Biography

MANDY STOBO 

Mandy Stobo is a passionate artist, actor and mother. She is dedicated to her community, her family and her artwork while always taking in as many new perspectives, experiences and memories that life can offer. 

With a practice honoring the traditional use of figure ground relationship and formalistic approaches to creating solid, successful compositions, her contemporary work merges together a use of text, chalk and highly saturated hues of paint. For Mandy, the process of creating is just as important as the finished product. Her mark making is not left to chance, but rather follows formal elements of design and aspects of composition.  

Mandy’s use of vibrant colours and emotions in her paintings are a direct reflection of her outlook on life. Her vibrant personality is only matched by her vibrant passion for her hometown of Calgary, Alberta. She is a champion for the city and it’s artistic and cultural endeavors. Mandy finds herself involved in various projects from illustrating the children’s book “C is for Calgary”, Grandpa’s Forest, Bee Love and others, to designing brands for various businesses, to working in film and television such as Fargo, Haunting Melissa, Heartland, Young Drunk Punk, Jann, and Hold The Dark, to name a few. She also is a leading artist in content creation in the new media of Virtual Reality, adding empathy to a digital space in a magnificent way. With several VR films under her belt and a few in the making, she hopes to create work in this landscape that holds compassion and has longevity. Her newest shows “ Life” and “Queens” will blend mediums, and utilize Augmented Reality within her new portraits to help illuminate more of each of the pieces stories. She is currently on a speaking tour presenting her work in the digital design field. 

It was Mandy’s love for her city that initially sparked the Bad Portrait Project. It started as a humble way for Mandy to celebrate Calgary and its inhabitants through expressive pop-art inspired watercolour and sharpie portraits. However, the project skyrocketed online and past Calgary’s city limits with the help of social media. Bad portraits are now seen internationally and are featured in The City of Calgary Public Arts Program, on Calgary C-Trains, branding for companies, personalities, celebrities and politicians . The project has revolutionized the accessibility of art and connects the viewer directly with the artist, and has garnered her many moments in media, experiments in projects, and awards such as Top 40 Under 40 in 2012. 

Mandy’s holds a deep connection with music, theatre and film, as she loves to challenging herself through live performance painting using AR, green screens, projection mapping and more.  She is heavily involved in many charities and fundraisers, and is a big advocate for mental health. Her contemporary work has been collected all over the world and is currently working on her new body of work, “We AR all Queens” for shows across Canada.  

Stobo dreams of providing a solid world for her son’s through her art, and will never stop the search for great color, joy, healing and community building through creation.


To contact, please email mandystobo@gmail.com




-Mandy Stobo

 

 

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