Magazine founders create a synergy between local artists and fans

Story by Chanelle Fagon-Turner

Travis Stedmond and Kelly Crozier hold up a printed copy of the first issue of Synergy magazine.
Photograph by Chanelle Fagon-Turner

Most students can’t say they’ve started a magazine, but two young Oakville artists are doing just that for local and underground artists and students.

Travis Stedmond, a 21-year-old third-year Sheridan Visual and Creative Arts student, and Kelly Crozier, 19, and Stedmond’s roommate, have created an Oakville-based monthly art magazine called Synergy.

The print magazine uses artwork submissions from up and coming Canadian artists.

“What separates us is the fact that it’s all underground artists. Other magazines I see, they’re all successful artists.

They’ve already made it as an artist,” said Crozier, the magazine’s editor and former Sheridan Visual and Creative Arts student.

Crozier also creates her own artwork, including agate necklaces, which can be found at her Facebook page “LovelyOdds Arts & Things.”

“Synergy kind of means that work put together can make something better than any one individual could make,” said Stedmond, the magazine’s main networker.

He scouts developing artists to submit work to Synergy by using the contacts and connections he’s made as an art student and competitor in artist events, like the bi-weekly Art Battle, a live art competition held in different Canadian cities.

Stedmond’s artwork can be viewed at his Facebook page “Sivart.”

Artwork in Synergy can range anywhere on the artistic spectrum from paintings and illustrations to recipes and short stories, as long as it follows the submission magazine’s monthly theme.

The January theme was Portfolio, describing the showcasing of artists’ work for the first time in the magazine.

The February issue’s theme will be Limerence and the artwork will be about love, infatuation and intense emotions.

Producing the first issue was complicated by some technical difficulties.

“We didn’t have Internet in our apartment during the creation of our first issue. Travis didn’t have a phone either. It was a challenge to put everything together, especially because the whole thing was done through Facebook, email and blurb.com,” said Crozier.

Another member of the magazine’s creative team is Alira Wright, 19, Synergy’s main photographer, who has worked with SkateAble, Vicity Clothing and other local photographers, but now her top priority is Synergy and focusing on its development.

Her portfolio can be viewed at alirawrightphotography.com.

“I have been submitting work to small online magazines for a few months now, when my main model Matthew Bennett told me about Kelly Crozier’s magazine for local artists,” said Wright.

Bennett, 19, is a Cambridge-based model who plans to be regular content contributor and promoter for Synergy.

“My favourite thing about modelling is the creation process, sitting down with people and collaborating to create pieces. I love how much time, energy and work goes into creating one single image,” said Bennett.

The magazine is sold through blurb.com, a U.S. self-publishing website that helps users create their own prints and ebooks.

A printed copy currently costs $4.89 plus tax and shipping costs of $9, but Crozier and Stedmond eventually want to use a Canadian site to reduce costs.

Synergy’s next issue comes out this week and can be viewed and bought at www.blurb.com/user/SynergyMag