MONSTAH JARS

Monstah

Jars As a horror and monster flicks fanatic, I immediately took a liking to the handcrafted products from local artists and power couple, Joe Souza and Wendy McQuade of I Think I’ve

Created a Monstah Studios out of

JOE, TELL US HOW YOU BECAME AN ARTIST Tiverton, Rhode Island. Joe’s Monstah

AND SCULPTOR? WHERE DO YOU DRAW Jar’s are cool and multi-purpose,

YOUR INSPIRATION FROM? I really can’t becoming a favorite among Cannabis remember a time when I didn’t want enthusiasts in our local community to become an artist. When I was a and continue to gain popularity. We child my father was always working on spoke to the two owners behind the some kind of art project, and then sold his work at arts and crafts shows. Art supplies were always something readily studio to catch a glimpse into their world of imagination. available to me. I grew up in the ‘80s, so monster and horror movies were a staple for inspiration – as well as an ample supply of comic books. You could almost always find me reading comics or watching Godzilla-type movies while drawing the characters. Originally, I wanted to make scary horror movie-type monsters, but they kept coming out whimsical and cartoony. I learned to embrace that over the years, and it has evolved to what I do now. I make ‘monstahs’ that make people smile, instead of making them afraid.

YOU’VE BEEN DOING THIS A LONG TIME – WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE TO SEE CANNABIS BECOME

MORE NORMALIZED AND ACCEPTED MAINSTREAM? Growing up in the ‘Just Say No’ era definitely implanted the stigma that society put on Cannabis users, whether recreational or medical. I had been a registered medical marijuana grower since 2007, so I had a lot of Mason jars sitting around. A few years back when I developed the Monstah jars, initially I didn’t want to market them as ‘weed jars.’

I thought it would negatively affect people’s interpretation of my work. It wasn’t until we started vending at Comic Cons and craft shows when we noticed that the majority of people buying the Monstahs were using them to store their marijuana – whether they said it proud and loud in Massachusetts, or whispered it quietly in the

Joe Souza + Wendy McQuade

I Think I’ve Created a Monstah Studios

still-illegal states. I kept turning down a lot of offers to do Cannabis-themed shows, until I decided to try out the 2018 Harvest Cup in Worcester, Mass. That show was a huge success – and not just monetarily. Connecting with people in the Cannabis industry and seeing the professionalism that now exists showed me that I should be marketing these in the place they belong, not the market I was in.

YOU AND WENDY ARE A POWER COUPLE AND EACH HAVE YOUR OWN STYLE. CAN YOU GIVE US AN IDEA OF HOW THE CREATIVE PROCESS WORKS TOGETHER? Wendy has been super supportive of my art and immediately jumped right in to help. She started with menial tasks such as papermache application and painting on base coats. Over the years she’s learned all of the various techniques used in the Monstah-making process. She’s since designed and introduced pendants to our growing line of Monstahs, which have been quite popular! She also paints all of the glass eyes and sculpts a lot of the smaller pieces, which gives me more time to concentrate on the more intricate ones.

SHOWS AND EXPOS HAVE TO BE A LOT OF FUN – DO YOU REGULARLY VEND OR SHOWCASE YOUR ARTWORK? SINCE WE CAN’T GATHER RIGHT NOW, HAVE YOU BEEN UTILIZING SOCIAL MEDIA MORE FOR MARKETING? Well, in the pre-COVID days, we would try to vend at two to three shows per month, whether they be art shows, Comic Cons or Cannabis events. We have traveled up and down the East Coast from Maine to Georgia selling Monstahs at various shows. After every show we would see an uptick in our social media followers and custom orders. The physical shows that increased our audience then made it easier for us to sell online once COVID-19 cancelled in-person events. Luckily, we have been able to stay pretty busy with custom work through the shutdown, but we have been utilizing social media to keep our fanbase updated with current and future works, as well as to stay relevant. We will always prefer physical shows so we can interact with people and answer the many questions they have, but watching how people react to seeing our work is our favorite part of doing what we do.

Monstah Jars | IThinkIveCreatedaMonstah.com @JASouza3 | Facebook.com/JASouzaIII

A Stoner Owner is a Cannabis business owner who has a relationship with the plant. We want to buy and smoke Cannabis from companies that care about their products, employees and the plant. You wouldn’t buy food from a restaurant where the cooks don’t eat in the kitchen, so why buy corporate weed grown by a company only concerned with profits? Stoner Owner approval means a company cares, and we love weed grown with care. Let’s retake our culture and reshape a stigma by honoring those who grow, process and sell the best Cannabis possible.

“WE NOTICED THAT THE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE BUYING THE MONSTAHS WERE USING THEM TO STORE THEIR MARIJUANA – WHETHER THEY SAID IT PROUD AND LOUD IN MASSACHUSETTS, OR WHISPERED IT QUIETLY IN THE STILL-ILLEGAL STATES.”