This Caliber [Magazine Editorial]

“I am not sick. I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.”
-Frida Kahlo

I was recently given a really exciting project that’s been published in Hufmagazine and Ladygunn Magazine. Some people seem to be born with out-of-the-box thinking, and my dear friend Kate is just that person. She gave me a project that really pushed my imagination and creativity to a new level. We were told to think about the shoot’s concept in a way that was outside how we’re normally inclined — this was a shoot for the soul. Using a list of specified female artists, my research began.

It’s obvious that traditional makeup wasn’t going to make the cut for this concept. Instead, I would need to create abstract art — clearly implied expression of ideas concerning the spiritual, the unconscious, and the mind.​ I’m not an art major by any means, so I found it helpful to see what the people who truly understand, study, live, and breath art had to say about these artists. I collected thoughts from different people, and I found my own creativity coming to life.

Georgia O’Keeffe – Magnifying and showing the beauty in small, natural details.
Louise Bourgeois – (sculptures obscene) Unconscious, sexual desire, and the body; psychological trauma.
Yayoi Kusama -Infinity, endlessness, and the cosmic realms.
Lee Krasner – Abstract expressionism; collages disliked rigid, liked expressing herself.
Eve Hesse – Minimalism, sculpture/forms as latex, fiberglass, and plastics.
Helen Frankenthaler – (abstract expressionism) “My pictures are full of climates, abstract climates,They’re not nature per se, but a feeling.”— she is willing to risk everything on inspiration. Fluid shapes, abstract masses, and lyrical gestures.
Joan Mitchell – (abstract expressionism) The economic handling of line conveys the contours and architecture of a body in space and its actual or potential motion. Emotional feeling is transformed into vivid substances, atmospheric space, and light; these elements pass between states of presence and absence, surge and recede, intensify and subside in weather-like rhythms.
Sarah Sze – (sculptures look like tiny cities) Familiar items in unfamiliar places. Intricate and sometimes very large structures are made from simple, everyday materials like wire, string, Q-tips, clay, congealed paint, fragmented photographs, video screens—fantastical constellations that appear to grow and change as you look at them, and suggest the ceaseless flow of information in the digital age.

I used construction paper, plastic, magazine pieces, body paint, and of course makeup to pay homage to the artists above. I hope that you enjoy this artistic shoot as much as I do!

The talented team:
Creative Director: K8 McKay @kateroxmckay
Photographer: Greg Gainor @ggainorphoto

Model: Keilahri @keilahri
Makeup Artist: Kendra Powell @makeupbykendra
Hair: Julia Savitskaya @annysty

Creative Retouching: Giedrius Jankauskas