FAQ

Here's a quick FAQ about my modeling; there are too many to put on my profile without making it cluttered, and I still don't have my website up yet. So until then, enjoy. :D

FAQ

What styles of modeling do you shoot?
I shoot a lot of artsy and alt fashion shots. I'm shooting art nudes later this year. I do pretty and artsy much better than sexy.

What's your natural hair color? Will it be returning any time soon?
My hair is naturally black. I have no clue when I'll be going back to it. I have no real incentive to at the moment. It will go back to natural when I get cast in something that requires natural hair.

Are you really in college? At 17?
I actually started my freshman year at sixteen, and yes, I went to a public school. I'm no child prodigy, I'm just an over achiever. I'm taking almost all night classes, which means yes, you can book me during the day. I also do not have classes Friday-Sunday.

Will you shoot on location?
I really love on location shoots. I will also shoot in all climates; I've shot in melt-your-skin-off humidity in long sleeves on up to frolicking around in a miniskirt right after a snowstorm. I may be a bit crazy, but it tends to render some pretty awesome photographs.

Do you have any other body modifications other than your hair?
I have twelve piercings; two in my nose, one in my naval, three in my left ear, and six in my right. All can be taken out upon request. I have no tattoos at this time. Also, while these aren't intentional modifications, I do have several small fading scars across my chestplate and upper breasts from a pretty bad burn I received while welding. I can cover these up and have no problem with you photoshopping them out.

What are your rates?
It depends on your budget. I trade with people who can benefit my portfolio; otherwise I try to be as flexible and reasonable as I can with rates.

What do you accept as payment (other than money)?
Well, aside from trading for pictures I trade for:

• Juggling equipment (torches, knives, hatchets, etc.)
• Stilts
• Face paint
• A fiddle
• Corsets (actual corsets)
• Steampunk wardrobe
• Paid travel
• Food
• Certain books
  
• Music (preferably records)
  
• Certain shoes (it varies; the crazier the better)
• A Polaroid camera (an original, not the new versions)
• Camera gear (both film and digital)
• Aerial silks/rigging
• Trapeze bar
• And basically other awesome things. Feel free to shoot me an idea. I like the strangest stuff.
  

So why pink?
Why not? I had it suggested to me by a shopkeeper in Richmond last year. I took her advice and have run with it. I'm rather fond of it now.

I'm a MUA/Stylist/Designer: will you collaborate with me?
Absolutely! I'm helpless with hair and makeup after a certain extent, and I love the chance to shoot with more extreme wardrobe.

I heard you don't wear makeup in daily life?
Nope. I think makeup is pretty in pictures and certainly has its place. However, when I'm not in front of a camera or on stage I'm out hiking, playing videogames or bsing with the guys; none of these activities call for makeup, and quite frankly I really like how I look without it, so I just choose to go without it.

You're shooting art nudes after your birthday?
With select photographers. I adore art nudes and it's definitely a genre I want to get into; however, I'm shooting with photographers I know well at first just to get a feel for the genre.

You know some circus acts, right?
I'm an amateur at best in comparison to some of the amazing circus performers out there. I've juggled since I was nine. I ride a unicycle and can do simple magic tricks that amaze kids. I'm learning corde lisse and aerial silks at the moment, and am learning pole dancing in the fall. I'm hoping to learn how to walk, run, and dance in stilts this year. Yes, we can incorporate this into a shoot and yes, I do trade for certain pieces of equipment: i.e. juggler's torches, weighted knives, aerial silks/rigging, poi, magic props, facepaint, stilts, etc. If you buy it for me you'll be the first person I shoot with using it. I also do kids parties.

Completely Broke

The holidays, combined with constant travel (and subsequently surviving off the dollar menu) and the lack of a stable paycheck has rendered me a lot more broke than I would have thought. Bad news for my decor plans for my apartment, but good news for my fans expecting "Dream Watcher": it may be hitting press a bit earlier than planned in order to recoup some of the money I lost (which is going into a savings account which I will not tap into to pay off debt this time!).

I'll keep everyone posted about the official press date. I'm also available to travel anywhere (within reason) for guest book signings. If it's in my current travel schedule for modeling I can get there for signings.

Photo by Joe Parlett in September 2009.

Happiness

I'm just taking the brief time to write this before I get back to editing and finish booking shoots for February: this man is amazing. I feel so lucky. :)

Now back to editing so I can get this book hitting press before I have a mob at my doorstep demanding to know when they can read it. I think it's already beginning to form which, I suppose, is a good thing. Peace out for now.

Another shoot with Joe.

Shot with Joe again last week. The pictures are amazing! Check him out on Model Mayhem!

Poisonous Glitterfarts.

My dreams scare me sometimes. Mkay, so the other night I dreamt:

I was walking into my room when this huge guy with a gun jumps out of nowhere, puts the gun to my head, and tells me to read Twilight. Since I really didn't fancy getting shot in the head I started reading. After a page or two Edward fucking Cullen jumps out of the pages of the book. The asshole looks around, grins, lets out this this loud fart, and runs away.

Now, fastforward about half a day in dream time. As it turns out, Glitterboy's fart was poisonous, and now everyone is going to die. I'm pissed as hell, and to make things worse the entire barely pubescent female demographic is defending the little twit.

Right, so I go to my family and tell them very calmly that we are going to drive to the mainland and take a plane to Denmark, because clearly the poisonous glitterfart won't have reached there. So we start to drive across the Bay Bridge to get to the mainland, but for some unknown reason we stop at this restaurant on the Bridge (about ten miles out over the bay). We walk in and food magically appears. As we're eating I look out the window and see this huge assed tidal wave coming toward us. It hits.
[/dream]

My head hurts now.

"Model."

Warning: This blog entry contains a significant amount of emotional sap over things that most people would probably roll their eyes at and say dear, it's they're just peektures.

I got asked the other day why I model, and why I photograph people. The question really caught me off guard; usually the people I talk to most about both of these things are involved in one or the other themselves; there is never any "why" in why we do it. "It's for the art" a lot of people say; others say it's because of the money that can be made. I can understand both sides, seeing as I've been both in front and behind the camera with the intentions of beautiful artwork, and at times with the knowledge that I will be leaving with much-needed cash. However, neither is why I started; it really made me sit down and think: why?

I find people fascinating. Honestly, despite the fact that I tend to come off as very outgoing and even a bit egotistical, deep down I'm introverted. I have the horrible knack of believing that I annoy people when I try to befriend them. I spent my childhood having only a handful of friends who in the end weren't even that meaningful and battled with a lot of less-than-pleasant emotions from the time I moved back to the East Coast right on up to, quite honestly, now. When I was fourteen I became interested in the portraiture of people, both of myself and those I found to be fascinating and lovely; I'd been taking photographs two years previous for my middle school journalism teacher, both for the school paper and for a website that he ran. I was probably one of the only twelve-year-olds running around with several grand's worth of equiptment and getting paid for it. But when started high school I hadn't the time to photograph animals and plants, so I stopped working with such fantastic gear and was handed a grainy point-and-shoot, with which I started documenting people, primarily myself. I think in a way it was a way to immortalize emotions for me, a way to remind myself of times that I so easily forget, or worse, try to push away.

I took the above photo when I was fourteen, around the Spring of my Freshman year. I wanted pictures of me, but I didn't want to ask people to take them; I felt silly asking to "model" for anyone, and didn't want the classic arm's length MySpace photos that so many girls my age had. Besides, at that point in my life I had maybe two friends to my name, and while one of them was a photographer I didn't want to ask her to take my picture for her projects. I thought, again, that it would be silly and that no one other than me would want a picture of me.

I kept a camera on me practically 24/7 back then. Whenever I felt any strong emotion, or saw something that I felt deserved photographing, I would whip out my tiny, pathetic, dink little P&S and snap a picture. I took this photo around five am in my bed; I remember I had been fighting with a girl from my school and had stayed up crying as quietly as I could so I wouldn't wake mom and have her worry. My cat Toby had curled up next to me the entire night. I took this when I'd calmed down; I'd needed a reminder that there was always a calm after the storm.

At the end of my Freshman year I met my best friend. I don't think he has any concept of how much he inspired me to start actually being me. I started taking photos more than ever. I continued to use myself as my main subject.

But I photographed other people as well.

My brother.

My best friends.

A fellow model.

A talented musician and good friend.

I've also been the subject for many photographers.

Modeling, and photographing people, is something ingrained in me. It's probably my number one source of artistic relief at the moment. The above is probably just senseless rambling. That's okay. I tend to do that a lot. And truthfully, underneath all the artistic integrity, getting a pretty picture now and again is definitely a plus.

Hello Blogger.

It dawned on me that blogging on LiveJournal is rather pointless, seeing as the few people who give a damn about what I have to say blog on here and are far too lazy to get an account on LJ in order to follow me. So...I'm making the switch, people. Good God, I do believe this is what they call "conforming." Damnit.

There is a much more thought-provoking post coming soon. This is just an FYI to the Blogger world that yes, I have finally gotten off my lazy ass and actually started using my account here. I promise to update this better than I did my last blog. Well...I'll try, at least.