Creative Space
We visit the Cris Delara Studio.
For years, Cris Delara had the idea of running events from her home-based office in Welland, Ontario, Canada, before making it a reality. “We needed to be a business, not one based from home, to show off our art and job skills as an attraction,” she says, “and also to engage people in our events. Being an art studio and art school was the logical solution – and we did it!”
The studio teaches drawing and painting classes in both traditional and digital media, and plans to hold sculpture sessions. Alongside these classes, Cris runs events with the coowner and manager, Alex Stockler. Together they aim to promote fandom culture, striving to create events that combine Cris’ love of pin-ups with comics, manga and anime, games, films, cosplay and, of course, art. “Our events are important because there are no events like the ones we’ve planned. There are comic conventions in the region, but our goal is focused on the artistic aspect of fan art,” she says.
Cris’ school, which is the source of both classes and events, aims to nurture passionate artists and create a group that’s interested in fine art who will be constantly leaning, evolving and improving their artistic skills alongside her. In time, she hopes that this will become the basis for a thriving community of artists in her region.
The school is still growing, and Cris hopes to attract more local interest and regular attendees. She plans to keep the events free to all, with the aim that word of mouth will highlight what classes are on offer at the school: “We hope to build up a good reputation that will attract more students, more customers and business!” Indeed, her studio has plans to put together an art exhibition featuring students’ projects, as well as offer one-off life drawing classes and portrait sessions.
Cris is the owner and artist at Cris Delara Studio, where she teaches her craft. She specialises in pin-up art and created issue 123’s pin-up cover image. See more at her website, www.crisdelarastudio.blogspot.co.uk.