Cat Fights & Hot Nights...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope all is well with you out there this week! I have a ton to share from the studio and just life in general. To start, I had a full weekend of shooting and I have a couple of projects I will be posting in the coming week. But until then, here are some teaser shots. As I mentioned in past posts, one of the shoots involved beauty queens, vintage 1950s Miss America to be exact. And after taking some traditional shots, I of course put my twist on things. But I managed to source an actual beauty queen tiara that was stunning and then I made my own sash. It took roughly 8 hours because I decided about halfway in, that the sash needed sparkle so I applied hundreds of jewels by hand. It was worth it because the sash looked amazing. Here are some sneak peeks.

And, also my work was recently featured in a great online magazine out of Norway called Cirkumfleks Magazine. The magazine, which is published quarterly, features a ton of great artists so I was flattered to be a part of it! A nice little write up about my background and inspiration is also included. A big thank you to Ed, the editor, for asking me to be a part of it.

And last piece of business, if you're local to Portland, Maine, my Clue series will be displayed for the First Friday Art Walk August 3rd, 5-8pm at the Masonic Temple in Portland (where the shoot took place): 415 Congress Street. So stop on by, it would be great to see you! And if you aren't local, the book is your next best bet to catch all the work.

Someone recently posted a video to my Facebook wall and said it reminded them of my work. It's Amanda Palmer's What's the Use of Won'drin? and I agreed and totally fell in love with the video so I thought I'd share it with you guys. Tell me what you think. HERE is the video.

Have you heard of Retronaut? It's a great site just chockfull of vintage imagery and trivia that you really can't find anywhere else. Or (as is the case with the specific post to which I am referring here), you may have seen one photo out on the internet somewhere, but Retronaut has the entire shoot and backstory. An amazing resource for someone who shoots vintage-inspired work like I do. The photo to which I am referring is the first black cat image below. It's pretty famous. But Retronaut has the entire shoot from the auditions, plus the date of the shoot so from there I was able to find out the following: Tales of Terror was a 1962 horror film starring Vincent Price, Peter Lorre, and Basil Rathbone. Billed as a "Trilogy of Shock and Horror," the film consisted of three short sequences, all based on Edgar Allan Poe stories: "Morella", "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar", and "The Black Cat." On one auspicious day in 1961, an open audition was held in Hollywood to find the perfect cat to play the part of the the eponymous feline. Fortunately for us, photographer Ralph Crane was on hand to capture every glorious moment! Great stuff, isn't it? I love learning little tidbits about pictures I've seen a hundred times.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...