fe & Vague Blueprint to the Cosmos" which will be published in the Summer of 2023 on By The Muses Press. An excerpt first appeared in the Santa Fe New Mexican's 2022 Summer Guide.
"Upcycling is the phenomenon of arting up the self and playfully indulging in thrift store fascination. My attire reveals many things, among them the secrets of occasional pattern clashing and the lost succulent joys of texture ritual. It draws attention to the thread-like nature of clothing. But it’s about the way we stitch ourselves together with a little of this energy, a little of that experience, or this subtle influence, or that various half-belief. And always in our personalities, with visible loose threads dangling about, as we are always unfinished and in motion." - from AUTO ANTENNA
Un-official demo for "Magic Omens"
I tend to focus on "unofficial culture" or the stuff people create that is not part of the known and acknowledged media world, but which is the actual fuel in changing people's lives at a personal level.
I created this original spoken word piece with supporting atmospheric sonics, which aired on our local pirate radio, offering a personalized account that documents an Alien-influenced transformation of Williamsburg Brooklyn. Conceptually, a true story.
I also love being a sonic scientist tinkering in my studio, creating outlandish soundforms. On a related theme to Galactic WItchcraft perhaps, is this long-form sound:video piece called "GODSTORM: Art-Making as a Form of Ritual Witchcraft" from a collaboration with Brooklyn-based video artist Steven Boling, which developed out of a 20-minute instrumental 'environments' soundtrack I created up in the mountains of Maine. This segment linked above is a 7-minute excerpt from that, including the sections: "Elemental," "Invocation," and "Earthdance" ..which allows me to use some of my Whirling Dervish propensities.
"Stavo is many things to many people at Meow Wolf: Organizer, friendly ear, and renowned fire-putter-outter. He keeps the ship that is Meow Wolf's main production facility shipshape. Stavo also enjoys weaving conversation into fantastical realms of thinking... and this discussion is no exception! ENJOY!"
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STAVO INTERVIEWED ABOUT ONE OF HIS ILLUMINATIVE MENTORS, FILMMAKER/POET JAMES BROUGHTON
I created a character, The Futurist from Inner Space, who embodies the "Invent Yourself" principle. In this illustrated short story, Persona is envisioned as a Room without end, with The Futurist walking thru the Walls of the Mind in an ever-expanding concept of Being, amid immensely long hallways with open doors extending all the way down. He sees that everything which seems separate from us is actually woven together, not “like” relationships between harmonies, but exactly so. And as he unlocks the mysteries of consciousness, the magical glories of The Expanded Potential Self are accessed. It's the story of Becoming Your Own Highest Art Form & celebrating the Largeness of the Smallness of the Individual Life.
Illustration Caption: "The Futurist looks out at the Wilderness of Consciousness from his Oversized Windows"
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