Art therapy w/ Miss Miranda!

Happy Fourth of July, friends celebrating in the United States. As I lay here in bed beginning this blog post, the echoes of fireworks are still going off across the metro area. I was able to get some time in at @caffetto during the afternoon before it closed at @caffetto. My friend Allison showed up and I had a chance to introduce her to MidJourney and explain how I use it for reference for my human-made illustrations. After that, back home to spend time with @guthrie before taking him to see fireworks after dark. All in all, a good day. After getting this on chain, I’ll be trying to get to sleep at a reasonable hour for an early appointment tomorrow.

I have new work to share. A series of photos of burlesque legend, Miss Miranda, shot at our mutual friend Raquel Reed’s house in Las Vegas. Miranda and I have several friends in common throughout the pinup scene and that’s how a lot of these networking collaborations tend to happen. At some point, it just seems unavoidable that you wouldn’t shoot together. Miranda and I met at The Orleans hotel during Viva just before COVID and we began talking about a potential shoot together. The world ended after that but three years later, we finally were able to make it happen. Righting the wrongs of this awful time in our lives.

One of the most cathartic points about this shoot for me was that The Artisan Hotel, one of the cornerstone locations of all my shoots in Vegas, had been sold and remodeling in 2022. They sold off much of the original interior and Raquel Reed actually bought much of the decor, including the statue in the main lobby. I have such fond memories of that space and having the chance to shoot Miranda around the familiar lighting was therapeutic. She is such an outstanding model as well. A total professional, we wrapped in about 45 minutes, then sat and talking eating veggies and hummus.

This was the first of two sets of photo edits that’ll be coming from this shoot with Miranda. I’m looking forward to finding time to get to the rest of them. Tomorrow, the holiday is behind us and although I work every day of the week, I’ll be able to find my usual booth or table at @caffetto and dig into more shoots from Viva Las Vegas and LA in April. For tonight, I’m going to spin through a few more folders of photo edits until my eyes get heavy. I’ll be back tomorrow night, hopefully, with more photography and the stories behind the work. Thanks for reading. Happy Independence Day.