I partnered with the brilliant Cortney Armitage on a photo series that represents Joy using the color bombs of Holi. Each of the women in the series gave their definition of Joy - and they were all equally as insightful and relatable. Check them out below!
"Joy to me is a deep sense of inter-connectedness, losing sense of time and space - but fully engaged in the moment."
Kristine Pregot - @kristinequeen
"There’s something about Joy, in comparison to the other breeds of happiness, that’s more immediate. The downside is that it’s more fleeting, but there some part of it that’s serendipitous and unexpected and keeps you on your feet because you never know when it’s going to turn an ordinary or terrible day around. It’s ancillary. It’s not necessary. It’s specific to you and it’s outside of the general things that make everyone happy like puppies and coupons. After you’ve taken care of your basic needs and let yourself be affected by pleasantries, what’s the one thing that brings you a feeling you didn’t realize you were missing? For me, it’s always been performing. I feel elevated. High. I can tangibly feel it (though, that might be the blazing, overbearing stage lights giving me a low-grade fever.) I think happiness is something you possess after getting your material items in order and taking care of yourself and doing all the things you need to do to live. Joy is the shit you live for."
Brittany Brave @brittanythebrave
"Harmony and balance in life brings me joy. Thinking about my friends and family and sharing laughs with them. And I love life's surprises!"
Eliis Keidong - @ellie_keidong
"As a free spirit, my joy is feeling lost. Lost in my thoughts, lost in music and dance, lost in nature or the city...My mother always said I was a daydreamer...and feeling lost makes room for more of my dreams..."
Camile Sardina - @camilesardina
"Basically, anything that has the elements of "silliness, sea, surf & friends" in it is Joy for me."
Katrin Haibi (She is a free spirit and has no instagram tag)
"For me, joy means an understanding that not everything may work out, but we should celebrate the little things as they do.
I think it's deeply entwined with hope, which requires that we embrace that few things are guaranteed but we can dare to love them anyway. "
Megan McCormick - @megwethersfield
Growing up... That's the theme of this months song. For the single cover we shot my 4 year old cousin Finn dressed in my clothes. He is AMAZING and here's a little video of Finn talking about life. Song will be out next Friday!
Here's the final artwork image from our photoshoot for my new single "Grow Up", coming out NEXT FRIDAY April 27th. I think Finn really captured his "electric guitar rockstar" look he was going for. What do you think?
Here are some outtakes from the third emotion photo shoot with Cortney Armitage. The concept for these photos represented regret in a vulnerable way. We wanted to capture the idea of cleansing yourself of something you regret doing. A moment where you are truly alone with your thoughts. The final product ended up nailing the vision and I have to credit that to Cortney because this was fairly dificult for me to take seriously.
These are images from mine and Cortney's second emotion photo creative collaboration. For this month's emotion (hopeful), we wanted to be up for the sunrise - representing new beginnings, fresh starts and hope for a great day ahead. For the location, Coney Island seemed like a natural choice. (NYC is a huge inspiration to my work and I wanted to make sure to feature areas of the city in my work.) The goal was to capture contemplative moments while looking out into the water and horizon. I think we did a good job accomplishing it.
We also tried this concept of an image with dying flowers behind my back to represent holding out hope for someone you love. We felt the other images were more striking and in-line with the messaging we wanted and decided to keep the others for the Vault only!
To capture each months emotion visually over the next 18 months, I've partnered with an amazingly talented photographer - Cortney Armitage. Every month, we will be collaborating on images for both the single artwork and monthly emotion artwork. Here are some outtakes from our Times Square shoot. We wanted to try a double exposure, layered look, where I appeared to be invisible. We chose Times Square for our location because it's easy to feel invisible in the busiest and most crowded place in NYC. You become one with the crowd, blending in instead of sticking out.
