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"I fit the bill but I am in no way comfortable with my body being in print right now. "

"I want to be in this project, but I don't like my body right now."

These are two real life comments I have had from people who have responded to model calls I have put out for my current book projects. The image empire and false standards of beauty have placed these women in positions of self loathing and embarrassment leading them away from something they would like to do. 

I did not ask them directly, I posted the notices and they came to my inbox to tell me that they loved the idea, they wanted to take part, but they could not over body shame. The image empire won, but these women have lost-and so have I. 

I recentl

I went out to the outdoor deck at the convention center to have a cigarette. Cos-players were meeting “professional” photographers in this area. I saw a young woman dressed as Supergirl. The photographer made Larry Flint seem a gentleman. I got involved. Photography should be fun and not a #metoo story.

2 years I have covered a convention on the East Coast as press. The con is called Otakon. It is an Anime convention. Otakon is focused on celebrating Japanese art and culture mostly in the form of anime and manga. It needs to be stated for the record that Otakon staff take sexism, racism and homophobia seriously. They took the matter seriously when I brought it to their attention.

Cos-players reflect their favorite

Passion, love, delight, gardens! I'm a hopeless romantic and a visual troubadour. I'm also a realist. These two world collide inside my heart every moment of every day. I have an art piece that reflects the two spirits within me. It is called Tending Passion's Garden.  In the Chicago art world, it is my signature piece that opened gallery doors and walls for me. As I release it in an extreme limited edition one more time, I wanted to tell a story. 

When I created Tending Passion's Garden I wanted it to be something that was ethereal, but also tangible. A fantasy you could step into. I could do this through digital art/photoshop or I could make it organic. I opted for the organic. 

The bed in the garden has been done before a

 Sometimes Picasso was political. Sometimes he wasn't. In 1945 he did say the following:

What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who has only eyes if he’s a painter, or ears if he’s a musician, or a lyre at every level of his heart if he’s a poet, or even, if he’s a boxer, just his muscles? On the contrary, he’s at the same time a political being, constantly alive to heartrending, fiery, or happy events, to which he responds in every way[. . . .] No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war for attack and defense against the enemy. [Pablo Picasso, Statement, in Chipp, Theories of Modern Art, 487.]

I just released a new photo zine book called,