My color for the year at this time was Green. The color green meaning new life and growth. That year I walked through some new life in many different forms, but one of my favorites was in the form of a baby.
This was a collaboration with my photographer friend Rebecca Reale. I brought her my idea of a photography shoot all about my color of the year emphasis on my baby bump. We shared so many pins on Pinterest and then finally landed on a warm earthy style, with natural textures, but also with some pops of rose gold. That was mainly because my hair was rose gold at the time.
The studio had little to no widows, so we knew we would be working with studio lighting. Check. Now we needed the set. We ended up spray painting and foraging. Our foraging looked like cutting down those tall pampas grasses you see on the side of the road. Spray painting them, each side. And then arranging them around the space. One of our favorite moments of the set was the hanging branch.
Because of this project I realized how much I like spraying metallic paints on organic things like flowers. The gilded look was perfect. It took this dried up crunchy thing and turned it into a centerpiece. Naturally, I put it in my hair as a type of jewelry. The circle of evergreens on the floor was all Rebecca. She told me it reminded her of different birth rituals. Her favorite one looking like surrounding an expectant mother and praying for her and the baby. It became a prayer circle. The evergreens match that very nicely if you ask me. Prayer sometimes feel like an evergreen branch: ever prayed, ever heard, ever present, ever good-wishing.
Now for some movement. This green dress was perfect for a good ol’ skirt throw around. It wanted to make sure green for the dress was going to blend well with the other elements within the frame because I wanted this to read “nature” event though we were in a pretty industrial setting. That brings me to our narrative for this project.
So here’s the narrative: no matter what your current setting is, life is stronger than we think and it can bloom even in the harshest of circumstances. The image of a flower growing in the crack of a sidewalk comes to mind. This project was a celebration of life. In the big ways like the new life of a baby, but also in the small ways like waking up and living this life even after someone you loved is no longer with you. This was the pregnancy after my dad Dean passed away. This would be the second child of mine that he didn’t get to meet. Sadness. And life keeps going. Life is all around, and it thrives even when sometimes you think it shouldn’t. I told Rebecca I wanted to do green, natural, feminine, and celebrate new life. I think we got it.