art that moves; physically, spiritually.

at the start of the pandemic in the month of april, i took a class.

my good friend and creative mentor, Jessica Holleque, had the opportunity to lead a week long artist guild workshop in Washington, which due to COVID, was cancelled.

in its place, she immediately (she was way ahead of the curve) made an online (and financially) accessible class for anyone and everyone who was looking to connect creatively.

a group of beautiful and inspiring women transpired as a result of her genius, and i was one of them. this class is 100% why i didn't go completely insane at that time; i'm sure of it.

(this is a photograph of me taken by jess at her apartment last winter.)

in this online class led by jess, i was introduced to elyse jokinen.

and she is hands down the reason i reconnected with the art of collage. (i say reconnect because as i kid, i would scrapbook and create collages all the time without naming it as such.)

Elyse's encouragement, her spirit, and her own personal drive behind her work has been instrumental in helping me see the possibilities with this medium.

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i titled this post "art that moves": physically, spiritually, metaphysically, emotionally, mentally, etc.

art is movement.

art is change.

art is process.

art is the movement of my own creating.

art is the product of my movement.

art erupts from my own thoughts, fears, dreams.

and is translated into a digestible, perhaps even pleasant, form.

for you.

and for me.

collage, i feel, is so within reach for anyone who wants to create.

you can use whatever scraps of inspiration you find from magazines, books, printed photographs, cereal cartons... anything!

if it helps, i'll put a list together of what you might need.

then go home, give it a go, and send me what you made!

you will (physically) need:

• paper

• glue stick

• scissors

• magazines (or other printed works)

• coffee and weed (or anything else that helps you feel relaxed :)

• comfortable table and chair situation

• trash bin for scraps

you will (emotionally) need:

• to let go

• ignore what you learned about art and rules

• pretend like you don't care how it turns out

• tell yourself gently, to be present

as my friend jess would say, you are picking up a pair of scissors! you are creating today! that alone is worthy of celebration. and enjoyment. and self love.

so!

go forth, my friends.

create today and tomorrow. not for anyone else. no no no. never.

always and only. just for you.

the joy it gives you will translate - i promise.

as always, feel free to connect with me on topics of my art, photography, or white guilt. i'd love to talk to you about white guilt. in the meantime, listen to my podcast.

i go into my own feelings around this topic and plan to release more episodes over time. it is a personal side project very dear to my heart.

alright, that's all for today, folks.

xoxo,

fruitful love with lareesa and amaeya | collaboration with amazing grace photography (briona sears)

it's difficult to articulate how special this shoot was. and i notice that often it's the most special of projects that cause me to struggle with finding words!

thank goodness for the words images speak that we cannot.

well, first off, it's helpful to know this beautiful mother is my friend. and her beautiful daughter, Amaeya, is filled with that same light. the one that shines through Lareesa.

and so yes, this shoot was very special. it was like photographing two beautiful beams of light. in a very metaphorical way of course :)

i met Lareesa a few years ago back when we made the move from minneapolis to seattle. she and i worked together at my first job out here! i was so nervous to start a new job in an entirely new city, but i instantly felt at ease around her as a co-worker (and quickly, a friend).

i still remember her saying on my first day of work that i could always eat lunch with her if i wanted to. like, how sweet!!! that's the fear, right? eating alone at lunch?

so yes, that is but a small morsel of truth about how kind this soul and human is. and to say that i felt honored to photograph her and her daughter (alongside one of her best childhood friends, GODMOTHER to mae mae and fellow seattle area artist, Briona) is an understatement. i felt like i was being welcomed into a memory i had no idea i'd partake in. but now that i have, i am wont to think on my life without it. without these people who have impacted me so deeply.

gosh, all. my clients impact me so deeply. it's true. every single story. every single narrative of a life that i have the honor of capturing, has moved me and changed me.

so, it was the really small movements that captured my heart with this session. the seemingly small gestures; these, these are where all the beauty lies for me when photographing loved ones.

the tummy squeeze, the gentle nudge, the breathy kiss, the awkward tumbles... it's all. a. part. of. love.

Amaeya kept examining everything before her. the lemons, mostly, and the flowers. oh yes the flowers. incidentally, she tried eating the flowers, not the fruit. and mystically, mysteriously, wonderfully, Lareesa told me her Grandmother had a photo of her trying to eat a flower when she was a baby.

like, what!!! you can't make these things up, people.

so what was the vision here? how do this all come to fruition (enjoy my little pun? well i'm not into puns, but if you enjoyed it, I'M GLAD!).

well, the vision was actually inspired by my grandmother!

briona, lareesa and i were discussing what direction to go. my grandmother had recently passed away, and peaches were her favorite fruit. in fact, they were the last thing she asked for before she passed.

the mystical strangeness of it all, is that i had been craving peaches and reading about them in a book quite literally on the day she died, without knowing of her passing until later.

and so, peaches became the inspiration, and lemons. i gathered these items, along with some flowers that carried these similar orange tones, and just to add some variation, a purple seeded flower as well. all these colors really looked stunning when compiled in a gorgeous heap with the gorgeous subjects :)

in the space between lareesa and Amaeya you can spot Briona's lens :)

that's a proud god parent right there.

Amaeya was not a huge fan of being without her mother for these images. but does she ever look sweet, nonetheless <3

yes, in her mama's arms is where she belongs. <3

the following are a random assortment of my favorite from this session. thank you, as always, for supporting my art <3 and thank you, to every single human and soul that graces me with their presence and lives in front of my lens.

your story is quite literally why it is i chose to photograph and video memories for a living.

xoxo,

The Luckiest Humans <3 Patsy and Chloe | a ridiculously belated post about this amazing wedding day.

chloe & patsy celebrated their day beneath the trees of vashon island, with only their closest family and friends to witness.

these two, and the people that surrounded them this day, are exactly why we (mark and i) are in this line of work.

marriage was not in the plan for chloe and patsy. but that changed. and when it did, their loved ones rallied around them to make it happen.

to love is to be brave and vulnerable at the same time.

so thank you, to these two and their community. for reminding us to be brave, too.

p.s. this is ALSO the first wedding film mark and i shot together! and it features the first shots he ever took for my business with his drone! I think he did a fantastic job.