Meet The Artist
I would like, if I may, to take you on a strange journey…
No, I’m not talking about the one depicted in Rocky Horror Picture Show, but close! Well, maybe not that close. Anyways, our story begins in 2006, when yours truly was nine years old. I was browsing my local library when I found a book that would change the trajectory of my life forever. (For those who are curious, I am talking about The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry into the Salem Witch Trials by Marion L. Starkey.) From that day forward, I couldn’t get enough of Salem Witchcraft. Or anything having to do with history, really. I decided right then and there that I was going to be a historian, no matter what it took. I already was the kid who watched movies like Hocus Pocus and Trick r Treat year round, so having a life long obsession with witchcraft when you’re from the Halloween capital of the world isn’t that big of a jump.
Since then, I have been spending the last 8 (eight!) years studying history professionally. I have also held onto being the Halloween loving kid who’s either pilfering Michael’s crafts of all their yarn or painting ghosts, ghouls and bones all 12 months of the year. I have always had an intense fascination with death and the macabre, witchcraft, how magic intertwines with our world and the next and how I can make the world a better place for the next generation.
A Company 10 years in the making
HallowedFolk is the product of several years of planning, creating and gifting artworks to friends and finally, caving to the idea that maybe, maybe, someone out there would find joy in the pieces I create. I would knit and crochet in the back of class, leaving gifts in my friends’ dorms during college, but in August of 2019, I launched my first art page, affectionately named CorriganCrafts. After I submitted my art to be considered for a place in a museum gift shop, I realized that my shop name and art no longer fit the content I wanted to make. Thus, HallowedFolk was born.
Since day one however, HallowedFolk has been a queer friendly, BIPOC/AAPI- friendly, pro-feminist environment. I strive to use my platform to better the lives of those in my community and beyond, donating monetarily to the Masspee Wampanoag tribe during the COVID-19 crisis, as well as providing masks and other Healthcare supplies to the people of Masspee, in addition to supporting the Quileute tribe's Move to Higher Ground fund. (https://mthg.org/) I am largely active with NAGLY (North Shore Alliance of GLBTQ Youth) and BAGLY, giving back to the community that supported me unconditionally from day one.
My art has gone from campy and goofy to now being a place where our history is explored, where our mortality is celebrated and where it is Halloween every single day. As a Salem, Ma resident, I am inspired every day by the people I meet, by the way life and death merge together in an amazing way, the way our lives all intertwine with one another in the most magical way. Here, the whimsical marriage of humor, spooky and magic with weird and macabre are showcased in a variety of media.
Stay Curious,
🤍Stephanie