The hypnotic work of David Stoupakis has earned him international recognition as a profoundly talented painter. His powerful images tell stories of children who bear the scars of abuse or pain but who often gain empowerment though the damages inflicted upon them.

His newest works were recently on display at the Corey Halford Gallery in his stunning show entitled, “Sheep Will Follow”, red ribbons stream from floor to ceiling, there is a customized musical accompaniment by Geoff Gersh and three large elaborate music boxes that played the music completed what could be described as a lovely nightmare fairy tale come to life.

The very generous Stoupakis took time out of his grueling schedule to speak with Hi-Fructose about his work, his inspirations life in general.

You said the red ribbon theme at your Corey Helford show, you said, was based around the story of the Girl with the Red Ribbon. The one where her head falls off when her lover can't resist the urge not to untie the ribbon. Are you inspired by any other pieces of written work?

There is a lot of written work that I am inspired by some are Poe, Heinrich Hoffmann, Lewis Carol, Grimms Fairy Tales and most of all L. Frank Baum’s works. I can never get enough of The Wizard of Oz. I will never forget the first time I saw that movie. That movie owned me hahaha. I can remember when my parents could finally afford to buy a VCR, that year Santa Claus brought me The Wizard of Oz on VHS for Christmas and I would watch that movie over and over and over again. The Wizard of Oz has to be my favorite story. I feel like all my paintings are reflections of these fairy tales I grew up on.   

Speaking of lovers who can't leave well enough alone, did you see the short silent film about the woman who couldn't stop picking at her boyfriends back-hair? Pretty gruesome!

No I have not, but now I will be looking into it! sounds nasty.

Could you please talk about the theme of the "Sheep Will Follow" series?

“Sheep Will Follow" began with the painting The Messenger which deals with the end of something so there can be a new beginning. When I started this series I thought the theme was going to be something different but the more I painted the more it seemed like these characters were on this quest to find this new place where the characters became the Sheep and the painting The Messenger was the sheepherder/reeper so in the end I just felt it need to be titled “Sheep Will Follow"

Does music and sound help to inspire the mood or tone of your work? To me I can almost feel the chill or dampness in the air when I look at some of your work

Yes it does. I listen to music all the time when I work. I also listen to lots and lots of audio books, they making me go broke hahaha. It’s really for me, the best time to take in a book do to me not having much time to sit and read. I feel when I can get into a good book as I work it helps me to not over think what it is that I am doing. I feel like when we are too aware of our own creations we leave them no place to grow. 

Can you talk about the process of collaboration with Geoff Gersh for the music for your show "Sheep Will Follow"? Very fitting audio accompaniment for your images.

This was the second time Geoff and I worked together. As I begin to build the work I start giving him the drawings, paint studies, and  writings to look at and then I let him just do his thing. I don't get involved in his composing other then talk about what the paintings are  about. As Geoff builds the structure of the music score he gives me  the parts to listen to as he goes and then I can hang out with those  music parts as I paint and let the music effect what I am painting  it's a really cool process. This time around for the "Sheep Will  Follow" show Geoff and I had one music score running throughout the  galley and then three different music pieces playing separately in three music boxes that I built to interact with the over all music score.  I am very fortunate to be working with Geoff he is amazing.

There's a awful lot of mean weather juxtaposed with very delicate china in some of your scenes. When I first saw "Balance", after my initial amazement I thought "How horribly stressful! All those tea cups in that tornado!". Is there anything you could comment on that?

Life throws us lots of obstacles that we need to work through and they can be very challenging at times. When “Balance” was created I was working out an obstacle of my own and painting Balance was one of my ways of working through it. The tornado in “Balance” represents the obstacle and the tea cups are the fragile details that need to be handled with care but at the same time held out in the open. That one means so much to me that I had Josh Glantz, one of my best friends, tattoo it on my arm.

Your work does invite a level of wanting to figure it out or to decipher your thoughts or inspirations for what's in the scene. Could you please talk about "Flood"? The numbers?

feel sometimes we allow numbers to rule our life. Be it time or money the more numbers you have the higher you are respected on the status quo. And some people have allowed the numbers to control them.  I used the numbers in "Flood" to represent the race of time and used them as a stone path to journey down from the rising danger

Aprella, your ladylove, models for you often. How much of her personality do you think is infused into the art work?

All of her and every bit, I wouldn’t have it any other way. My studio is in our home and both of our careers allow us to work from home so we spend a lot of time together. She is one of my best critics and she helps me see and think of things I normally don’t see in my paintings. She points out the strong parts and trust me when I am doing something crappy she helps me see that as well. I am a very lucky person to be able to paint her, her beauty is breathtaking and who wouldn’t want to paint her?…. many of the great artists out there today already have and continue to. I have to share her as a muse but, ya know, I’m pretty sure she loves me best. haha

What does your studio look like? Are you messy or neat? What frustrates you, if anything, when you are painting?

When I am working it’s messy and I am always working so that makes it pretty much always messy and as it gets closer to one of my shows it turns into a disaster. I try to set a day aside to tidy it up a little just so I can find things. But if it’s too clean then I know there is a problem cause it means I am not working enough hahaha. I would say the thing that frustrates me the most is Aprella and I live in NYC and where I paint is right by a window to the main street so when the rush hour hits its car horn mayhem but that is part of the symphony of NYC and it reminds me I live here and I love it here so I wouldn’t change a thing.

 

back to index