Star St. Germain Interview by Jeff Woodward

Jeff Woodward: We first saw your illustrations in Weird Tales. Your version of a Franz Kafka portrait was defintely creative. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Star: I draw most of my inspiration from my own life, friends, and relationships. I have a way of trying to articulate myself in metaphor, so often my drawings are more literal representations of those. For example, I was feeling anxious over what the outcome of something was going to be, and all I could do was wait to see how it played out. I thought of the old expression "don't hold your breath" & drew a self portrait with my lungs on the outside of my body.

JW: You range in creativity from illustrations and comic books, to clothing design, photography and video production. Is there one median you prefer to the rest?

Star: I have always worked in a number of different mediums, and I don't really prefer one to another.

Although. I will say that I generally tend to work digitally. I haven't really drawn on paper in years!

JW: Being the daughter of a racecar drive, any memorable experiences growing up?(you know I had to throw that in, heh)

Star: Yes. My father was always converting street cars to race cars, then back to street cars again. None of them had speedometers, and sometimes they still had the roll cage inside. I remember getting dropped off at school in these sorts of franken-cars. It was sort of exciting.

JW: Are you a fan of the horror/fantasy genre?

Star: Horror and fantasy is really hit or miss for me. I think the best horror (& fantasy too!) comes from real experiences, where the artist uses the genre as a method of exaggerating an event from their life to match the way they felt when they experienced it. Most of the stuff I enjoy most is more psychological in nature, and I feel like the more gory-for-the-sake-of-gory works that have been coming out in triplicate as of late (i.e. Saw) aren't as much of my deal.

I also prefer books to movies. I think the last thing I read that really scared me in a way I loved was House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, but most people probably wouldn't call that horror.

JW: How long have you been playing the cello, and have you ever performed on stage?

Star: I've been playing cello for about 5 years now. I've performed on stage many times, both solo, and with various bands.

I'm currently working on a new solo album, after not having recorded any solo music in 4 years, so I'm excited to share that with everyone when it's done!

JW: Who are some some of your favorite artists?

Star: David Mack, Jenny Holzer, Matthew Woodson, Mark Z Danielewski, Tarsem, Yoni Wolf, Alfons Mucha, Michel Gondry.

JW: Is web design a hobby, or can you be commissioned to create websites for potential customers?

Star: Web Design is actually my day job. I work for kink.com coding html & css for all of their bdsm & fetish websites. This means that I rarely do freelance web work, as I spend all day writing code and I'd much rather spend my free time drawing or writing music.

JW: Any hints for someone trying to break into the professional artist field?

Star: If you don't have a website, get one. If you have a website, put a blog on it. If you have a blog, get a twitter account as well. While you're at it, register your username of choice on every damn social network you know of. Be consistent. Develop yourself like a brand. Talk to other people in your field, both on social networks, and in person. Go to conferences. Turn your internet relationships with colleagues into real ones. Learn what you can by observation, and the rest by acting. Don't be afraid to experiment or make mistakes. Above all else, create!

JW: You just received a free airline ticket to anywhere in the world, where an apartment and $50K are waiting for you. Where would you fly to?

Star: Probably France, since it's beautiful and I speak enough French to get by. Although I'd love to go to tokyo if I had any grasp at all of the language.

JW: Ok, we had Freddy vs. Jason, and Alien vs. Predator. What would be the outcome of Star St. Germain vs. Kathy Bates, you know, that chick from Misery?

Star: I think that unless she played dirty, I'd win. She looks slow, and I wear rollerskates.

Visit Star's Website: www.thisisstar.com