STAVO.NET
STAVO MUSTANG CRAFT • fabric shamanist: writer: musician: videomaker: human potential advocate
Stavo Mustang Craft is a multi-disciplinary artist who explores the activation of personal creativity as a main topic of inquiry. As an avid writer of both story and song, he published his first pulp fiction novella, "Auto Antenna: An Enchanted Guide to Santa Fe & Vague Blueprint to the Cosmos" in the Summer of 2023. Craft is the Captain of the DIY Art Pop band, 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 installation project with art-world darlings Meow Wolf in 2022, now appearing in Meow Wolf's Convergence Station in Denver. Through the years, Craft 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 on Future Room Records 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 engaged the theatre world, as co-writer on a stage show called “Timmy The Great” which was directed and choreographed by Tony-winner Savion Glover for the Tribeca Theater Festival. But Stavo Craft is also especially known for his upcycled fashions, artworks made only for himself— but enjoyed by everyone.
EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO/SOUNDTRACK: "Godstorm"
While I love the simplicity of The 3 Minute Miracle of injecting delicious ideas into a pop song...
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.
PODCAST
PODCAST: on Working at Meow Wolf - "Stepping forward like a Unicorn"
"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!"
Or click here if you prefer to listen on IHeartRadio instead of Spotify.
DON'T FORGET TO INVENT YOURSELF
An illustrated short story: "The Future Room"
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"