Dipped my toes into the new season with The Scout Guide || Vol. 12 spring launch last week! As a small business owner, this feels huge. As an artist, whose core and soul is being a creative and sharing with the world, it makes me really proud. Proud of myself. Proud of my kids who inspired this, tolerate my lack of meal planning and creative work spilling into everyday lives, and recognize my hard and inspiring work. And proud of my husband, Daniel, for all he does for me to work on weekends and evenings.
The photo shoot for TSG was scheduled months ago. When you debate showering before work every time, because you are about to be covered in paint…styling for such a shoot is interesting. The night before, I had a dream. Kind of like a vision. Literally. It’s easy to look like every other artist in a head shot. Bright, light and neutral to make your pieces pop. The images are beautiful. But I’m different…kids are involved. That’s everything. That’s why I want to do this. But how can you tell the full story in ONE moment in time. One shot. (Cue ‘Hamilton’ in the background).
So, the vision. My kids are all very unique and in different phases. Because I never know what’s about to happen when a new family walks in the studio, I just know to stay open, listen, observe and roll with it. If we capture the phases of parenthood and your children’s lives in a Kid Art Commission, let’s do it in a photo too.
So, I told the talented Mary Craven (who I had never met before then), I had a vision. I pulled my kids out of school and wanted to capture the movement and quirks of childhood and siblings…however they wanted to do it. I wanted to be the pilar of confidence and calm in the middle.
Controlled, colorful chaos. That’s all it is, and I’ve earned that wisdom after our 3rd was born. That’s when I gave myself permission to own it. I earned it after dodging front/back walkovers out of nowhere constantly. I earned it after all the questions, overflowing streams of conscience, “guess what?!” and reminders about socks being mandatory with tennis shoes. And I’ve earned it after being a difficult, lively toddler myself decades ago.
I should find a nicer way to say this, but get used to seeing images from this shoot. I love them! I’m proud to be represented in the fantastic TSG community. And it’s a heck of a #proofofmom 🤍
