‍In our Staff Spotlight series, we’re pulling back the curtain on the talented artists, artisans, and craftspeople who make up our crew. Our team is a gumbo pot of creativity: painters, sculptors, woodworkers, fiber artists, costume designers, metalsmiths, actors, musicians, writers, jewelry designers, and the list goes on. If you can dream it up, chances are we’re already doing it in our free time, too. That’s what makes us so good at our day jobs as custom experiential fabricators.

Each month, we’ll shine a light on one of our team members—their inspirations, their after-hours projects, and the creative spark they bring to both their life and our shop floor. Because behind every masterpiece is a person with a story worth sharing.

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This month, we’re talking to our Digital Marketing Manager, Desireé "Dez" Stark—writer, photographer, yogini, and self-described artistic dabbler.

What do people call you?

Desireé or Dez, but I am adamant about not being called “Desi.” Someone called me “Dizzy Desi” once when I was a kid and I thought that meant they were calling me stupid or ditzy, and I was NOT having it.

How long have you been an artist, and how’d you get started?

I’m not sure I necessarily see myself as an artist, but I’ve always had natural urges to write and to take photos. I think as a child, the things I was complimented on the most were the things I continued to do, but maybe that’s not all there is to it. I remember writing poems and short stories for school assignments; I would bring them home to my mom, and she would get all serious, look me in the eye, and be like, “Desireé, this is really good.” So that encouraged me to keep doing it.

The same thing happened with photography, actually. I had gone on a trip with a friend’s family in maybe 5th grade, and had taken a disposable camera with me. When we got the photos back from Walgreens (I’m aging myself here!), there were a handful of landscape-type photos that my mom was SO into. At the time, I felt like I just got some lucky shots and that it had nothing to do with any innate ability, but as an adult, I’ve come back to it so many times, it finally feels like my “thing,” if that makes sense.

What’s your favorite thing that you’ve ever made, and what makes it special?

When we were in high school, my best friend was going through a really rough time at home, and I stayed up all night and wrote this epic, silly, multi-page poem for her about adventures and our friendship and how we were going to get out of our crappy little town someday together. I still think about that story from time to time, and how it felt to write it, and how it felt when I gave it to her. I’m sure it would seem childish now, but I wish we still had it. It was one of the many physical artifacts from our young lives that we had to leave behind when we did finally leave that crappy little town together.

What do you enjoy most about making art?

I suppose it’s that feeling I get when I just know in my bones that something has turned out. I think we are all our own worst critic, and I can over-tweak a photo or make tons of edits to something I’ve written and just be so neurotic that a thing never feels quite finished. But every once in a while, I step back and something I’ve made seems just right, and I don’t actually care if anyone else thinks it’s good. This sensation is kind of electric, and that’s all that matters in that moment. Even though I don’t  know much about art or being an “artist,” I’m pretty sure this is how it’s supposed to feel.

Do you feel like the creative work you do IRL influences how you approach your projects when you’re at work? If so, how?

It just so happens that the creative things I like to do are literally what I do for work, just put into a different frame, which makes me really happy. It feels like all the collective writing or photography I’ve done along the way, whether it’s been for money or for myself or a loved one, have given tidbits of direction, knowledge, and inspiration to serve what I do now.

What are you looking forward to making next?

Out of step with my usual “artist denial,” lately I’ve also been dabbling in painting and working with charcoal. My sister has been teaching me some things. We went together this summer and bought some inexpensive art supplies, and we’ve been doing little “art hangs.” I am not very good at it, but I absolutely love doing it. I mostly just get paint everywhere and make shapes, but I can get lost in it for literal hours. I think it’s actually teaching me that I can make art just for the sake of making it, and there doesn’t have to have a purpose or an assignment behind it. I got that “oh, I’m actually making art” feeling a few weeks ago when I made this little painting of the moon that I just adore.

I’m also one of those people that has always said “I have a book in me,” but have never buckled down to actually write that book. I actually love writing stories as rhyming poems (thank you, Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein), but I don’t do it often enough. This interview is inspiring me to start doing it again, though. Maybe the book I have in mind is for children? Who knows!
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From tiny details to sweeping vistas, the Downtown FabWorks team understands how to make our clients' visions a reality. If you're looking for an experiential fabrication partner that can combine big imagination with serious knowhow, you've found 'em! Give us a call today to get started on bringing your next big idea to life.