Bright Spring Days...

Hello Lovelies!

It has been awhile since my last post. Life has been very busy, almost too busy to take time to share it with you lovely readers out there. So let's play a bit of catch-up, shall we?

Let's start with some business news. I have released the entire first part of my Modern America Series! It took almost a year to shoot and complete the first 7 shots in this series. I am very happy with how the series is going so far. I'm planning to do 5 more to finish this work off. I am actually opening these last shots up to my followers for suggestions. I will be asking for ideas over on my Facebook page in the coming weeks, so follow along for that. A few of my favorite pieces in the series are below, and you may view all 7 over at my Behance site. This is some of my best work to date as an artistic photographer: I'm very proud of it. A big thank you to all of my models, assistants and hair and makeup people for helping me realize my vision. I hope you like it!

I have also been listing and selling things like crazy over at STAG as usual. A ton of great items in the shop and more to come very soon, including the amazing buffalo plaid vest, women's Russian jacket with gold buttons and an amazing vintage Windmill brand stadium style overcoat for the ladies, all shown below! Stop by frequently, new things are listed almost weekly...

And the final bit of business news is in the area of illustration. I was recently hired to do the design work for the Old Port Festival Weekend here in Portland, Maine. It's the biggest music/vendor/arts festival in the state of Maine and this year they're extending it to an entire weekend, so I was delighted to be asked to do it! I'll pass along more official site/poster information as I get it, but here are some of the sketches and then the final work. I am happy with how it came out...

I mention life has been busy, and boy, it sure has. A lot of great things are happening and the weather is getting warmer and spring is here in Maine! Here are just a few of the beautiful things I've seen, done and enjoyed since my last post...

And finally, today is my birthday! As with most people, birthdays are a fun time of reflection for me. I like to take the opportunity at least once a year to stop for a moment and really appreciate all of the wonderful things that have happened over the last year. I have so much to be grateful for: amazing friends, a studio, the ability and opportunity to make art and get paid to do it on occasion, a life right near the ocean that is so beautiful in a community of kind, caring people. I co-celebrated my birthday yesterday with my dear friend Timothy and I realized I'm a very, very lucky girl. I hope the next year is as good as the last...

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Mittens & Mojitos in Maine...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are well out there! Things here are really snowy and cold. We have had three major snow storms in the past week up here in Maine and while I adore snowy weather, I'm honestly not sure where they're going to put this snow if we get any more! But, I have been staying warm and busy and I have so many fun things to share.

To start, I have listed a ton of great new things in STAG this past week. It had been awhile and I had amassed some great items that are now yours for the taking! Including this amazing vintage game of Cooties still in its original box, a set of 1950's Boy Scout Membership cards all filled out for the same Scout and a pair of handmade wool mittens from the 1970's that appear unused! Plus, much more. Stop on by if you haven't been in awhile, things are always changing.

And, I recently entered a contest to "show your work space" via Instagram hosted by a men's clothing company for a chance to be published in a magazine and also win a gift certificate. I entered the shot below, of me styling some Stag product in my studio. I don't have any shots of myself working in my actual studio, and it so happens my Sweetie is also a photographer, so I had her help. I love how this came out: it's nice to have this shot even if I don't win.

I recently did some head shots for an author client of mine. She just finished writing several novels and needed dust jacket head shots. We decided that quirky was best, so I brought along some antique books and a plastic dinosaur and we had some fun! It's like finishing school meets the Pleistocene up in here! Such fun. She was very happy with how these turned out and so, I am as well. Take a look:

I have found some amazing work recently from two different artists that I want to share with you. To start, there's the work of Chris Turnham, who I found via Pinterest. His Tumblr site is full of wonderful, 1960's style illustrations of architecture, people, travel, etc. I love his color palette as well as his sense of mood. It's very hard to create a feeling of daylight or dusk or moodiness with solid swatches of color, but he does this effortlessly in each piece he creates. Take a gander at his site, above. Here is just a taste:

And the other artist I discovered via the Modcloth blog of all places. Mister Finch, as he's called, is a self-taught textile artist who sews absolutely amazing nature-based creations out of cloth, pipe cleaners, beads, you name it. His pieces are heartbreakingly realistic with a real sense of literary beauty. I look at that miniature suitcase full of a spiderweb and I think of Charlotte's Web and his birds are just too much. What beautiful work he does, don't you agree?

There is no better way to wrap up a snowy Maine weekend than driving a few towns away, finding a cozy bar with a fireplace and having a cocktail, don't you think? And that's just how I wrapped up the long, Valentine weekend with my Sweetie. It was so nice... I kind of like this season called winter in this place called New England.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

A Van, A Dog & A Mountain...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you are all doing well out there as usual! Things here are very, very good as always. And, as always, there is a lot to share.

To start, with the New Year, I have decided that my photographic work is going to take a decidedly new direction into the arenas of fine portraiture, fashion and lifestyle work with an eye towards the commercial end of things. In that vein, I have started planning some new projects that I think you will enjoy quite a bit. The first project will be fine portraiture and I am calling this series: 1910. I can't wait to get started! This series was inspired by the Ralph Lauren shot below and I will be shooting that next month, so get excited!

I have also been hinting at my big secret project for months now and I plan to release the first part of that in just a couple of weeks! I will give you a hint, the name of this series is Modern America and as the title suggestions, the work deals with modern issues that we face in society today. That's all I'm going to say. Standby for those shots very soon.

What else? Oh! I am working on a very exciting long-term project for some clients/friends of mine that I am getting really excited about! My friends own Premium H2O, a plumbing, heating & gas company up here in Maine. They bought a vintage Metro van from the 1950's this time last year, and they have been slowly working away at getting that van completely restored. Ultimately, it will be used in their actual fleet of vehicles and as a marketing tool. The van is amazing. I am documenting the process of its restoration for them and I will ultimately be using these photos to create a restoration book for their business. I was in the garage last weekend shooting part 2, as they are completely replacing the entire undercarriage. Here are some shots from that day. (Any day that finds me in a garage in Maine in winter with a bunch of boys who are drinking beer, laughing and wearing buffalo plaid is a fun day for me!)

And speaking of boy things, I went to a flea market while I was up north shooting the truck and I found some great, quality items for STAG. Including: a red wool men's vest that's amazing, a vintage Windmill brand tan women's wool coat that's in excellent condition and these things below (a pair of vintage, all-leather shooting gloves, a pair of women's wool mittens with flowers from the 1970's and a pair of vintage boots). All will be listed soon, so check back regularly for that!

We've had a beautiful winter here in Maine so far. A lot of snow, some nice, cold days and now the days are getting a bit longer. It's really boring spending all that time indoors, so I try to get out when time allows and when I have the motivation to do so! This past weekend, I went hiking up Bradbury Mountain ('mountain' really over-states it, it's really more of a hill) with a furry friend and took some shots of this beautiful place called Maine…

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...