River Girl

Oh what fun it was to work on this one! Kendal is my ever-patient photo victim. This was a pretty mucky location and she was a trooper. As usual!

Feral

This is Rylie. She's been in earlier posts. She's such a beauty! She is very talented at changing her look for me. She went from a hauntingly beautiful river fairy to a feral woodland creature all in one session.

I love the "Let's Pretend" sessions!

Bluebird

Listening to Pandora.

It was very fitting that one of my favorite Beatles songs, "Blackbird" came on as I was finishing this little bird girl.

Model: Lea

Happy Fall!

Nobody's Darlin' - October 2013

This fall I had fun photographing an all-girl string band, Nobody's Darlin'. I had visions in my mind that I wanted to try with this band. They were very patient with me as I requested that they to do some strange things during our session!

I'm experimenting with compositing in Photoshop. I have a few shots from this session to experiment with and a number of "Let's Pretend" shots to work with. 

I can't wait to share!

Rewards!

The KickStarter Rewards are going out this week! I'm packaging and sending them out this weekend.

The Metamorphosis girls from the ArtPrize show are all packed up awaiting the next art adventure that may come their way. Currently, I'm looking for appropriate venues that may wish to display some or all of the pieces from the series.

I have been working on my Let's Pretend photo book that will include many of the Metamorphosis images. This has been an ongoing project that I can't wait to complete!

Now-- off to get ready for a band photo shoot tomorrow in the woods. Busy weekend!

ArtPrize Top Ten

What a busy two weeks! I saw a lot of familiar faces and met many new fans of Metamorphosis during ArtPrize these past two weeks. The best visits were from my models in the series. Watching their faces light up when they saw their images larger than life was a beautiful thing. The only one who could not make it back to town was Lea, but her family has made several visits to the venue.

My venue is located in the outskirts of the main ArtPrize festivities. Unfortunately, not a lot of visitors have time to make it over to my venue if they are only in town for a day or so. It is quite an undertaking to get to all of the large venues, let alone make it to the smaller ones. I hope since the ArtPrize Top Ten pieces have been announced, people that have already viewed the top ten pieces will wander to view artwork in the smaller venues. I have gotten a lot of positive feedback from the viewers I have met. Also, a possibility to show one of the pieces at another art show.

I know a few artists that have a sour taste for the ArtPrize event. It certainly stirs up a lot of conversation, both positive and negative. Personally, I enjoyed a chance to create a series that I have been developing in my imagination for some time. I was lucky to connect with a venue that hosted my entire series with me being the lone artist. I typically don't share my images with others, and this project has forced me to show more of my work. And what a great time to share-- ArtPrize has infused Grand Rapids with crowds of people. By sharing my work, I have gotten feedback from others which has inspired me to work on other projects that have been brewing in my brain. If you haven't already, "Like" my page on Facebook or follow my blog to hear about future projects I will be working on beyond Metamorphosis.

I'm going to be sending some of my rewards out this week! I sent an email to my Kickstarter Backers for addresses and such so I can send rewards. Thank you again for your pledges and support on this project!

Here are some photos of my model visits--

Kendal

Rylie

Arabella and Rowen

Kendal, again

Gracie

Metamorphosis Session 5: Rylie

Rylie was one of my favorite models in my early portrait days. I learned very quickly that Rylie had complete creative control over all of our sessions. She decided where and how she was going to stand, when she would smile and definitely would let me know when she was finished with me. She enjoyed posing very much- she would tilt her cute little face to the side bringing her hands up by her face and beam a picture-perfect sweet smile.

She still has that sweet smile and a knack for posing. As we were walking through the woods for the Metamorphosis session, I explained some of the things I wanted her to portray in the photos. Some haunting, lonely images and some strong powerful images. The first pose she gave me was the one I remembered from the early days- head tilted, picture-perfect smile. 

I said a few words to her and was amazed how quickly her pose changed to exactly what I was looking for. She took my breath away with her beautiful portrayal of a river nymph basking in the sunbeam or a lonely forest fairy. 

I have so many "keepers" from Rylie's session. I can't wait to share them after my ArtPrize series is completed! As I do with Kendal, we did some poses with some of my treasures so I can do some compositing with them later. 

I am STILL getting Kickstarter pledges from both old and new fans of my work! It ends at noon tomorrow. I am so grateful! All 6 prints will be completely funded. I'm looking forward to making a book of the images that are not in the show. There were so many "keepers" in this series and I want to expand on them. It will be a nice gift for the girls who made the images so hauntingly beautiful.

For those that are attending ArtPrize, Bang Blowdry Bar will be hosting an "ArtPrize Kickoff" party with a DJ and some great specials and gift give aways. That will be from 5-9 this Friday, 9/20. I'll be there handing out some voting cards with images from the series. Hope to see you there! Make sure you look closely at the images to see some of my treasures hiding in a few.

Installation is tonight for the four large window banners and the 40x30 print of the Bird Girls. The 40x60 Octopus Girl will be coming later in the week- hopefully it will be up by Friday's party. Exciting stuff!