About

Welcome Friends,

Enjoy reading, communicating, and being true to your multifaceted life endeavors. Whether you are a creator or promoting a creative, or coming along on the journey, we welcome you!

What you will find in Astoria Magazine

We hope you enjoy exploring and reading through our articles, sharing new ideas, special features, interesting insights, beautiful places, happening things, and creative people, shared with a sprinkle of experiences we’ve had along the way, a bit of poetic wit and wisdom, with even a dash or two of humor here and there.

• Features Section: Newsworthy Events, Places, and People
• Life Section: about Life, Family, Careers, and Changing Times
• Home & Garden Section: Beautiful Homes, Gardens, Food, and Interesting Projects
• Ideas Section: Ideas, Insights, and Advice from Experts
• Creative People Section: Featuring authors, artists, musicians, professionals, and interesting people from all walks of life.
• Trends: Skills and Trends are constantly changing. Are you creating new ideas? Are you discovering new things and making things happen? Let’s travel this journey together. We are always looking for a great new story!

Trina Astor-Stewart, editor.

“With over 30 years of experience in museum leadership, photography, and professional art, I am dedicated to fostering a supportive community for creators”.

Astoria Magazine Style:

• Warm
• Thoughtful
• Story-driven
• Our focus is consistent and practical yet uplifting with meaningful words artfully aligned and intentional.

How can you gain access to the Astoria Magazine audience and platform?

• Artist & Writer Spotlights: We frequently feature creative people and events in Astoria  Magazine and beyond—often at no charge—to help grow our vibrant community. Marketing and Advertising are separately priced.
• Guest Contributions: Have a story, poem, or insight you want to share? Have a look at our family-friendly values and submission guidelines. Astoria Magazine focuses on helpful, positive topics.
• Business Promotion: You can further your business goals via Marketing, Publicity Articles, and Connected Advertising in Astoria Magazine at competitive pricing. Pricing differs depending on your requirements. A ballpark figure is $200–$300+ per article post, and updates are changed at an hourly rate of $75.+ Contact: trina at astoriamagazine dot com.

Let’s Create Something Together

“I believe in the intersection of art, history, and a shared creative journey.”

Whether you are a reader with a question about my books, an artist seeking a spotlight in Astoria Magazine, or a fellow “Polymath” interested in a collaboration, I would love to hear from you.

How We Can Connect

To help me get back to you as quickly as possible, please select the category that best fits your inquiry:

• For Artists & Writers: Are you interested in being featured in Astoria Magazine? I am always looking for new voices and local talent to promote. Please include a link to your portfolio or a brief summary of your work.
• Author Inquiries: Questions about my latest series, Abby Finds Her Happy Place, or my cookbooks? I personally answer all my readers’ emails. Depending on whether I am in a deep art or writing session and dealing with a deadline, I usually get back within 24 to 48 hours.
• Collaborations & Press: For media inquiries, guest speaking, or creative partnerships regarding my work as a museum professional and author.
•  Just Saying Hello: I love hearing from readers and fellow creatives! If you enjoy the “unintentional ASMR” in my YouTube channel videos, Trina Astor-Stewart | Calm Creative Process, feel free to drop a note.
• How to Get in Touch – See the Contact Page

How to become a Guest Contributor to Astoria Magazine.

We accept a limited number of guest contributions. Please see our Guest Submission Guidelines.

A little history about Trina Astor-Stewart

I was only recently told I was a polymath, which explained a lot about me. Polymaths are often initially denigrated in their working life because society favors extreme specialization. Often called “jacks-of-all-trades” who lack the focus of a single field of expertise. But sampling and learning of various other things can help solve problems in unique ways.

Because of changes over the last few decades, previously steady lifetime careers have been disrupted.

Just one example I can tell you about is remembering what life was like before computers. Well, I do. I worked as a professional photographer for a long time. In those days, photographers used film that needed to be “developed” in a darkroom with chemicals. Prints were made using specialized coated papers, which you exposed to light, then processed in chemicals, and hung to dry. Large negatives, as the films were called after processing, were retouched using very sharp lead pencils. It was a painstaking art form that changed from using pencils to tiny brushes and dyes. Then the prints were further retouched, or, since they were black-and-white, hand-colored in oil. The artist-photographer was often chosen by clients for their skill at making people look good in a portrait. It was a good living.

Then, color photography, smaller film, and digital photography came along. Many of the artisans skilled in these techniques were wiped out by changes in the field. I was young back then and had been told these things I was being taught would never be out of fashion. It all hit me after I began my own studio, following my work for a counterpart to Karsh, Artin Cavouk. When I began working there, I already had skills, but I learned another level of the art in his studio. I remember working on large portraits and retouching them for days; it was really painting, but it had to look like a photograph (not showing the artwork).

Well, you can imagine the changes computers have brought about. I had to relearn everything to use software like Photoshop and get similar results. Actually, I am glad of it as retouching one image means infinite prints. While I worked with Cavouk, there were orders for portraits, as many as 100 copies of the same photograph. Imagine the time it took to do this work with very fine brushes dipped in dyes. And they all had to look the same!

Well, I won’t bore you with all the changes that came after that, but let me say, when you are running your own art-related business, you need to be a “jack-of-all-trades!” Like learning marketing, bookkeeping, building rapport with clients, and doing whatever was needed to bring in the dollars. Mainly, it is about “Finding a Need and Filling it”. And, “How to solve problems!”

I remember one time I got a phone call after hours from a man who needed a portrait right away. I was about to say, I didn’t do rush jobs anymore, as often I had dropped everything to help, only to have the rush job not be picked up until weeks later. But something in his voice and my need to pay the rent made me say, “Of course, I’ll be right there.” Well, he really had a need right away. While I was at his home, taking the photo, he kept apologizing for the blank wall in his family’s interior, which was decorated to the nines. When you are in business, you have to pick up on these clues. So I mentioned I was also a painter and would be happy to create something for that wall.

To make a long story short. Since my retouching skills made me super good at matching colors, I began the assignment with paints and brushes in hand, taking color notes of the room. I also listened to what the painting should look and feel like. His wife had very specific asks for this 5×4 ft. “Abstract” that should go beyond colors to reflect the style of the room and have lasting depth, so they would not tire of it.

It was a bit of a nerve-wrecker, as if they didn’t like the results, the order would be canceled. It happens when you are new, young, and desperately in need of clients! Nonetheless, given the potential fee, I took the risk. Thankfully, they loved it and even commissioned two more paintings over the next few years. All because I picked up on a conversation. I found a need and a want, and I filled them.

I tell you this story to encourage you if you are a young person just starting out. Learn all you can in your career and outside of it, develop problem-solving skills and a wide range of interests, and AI won’t be able to put you out of work. I think being a modern polymath is something you learn through experience.

So, years later, I “problem-solved” my way to where I am now, with a resume that looks like a hodgepodge, but I managed to pay the bills mostly by “keeping my wits about me” as much as possible.

My career was woven together by creative endeavor. Decades of experience in traditional fine art, photography, and digital media. I apply everything to what I’m doing, from raising a family and developing gluten-free recipes to writing and illustrating books, and from a decade-long career as a museum executive. In that role, I wrote successful grant proposals, managed the projects, and completed grant reports. I created summer camp programs for children ages six to eleven, directed student and senior volunteers, and managed museum events, tours, and the artifact collection.

These days, I am most often found at my laptop in my home studio in Niagara Falls, NY, creating calm YouTube videos of me illustrating. Oh, and I hum and sing while I work, who knew this would be unintentional ASMR?

Being a polymath has led me to be an author, a digital artist, a historian, and a cook. What you learn being a parent is also priceless!

That’s enough about me! Let’s hear about YOU!

“The whole idea at Astoria Magazine is to share some beauty, insights, and delight for you, Dear Readers.

To spread joy, to dare,
to take an abundance of care
for everyday life, to discover
something positively nice… just like a cuddly teddy bear.

Life teaches us many things…
Only by sharing do we help others.
Wishing you all the best every day in every way.”

Trina Astor-stewart

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