Pat Stall

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Fan
Name: Pat Stall
Alias(es):
Type: fanartist, fan writer, and fan poet; tribber
Fandoms: Star Trek: TOS, K/S
Communities:
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Pat Stall was a Star Trek: TOS fanartist, fan writer, and fan poet.

Her primary technical method was ink wash, one that was also used by Michael Verina.

Stall passed away June 22, 1989 at the age of 58.

About

Trek Artist and Baltimore's own 'little old grey-haired lady', Pat was an art teacher at an inner-city high school who brought Trek to her students and had some of their work published in various fanzines. She consistently insisted that she couldn't draw, bemoaned her lack of originality, even as fandom embraced her as one of its first-rate illustrators. She contributed artwork to literally dozens of zines, despite the slow process it was for her. Cursed with an eyesight problem, she literally cried tears as she painstakingly worked on an illo. Witty, wacky and totally wonderful, Pat was the hit at any party or gathering she attended, appreciated for her pithy one-liners. She covers and inner pages of K/S zines. Pat gafiated (left fandom –"Getting Away From It All") at the height of her popularity, and later died of cancer at her Baltimore County home.[1]

Her 1981 Bio

In 1981, she was nominated for a FanQ award and submitted the following bio to The Annual Fan Q Awards Nominations Booklet:

Pat Stall saw her first Star Trek episode in 1976, fell in love with Captain Kirk, attended her first con (in Washington D.C.), met the editors of CONTACT, and shortly thereafter attempted her first illos for their 'zine. The results led to doing illos for other 'zines, such as THRUST, STARDATE:UNKNOWN, ALTERNATIVE, ALTAIR, COMPANION, NOME, NAKED TIMES, NOURISHMENT, NEXUS, STAR SONG, ENTERCOMM, MATTER/ANTIMATTER, GALACTIC DISCOURSE, IDIC, OBSC'ZINE, STAR CANTICLE, STARBOURNE, and THE PRICE AND THE PRIZE. She wrote her first short story and first poem for ALTAIR and her first full length story for STARBOURNE. She fervently hopes, that following her retirement this summer, she will be able to get back to creating illos her Trek friends. Her favorite medium is gouche, a creamy, opaque water color--and she prefers to use live models for her poses, to capture a more realistic feeling for the story passage or poem selected to be illustrated. She is grateful to all the zineds that so patiently waited for her illos, both through the long vigils associated with her mother's and then her father's serious illnesses (not to mention her own operation, which rendered her drawing hand inoperable for two months), and through this final year as Regional Director of the United Federation of Doll Clubs, which takes so very much of her free time at present. -- Nominated for Favorite Single Artwork.

Interview

Meta

Pat Left Fandom

Pat left fandom in 1988 or before. Her reasons were given in the column Where Are They Now: Pat Stall in On the Double #9 and were reprinted in Legacy #5:


Pat S. no longer participates in K/S for reasons of conscience. She believes that it would be wrong. In a letter, Pat told me that five years ago cancer was spreading throughout her body, and she was given six months to live. Then she recovered her Catholic faith. The strength of her belief enabled her to survive. Many people who have been struck with cancer have gone into remission because of their strong commitment to religion. The phenomenon is widely documented. Truly heartfelt prayer can pull you through cancer. Pat remains committed to her religion. She deeply regrets her participation in K/S because of a fear that it encourages the sin of sodomy, and because she thinks that the reputations of both the action characters have been ruined by it. It was the advent of the AIDS epidemic that convinced her that K/S was not only wrong, but destructive. She writes, ‘I realized that the only K/S situation I had not yet illustrated was one in which Kirk and Spock die from having infected each other with the virus. I was overwhelmed with guilt and dropped out of Trek permanently.’ Although Pat has survived cancer, she is now confined to a wheelchair. Yet she continues her art activity in the form of designs for paper dolls. Her designs have appeared in various doll and paper doll publications. Pat also prays. She prays for God’s forgiveness and she prays for God’s love—not only for herself, but for all of us, too.

A fan who knew her, Fandom Grandma (Dee), wrote:

Pat Stall, as far as I know, was ok with “orphaning” her work, in print and online; she simply wanted to distance herself from it....she got cancer and became extremely religious, and denounced her association with slash.

She had been such a mentor and role model to many younger women that feelings of betrayal still linger for some.

But her reasons for leaving fandom were not the norm in my experience, and it would be a misrepresentation of fandom history to take her story as the norm. [2]

Zines Stall Contributed To

Altair | Alternative: Continuing the Epilog to Orion | Companion | The Compleat Alternative | Contact | Enter-comm | Farthest Star | Galactic Discourse | IDIC | Impact | Matter/Antimatter | The Mirage | Naked Times | Nexus | Nome | Obsc'zine | Organian Questor | The Price and The Prize | Star Canticle | Starborne | Stardate Unknown | Starsong | The Turbolift Review

Gallery

Unknown Date

1976

1977

1978

1979

1980

1981

Other Fan Mixes, Transformative Works

Reactions/Reviews

2009

When I first started reading and writing K/S, I would visualize artist's interpretations of the characters rather than imagining the actors. For some stories, I'd have more stylized versions in my head (Gayle, and Leslie Fish, for example). Sometimes I'd visualize them as The Southern Cross or Caren Parnes or Merle Decker or Pat Stall versions. It all depended on the style of the story. I later found, through fannish conversations, lots of other people were doing exactly the same thing.[8]}}

2017

In 2017, spockslash posted samples of Pat Stall's fan art to her tumblr The Premise. It generated 274 notes.[9]

[spockslash]

Truly her work needs no introduction. She was one of my two favorite artists in the 70s (the other was Alice Jones).

[elian-na-eldari]

These are gorgeous

[myfirstisthefourth]

😱OH MY GOODNESS!! I have Never seen these butnthey are Stunning. I very much prefer realism in my fanarts and these are just Perfect! Thanks you for sharing. ☺❤

[myfirstisthefourth ]

OH MY!! Amazing historical fanarts. I’ve never seen these before but I Love them! The “Naked Times” pic is drving me Nuts with ideas. 😁❤

[jimlikesgreendick ]

These are stunning! The bluish one from the waist up with Jim’s arm around Spock’s neck is my favorite. So realistic. ❤️💚

[donotblameme-ijustreblog ]

These are so beautiful 😍!!!

[aerialiste]

Pat Stall was amazing & I'm sorry she later regretted her works because GOD BLESS

[c-c-tinsworth ]

HOLY SHIT ITS OLD GAY PORN

References

  1. ^ njpax (2008-07-14). "Farewell, Dear Fen: In Memorium". LiveJournal. Archived from the original on 2012-11-29. Retrieved 2010-01-17.
  2. ^ November 14, 2017 comment on Spockslash: Pat Stall's Amazing Art
  3. ^ Denise Dion's May 25, 2012 post to the K/S Zine Friends Facebook group, quoted with permission.
  4. ^ from The K/S Press #140
  5. ^ comment at twitter.com/lowpolymillio, Dec 15, 2018
  6. ^ Source: spockslash scan
  7. ^ Tumblr
  8. ^ conversation from a mailing list, quoted anonymously (Jul 11, 2009)
  9. ^ "Tumblr". Archived from the original on 2018-12-10.