STORY Chicago

Thursday, November 14, 2013


About two months ago I photographed Story Chicago, a gathering focused to fuel creatives in an environment where they can be inspired and learn from the leaders of creative industries. The speakers and artists range from the fashion director of Kanye West, to Google Creative Lab genius with a mix of beat boxing, Nashville bands, temporary tattoos and all the sparkling water you can drink.  Sodastream graciously gave me several new mini-bottles to use with my machine at home and I use them every day, for those of you who know my sparkling water obsession.

Between shooting and running around I scribbled notes from some of my favorite speakers. There's something so electric about hearing from people that come from different creative fields but all their stories seem to have a similar thread of inspiration.

You know what else I loved about Story, I'm big on hospitality and this conference does not lack in creativity, sponsorship and swag. From the artistic venues all over Chicago, to the cute mini notebooks to write your thoughts in; I really appreciate the small details put into each person's experience, that means so much to me. 

There were so many great speakers. Here are a few of my favorites and a little line of inspiration I gathered from their sessions:

Tom ThumVocal Performance Artist, AKA “beat boxer extraordinaire” 
Believe in your strangeness, and others will too. 

Alex ChenCreative director at Google Creative Labs
Do your brilliant ideas, even if they don’t serve an immediate function because eventually they will...

Scott HarrisonFounder of charity water
It’s not just about water, it’s about restoring dignity.

Howard LichterGlobal Director of Creative Outreach for Nike
Problems bring innovation. Anyone can sell products, but you have to believe in the person's story you're telling.

Gillian FerrabeeCreative Director, Cirque du Soleil Media
Everything is meaningful, but not everything has to be explained.

Brooke ShadenItalian Vogue Photographer & Winner of Canon’s Project Imagination
There’s no excuse for not doing your art, if you have to eat taco bell and create at 5AM before your desk job, do it.

If you'd like to go to Story next year, you can sign up here
If your creative dreams need help and you can't wait for Story, check out what founder, Ben Arment is up to here: Dream Year.

Adventures in Portland

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Isabel & I hopped on a late night plane and headed North to see our new little nephew Fox. I was in Chicago when I got the text with his newborn little eyes staring up at me from my phone. It was so good to be with family; running every day by the water, exploring the island with Isabel, making special cookies at night and eating lobster rolls. My brother took such good care of all of us, greeting us at midnight with a baby on his shoulder and a late dinner he prepared while his wife caught up on sleep. Also, somehow my sister-in-law has a sixpack two weeks after giving birth... ;) I can't express the endless ache my heart felt on this trip, but I'm so glad I could survive by the water. 

grace.

Friday, November 8, 2013


It’s like a tiny ocean breeze after being tossed onto the shore from near drowning. Everything is still and there’s nothing left and you don’t know if there's seawater in your lungs or if you made it to the shores of an alternate after-life. It seemed the waves would never stop crashing, and you don’t know how you got here or there or who pushed you in the water or where did the boat go? but somehow you wake up in the calm… it’s still. With hair matted, sand in your teeth, and a heart so waterlogged you can’t lift your head but from somewhere a slight wind touches your skin to rouse you. And you don’t know how long it will last and if the gentleness will sustain after such rough torents. It seems both like yesterday and a completely different life that you slipped into the storm and your insides were ripped out, and there are still gashes and scars and fading memories, but that soft airstream is like an unexpected kiss on wind-burned cheeks. The way home seems far and you’re unsure if you even have a home and the faces that once comprised love now feel like enemy territory, but somehow even then with the memory of war-torn eyes you can see into the place that never lies, where the blue encircles the black and the green specks golden in the sun peering behind the gazing windows that brought you pain, you see, is just broken glass. And even though the shards still sting, that waft of salty air, reminiscent of summer, works its’ way in, settling the unexplained tempest. 

And it’s tempting to go back in the water and pound the waves, lifting fists at the gales that wrestled you here but that draft keeps caressing those burned up wounds and inciting surrender to the coastline. And it doesn't make sense and it isn't fair and there's so much that seems ruined but somehow the water did not overcome you, and someway you are still breathing; and even though the gasp was sucked out, this faint wind has come along, this soft invisible affection, this subtle enrobing in the midst of the wreckage is a redolent whisper that you will, one day, set sail again.