Stahly joins LPR as Advertising Director

By Kyle Mooty

LPR Editor

Jon Stahly, a former Marine and a background steeped in the art community, has joined the Lockhart Post-Register as its Advertising Director.

“We feel very fortunate to have found someone with his art design abilities to bring our advertising to the next level,” said Dana Garrett, Publisher of the Post-Register. If any of our Lockhart businesses need help in promoting their business through print or digital, just give him a call or send an email (see phone and address below).”

Originally from Antioch, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area, Stahly joined the Marine Corps two days after graduating from high school. He would have boot camp in San Diego before being stationed at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. While at boot camp, he called home and his mother informed him that they would no longer be living in California, rather Texas. His father was a certified technician and would be going to work in Austin. They found a home in Dale.

Stahly and his wife, Madison, moved to Texas in 2016, but later moved to Maine where Jon would earn a master’s degree of Fine Arts from Maine College of Arts and Design (he had received a BA in Art from UT-San Antonio).

“(Stahly’s Graphic Arts experience that will help in creative design for advertising in the LPR and LPR’s social media,” Garrett said.

Stahly taught a youth architecture program in Austin before he and his wife moved to Caldwell County.

In May, Stahly had an art exhibit at Commerce Gallery in Lockhart.
“My artistic practice mines the American imagescape, focusing on the intersection of personal history/experience and the grander politics of American life and culture,” he said. “Utilizing both historic and contemporary images, my works collage time and space, contrasting the past and the present in order to disrupt any specific narrative. By simultaneously presenting American ideals of patriotism, hard work, traditional family roles, and pastimes alongside inflation, war, gas prices, climate change, illness, and unemployment, I create conflicting yet representational pictures of everyday American life.
“I anchor my work and conceptualization firmly within the idea of Americana. This term is generally rather empty, having been diluted and overutilized within pop culture. Images of American flags, blue jeans, and vintage cars have become its primary signifiers. While often meaning nothing at all outside of something being nostalgically and specifically American, I aim to visually redefine Americana to include what I consider a more accurate portrayal of what every day Americans interact with and exist within. This means to continue to proliferate the traditional pop iconography while placing it alongside less ideal and romanticized aspects of society and culture. My work is a product of my observations and experiences as an American who is inherently proud of my country yet continually challenged by its faults and failures.”

Stahly can be reached at 512-398-4886 or via email at advertising@post-register.com.