This is Na'ama~

 Fierce and courageous in life. I have the privilege to learn and grow with Na'ama in my studio and in beautiful settings around these sacred lands. She reminds me of an ancient queen in her youth. She is full of fire and the sun covers its eyes to gaze apon her. I can sense all the strong women and courageous warriors that have come before her when theragraphy* is happening. 

She radiates love and passion. When we first started hanging out it was because our energy knew each other before we said a word. I am so thankful for her and I look forward to seeing where she will go. Na'ama is off to NY soon to do what I have already seen she will do~She will travel the world many times over.

She was born in Goa, India. Her father, Alon, is Moroccan Israeli and her mother's name is Pamela, she is American. 

Na'ama is a citizenship of Israel and the US.

I'm thankful she trusts me and we can create anything we set out to create. 

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

Rumi
 

Misting of Light

Pushing Forward

All of us will experience hard choices, stressful events, and difficult situations that will impact us in one way or another for the rest of our lives.

Hard times happen. They teach us lessons, make us stronger, and give us a deeper sense of self. After all, would be sitting in the sun mean as much if you hadn’t of experienced the storm first?

After every storm there is calm, and then the sun shines. If you keep remembering that, you will make it through.

Give yourself the opportunity to feel and process every thought and emotion. This is what the experience calls for. We all know what happens if we bypass or bury our emotions. We must allow the process to happen and give ourselves the space and time to feel everything.

Now I take as much time as I can being positive. It is not easy on a daily basis,but I choose to have a happy life even when circumstances say there should be none. I am full of light and joy for each day to me is a new way to see out of the darkness. 

Rudy Aguilar Thank you for allowing me to go along with you to shoot that night in West Asheville. It is always so much fun just being around you man!

EMMA D, I'm so thankful to know you! You are a walking dream :) Look forward to creating with you again and again!

Series 'CONNECTED' Number 1

I remember my grandmother taking me downtown to Woolworth's. We would sit and have a cheeseburger, fries and an ice-cold coke. Then we would shop around for bargains and I would take in all the little ol' ladies. They were all so nice and colorful. It was a pastel time in my life. That's where the love for people watching began.

My favorite person to watch was Ms. Gahniva, or that's how I remember addressing that beautiful lady. She had a gum disease that some would say had deformed her face. I thought she was unique, kind, and accepting with a child's inner sight. I did not judge her on beauty, but on how she treated me. She still outshines most people I have known and probably will know while on this earth. True story. For those who have lived in Asheville since that time, you will know this story to be true. Ms. Gahniva would walk down the street balancing a 2 liter coke bottle on her head. Seemingly, she barely noticed it was there. I always wanted a drink from that 2 liter bottle. It must be something special! She would also talk to pigeons. They would keep pace and follow her about. I never knew the language but they definitely would talk back.

We all have a beautiful story on our faces.

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I see so many people I know in other people's faces. I have done this for the longest time. That connects me to them, and yet I wonder what they see. I've been told I have a doppelgänger in Charleston who I have yet to meet. I hope he is faring well after the recent storms there. 

Sometimes, the connection is fleeting, gone as I pass by. Other times, it deepens and the paths and story threads of two human strangers meet and time is changed. When I am going through a day and I start to feel it all colliding together and losing focus, I slow down and refocus. Those blurry moments are what I recognize and take time out for. This awareness in myself allows all the right steps to take place in order for me to experience someone or something new, someone or something that I haven't ever met before. Good things often come when you are open to them.

Today was such a day for me and I look forward to sharing a project I am calling, 'Connected.' Without a doubt, I see it. I have no control over not seeing it. As the simple and yet THE most impossible task if you can read, to see a word and not read it. I see the paths as they slightly collide and miss by seconds into inches. I have never seen such a lovely dance. No one knows the steps but it is all ebb and flow and we are all caught up in it.

I will sit in one spot for hours and just observe.

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I recently decided to try and capture what I see and feel is happening between all of us. Those missed encounters by mere seconds, happening every moment. The future is determined by you and those that shape it around you. 

Møniça-Theragraphy Session

This is Monica. I met her around 6 years ago working downtown. First impression Intelligent, lovely, feisty, strong, talented and funny. Working in the restaurant industry I rarely think on someone's life. You know, How they are doing. This lady was a sister from another Mr for sure! Time passed and I wondered how my sister was doing.  Since I last saw Monica she has had two beautiful children and is a loving and caring mother. It was nice to help pull my friend up with the help of many others in her life recently in a session.You are respected my dear! Keep your faith and your light~ Stay beautiful inside and out.

We all will know of strengths when we are at our weakest. I know the test is coming and in my life I look forward to the weakness. It comes less and less the more you realize the life you want to live. The eternal struggle of good and evil in all of us. We all know the faux faces. I choose to roam with beings looking to see themselves in a more fitting situation with everything around them. I personally have been 'destroyed and rebuilt' many times. All the while learning what to do and not to do. It is that simple. We forget as well daily. So how do you stay happy in a Mad World?

    Look for your higher power! Whatever that means to you. I live in a world that I choose. I have no time for negativity in ALL it's forms. I see it and I make a new path. 

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MAD MAX TRIBUTE SHOOT

“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.”

— T. S. Eliot

Finding myself running into the fantasy of this story as a child was easy for me! Mesmerizing!

 The scene was something I have never imagined. Wheels turned like the gears on some of those classic cars brawling around and bashing each other in fire and death! I loved it! 

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“Remember: no matter where you go, there you are.”

— PIG KILLER

I was entertained of the idea of a lost world. MAD MAX was the first time I saw the world for what it could be. How close to that reality are we? Scary how it is all so plausible and destined. Not for me in my head. I choose to see a thriving and surpassing land for those we leave behind. Using fossil fuels as if they just appeared. Sometimes living on this earth feels foreign. Alas, it is not the enchanted green utopia that I dreamt of.  MAD MAX was so out there it just felt natural to put myself into that creation.

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So I can not help the urge, the force that is in me to create. It's mostly what the engine runs on. So when I tell my friends the idea, they come together! So powerful the force. My right hand Tracie Mackenzie Simpson, my wife, my rock, My Love! She is able to tell me what I am thinking when I think in colors and textures. She is my Art Google! Amy L. Neill (OX+CO), Co-Creative Director and second eye of this shoot. Thankful for the direction and input on this shoot. I do not doubt your words! Danielle Miller was stylist and provided the wardrobe by Royal Peasantry. Your works are always different and so flattering to the female form! Thank you for bringing Sophie and Gyan to the set to help me see the vision!  Bailey Townley was the model for this shoot! This was our first shoot...No, It will not be the last! Amy Day Dougherty was the Lead hairstylist and owner of Nebula Beauty Lab, I have worked with Amy before and her OUT IF THIS WORLD Daughter Veda! PHENOMS Folks!!! They are so fun to be around with them just being themselves. When you say,"Go!" They Get it!. Eric France second camera. I love Eric's works! The man goes dark and it looks good! So it was a no brainer to have him along with me on this shoot.  Koa is the boy in mud. He came through like a champ! This was he's first shoot and he was slightly nervous! Sir!, You are a rockstar!!! Michelle Ford provided some of the head pieces.  Want to see beauty. Check out her works! Olympia LeHota thank you being such a gracious and gorgeous model!  Jonathan Higgins was videographer for this shoot. So professional it makes no sense! Thank you for capturing this Amazing Day in my back yard! You are one talented MF!  Yes Folks, All of it was shot in my backyard. You look at it and you don't really see anything special...but I did. An Idea became reality really quick and I'm so THANKFUL for all of you that helped me execute this idea with the timing it needed! 

Micah Mackenzie-Creative Director/Director of Photography

Tracie Mackenzie Simpson-Producer/Assisting Director/Set design

Amy L. Neill-Co Creative Director/OX+CO/@oxandco/#oxandco

Danielle Miller-Wardrobe/Model/Stylist    

Amy Day Dougherty- Hair

Eric France-Second Camera

Michelle Ford-Head Pieces

Bailey Townley-Model

Olympia LeHota-Model

Johnathan  Higgins- Videographer 

Veda,Koa, Sophie,Gyan - Children Models

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Damn. I love Australia!

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS! I'd like to know what you think :)