The Desire to Make Art

I have alluded to before about a collaboration project I have been working on with Stephanie (January 3rd's New Artist Crush), and I think it's finally time I get around to telling you about it.

This fall I traded gas money and modeling time to my friend Stephanie to help me move (she has a bus, it makes things less difficult). She was working on a project dealing with women in nature for school, and I just so happened to have a pair of wings I made that I wanted documented and like playing dress up. I also got a bed out of the deal. So there was probably a flock of birds murdered to death with one stone pitched by the two of us.

The photography session went rather well, as did my impromptu costume (I can do a lot with a bed sheet...) that we both had a desire to explore this character we created further at some point in time.

That point in time turned out to be December. In the middle of winter. When I learned my desire  to make art could kick the kittens out of my survival instinct in a knock-down hair-pulling bone-breaking wrestling match.

It's out of frame, but my foot is resting on the beaten corpse of my survival instinct.

It didn't seem that long , but afterward we realized I had been out in the elements in a bed-sheet and lace curtain (from the Martha Stewart collection!) for more than an hour. Possibly even two.

The experience wasn't really that bad, but there are definitely some things I would do differently if I did it again, mostly relating to prep work and spare socks. The trick is to know you're going to be cold, and accept that. I only really started having problems after the sun went down, luckily there was no wind and it wasn't snowing (which, so far this winter, makes it a rare day). A healthy dose of crazy doesn't hurt either.

A big heaping plate of crazy even.

The first part of the shoot was just the wing-girl wandering around in the field, picking dead flowers. (Both Stephanie and I have a morbid streak). For the second part, we thought we'd try some pictures of my hobby: ripping apart broken things. In this case, some telephones. My hands were turning into almost useless claws at this point, but I still managed to take out a screw or two while Stephanie snapped away.

Like a dexterity test for the insane.

When we finished I demanded hot chocolate, so we packed up and I drove to Cyberia Cafe and felt THE WORST PAIN OF MY LIFE as my frozen dead hands regained circulation. It felt exactly like the time I slammed my thumb in the car door, except instead of just the tip of one finger, it was the entirety of BOTH MY HANDS. The pain is very clear in my memory, but I am only vaguely aware that Stephanie was trying to make conversation with me (that intense of pain tends to wreck havoc with you other senses...). My thoughts for the 15 minute trip into town consisted mostly of "Ow" and "Don't snap at Stephanie for no reason, it's not her fault you're dumb".

It is very likely I had first degree frostbite.

But you know what? I'd do it all over again.

All photographs in this post are property of Stephanie Trevino, you can see more of her work (and her version of the story) here:
http://www.rabbitintheroom.com/2011/01/photo-art-collaboration-with-sarah.html
http://rabbitintheroom.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephsteph/