ART BEAT Wearing Many Hats

Wilmington Artist Stanley Does It All

STORY BY CARLA EDSTROM

Being an art school dropout, she is proof that hard work and practicing her craft pay off. Delia appreciates a routine of daily practicing her craft and surrounding herself with more successful creative people. “I did return to school to get my Associates Degree in Ethnomusicology and am contemplating continuing that educational path. Generally speaking though, I think most of my art and music education comes from practice practice practice, as well as from surrounding myself with amazing creatives, artists, and musicians that are better than me, and who inspire me to practice and get better, and who support me in my endeavors,” she said. “I can’t stress enough the importance of consistent practice and action. Not that I have always been perfect at it, but I try to draw and practice my guitar/singing every day,” she said.

Delia is self-taught in many artistic and musical things. However, getting a job at a Paint and Sip studio expanded her confidence by taking her out of her comfort zone. “When it comes to visual art, something that helped me a lot was working in a ‘paint and sip’ studio where I taught folks how to paint in a low-pressure environment. As the art instructor, I had to learn how to paint a wide variety of designs that I created and from other designers. Constantly painting different subject matter than I would typically choose, and in styles that are not my default, was extremely helpful. As a result, I increased my abilities to color match, to paint something with relative accuracy from sight, and to feel more confident in my abilities to do so,” she said. “For music, the best training is playing with better musicians who scare the heck out of you to play with,” said Delia. “Most of my music career and experiences have been solo, and while I’ve been in a few bands they mostly circulate around my original music. Pushing myself outside my comfort zone and admitting the things I do not know has been the best training ever,” she said.

Creativity brings meaning to life, and having personal support and allowing space to create is vital to growth. “In general, I like to approach everything I do as a creative endeavor,” said Delia. “Whether I’m painting a canvas, writing a song, or just making a sandwich, I try to stay in an artistic headspace where I am thought- ful, open-minded, and aiming to make it the best it can be,” she said. “My grandmother on my mother’s side was an artist, musician, writer — a general creative. She taught me everything I knew about art, music, and culture before she died when I was a young teenager. My mother was very supportive of my art and music, having grown up in a family of artists. She knew there was no fighting what I was!”

With artists Picasso and Ani Difranco as significant influences in her life, as well as comic books and cartoons, Delia creates much of her inspiration from fellow local musicians and artists. “Local artists like Cammeron Batanides, Regular Greyson, Linda Flynn, Jean Nadeau. These people have developed a distinctive personal style and are doing things and making moves that I admire,” she said. “Musically, I’m always inspired by my bandmates like John Hussmann. Watching his gigs is like going to a masterclass. Shawn Pugh, who came on board as a bassist, but his multi-instrumentalism and ability to harmonize with damn near anything are incredible to me,’ she said. “My drummer, JJ Street, is consistent and creative. I can’t tell you all the cool and weird percussion instruments he brought to our last recording session to try and find the sound I was looking for,” she said. “I’m always inspired by Rebekah Todd, carving her path and blowing up all over the place while she does it,” said Delia. “I am also inspired by the things people say we can’t do. I’ve heard a few male musicians comment about women artists in town who don’t know how to solo and not for nothing. That was a driving force behind me starting to learn more about music theory, practice my scales, and implement more instrumental interest into my shows. Hell if I’m going to let the boys have all the fun!”

A self-described ‘creative freelancer,’ Delia also works as a Haunted Pub Crawl and Ghost Walk Tour guide in Wilmington, giving her the chance to dress up and work on her performance skills. “I get to dress up and share the history and spooky stories with folks. In addition, working with the Ghost Walk has given me an opportunity to work on my storytelling and performance skills in a different way that still has a lot of crossover with how I perform music, not to mention all of the cool costuming and make-up I get to do,” she said. “In 2022, I was also able to work with the Cucalorus Film Festival as their Volunteer Coordinator, and that was a dynamic, fun, and challenging experience that allowed the organizational and creative parts of my brain to work together, in addition to introducing me to all kinds wonderful local artists, filmmakers and other folks who care deeply about the creative culture here.”

Creatives often get inspired by watching the world around them. Going to a museum, catching a friend’s show, all these things inspire Delia. “I’m especially partial to things like Voice & The Pen in Wilmington, focusing on original music. Feeding my inner artist is very important,” she said.

“I’m a Julia Cameron disciple, and I’m once again working my way through her book, The Artist’s Way, taking her advice on things like Morning Pages (a kind of journaling), artist’s dates (where you take yourself somewhere that you love and that gets the creative juices flowing), and surrounding myself with people who support me, who believe in what I’m doing, and who push me to be better just because they are also pushing themselves to be better,” she said. The number one thing I am working on when it comes to my creative work is not to wait for inspiration. There’s that old quote, ‘Inspiration will find you working’! Consistent practice and prolific creativity is my goal!”

It takes a lot of vulnerability to play a song you have written or show someone your artwork. Since art is subjective, you never know the response you will get from something you created from the heart. Unfortunately, it can often be quite rude or demeaning. “The most challenging aspect for me is mental health. I notice that artists seem more prone to mental considerations and big emotions,” she said.

“We open ourselves to the possibility that someone is going to dislike or criticize pieces of our very soul, and that is simply not an easy thing to do,” said Delia. “There is also a huge conversation here about the value of art and music and how artists and musicians are treated. While Wilmington is an incredible town, and many of us can make a creative living here, we are not immune from feeling devalued by not being paid our worth. Folks see artists- especially musicians- out at bars and venues, having fun, and sometimes they discount the hard work it takes to get there. From practice to creation to booking to promotion to social media and beyond, to be a freelancing creative is to take on multiple jobs at once. We deserve both respect and a living wage for the work we put in!”

Delia is recording some of her originals, and the band will be on WHQR’s Soup to Nuts recording live at Live at Ted’s. “A few months ago, I brought a few original songs to my band, Delia & Friends, that had a kind of murder ballad/spooky vibe, and the idea took off. We are working on an EP that is a concept album, in the way that the songs have similar themes of love, longing, and death.”

Delia hosts two open mics in Wilmington. Every other Monday at Mad Katz and every Tuesday at Catawba. “I love creating space for musicians to experiment, collaborate together, and feel more comfortable with their originals and with performing. Being involved with the creative community is very important to me. Wilmington sincerely has one of the most talented and supportive creative communities I’ve ever experienced.

“Support local art! Support local music! Community over Competition,” said Delia.

You can reach out to Delia by email or on one of her Facebook pages.

DeliaTheArtist@gmail.com

DeliaStanley.com

Facebook.com/DeliaStanleyArtandMusic