Today we’d like to introduce you to Tori Rodriguez.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I’ve been fortunate to have ongoing opportunities to pursue and combine my various creative endeavors. I’m into psychology, fitness and wellness, singing, writing, and Bettie Page, to name a few of my top interests, and a lot of these areas feed the others. As a psychotherapist, for example, I emphasize the importance of creative expression, and I use tools like metaphor and various mind-body techniques to help clients get beyond the limitations of literal, linear thinking.
As a writer, I love developing new ideas, and in addition to tons of articles on a wide range of topics, I’ve written many articles and two books – both published in 2018 – about one of my ultimate creative muses, 1950’s pinup queen Bettie Page. The Little Book of Bettie: Taking a Page from the Queen of Pinups, is a Bettie-inspired pinup lifestyle guide that includes body positivity, fitness, fashion, beauty, DIY pinup accessories, and more. Bettie Page: The Lost Years is a biography based on Bettie’s letters to her sister Goldie over several decades following her retirement from modeling in the late ’50s. I was thrilled to get the chance to write the latter book with Goldie’s son Ron Brem, who provided the letters and previously unseen photos from his family archives.
In 2015, I started my business, Bettie Page Fitness, with the debut of my first fitness video, Bettie Page Fitness: Total Body Strength & Cardio – which was actually the first-ever body-positive fitness video on the market. This video and the subsequent release, Bettie Page Yoga, are inspired by Bettie in several ways. I’ve since added a line of Bettie Page Yoga mats that feature life-sized Bettie photos, and I really enjoy playing with that concept and choosing the designs for the mats.
I’m also the editor of the BettiePage.com blog, and I manage her official social media pages, so those are other fun ways I get to be creative on a regular basis.
Please tell us about your art.
I aim to create new ways to help people feel good and be well, whether it’s making fitness accessible to more people by keeping it fun, unique, and body-positive, or making the hard work of therapy less daunting by infusing it with humor and creative interventions. I like to apply unconventional ways of inspiring people to celebrate and take care of themselves in various ways.
In general, I try to live as an example that makes people feel freer to be themselves and pursue healing and self-expression despite what preconceived notions others might have regarding how they should be or how they should go about it.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
I think the role of artists is of utmost importance right now, as it always is but particularly during times of national unrest and transition. In addition to providing relief from all the uncertainty, fear, and hardship many of us are facing, they are using their art to both document and respond to the ever-increasing social and political injustices plaguing our country, which primarily affect marginalized groups.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
My books, other products, and some of my articles can be found at bettiepagefitness.com. Both books are also available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and most other online and brick-and-mortar booksellers.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bettiepagefitness.com
- Email: info@bettiepagefitness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bettie_page_fitness
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BettiePageFitness
Image Credit:
Tori Rodriguez with The Little Book of Bettie: Taking a Page from the Queen of Pinups; photo by Brooklyn Brat Images at Dixie Pinup Studios
Tori Rodriguez striking a pose with Bettie Page yoga mats by Bettie Page Fitness; photo by Pearl Davies at Korsi Hot Yoga
Tori Rodriguez at Dixie Pinup Studios; photo by Brooklyn Brat Images
Tori Rodriguez with a Bettie Page yoga mat by Bettie Page Fitness; photo by Brooklyn Brat Images at Dixie Pinup Studios
Bettie Page Fitness offers yoga mats, books, and workout videos inspired by the Queen of Pinups
Burlesque icon Tempest Storm wrote the foreword for Bettie Page: The Lost Years; she and Page worked together in the 1950’s
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