Coven of Compassion

Today I officially released My short film “Coven of Compassion” A weird, trippy experimental art film I shot this past summer. Let Me explain a lil bit:

I am immuno compromised. I am disabled. My medical conditions make it so that if I even catch a cold I am really down and out for a week or more. I’ve been pretty terrified to catch covid and therefore have not done any group activities since Feb 2020 when I did My last burlesque show!

I really MISS getting together with people, making art together and doing group things. In face a ton of My business was built around events, vending, public speaking, dancing on stage etc. So it was. a hit when covid shut everything down and I was suddenly cut off from everyone. I have most def continued to do outdoor photoshoots. From like 20 feet away from the model with a telephoto lens! Even tho the situation has been less than ideal I’ve still managed to make some really awesome art that I am proud of.

I got vaccinated in April, early on, and got the J&J shot. It made Me really, really sick and I was out of it for ten days and had to be monitored. Not a fun time! BUT I was super glad to be vaccinated and thought that perhaps it was the beginning of being able to do things again.

Early in the summer I had scoped out this rad outdoor location in western, MA. Three Sisters Sanctuary. https://threesisterssanctuary.com/ The owner was a cool guy and I just imaged shooting alot of beautiful things there. When a number of models I worked closely with and friends had also gotten vaccinated, I got it into My head to do a small, vaxxed only outdoor group shoot.

It was a wild wild day. We had Me shooting, photographers Constantine Manos, Chef John Slattery and Shaynelle Francis all shooting photos.

Each model got a solo shoot with each photographer, resulting in everyone coming away with just a ton of beautiful content. Each shoot was pretty much unplanned and models just dove into wardrobe in this cute outdoor dressing room Sunny Cheex had set up for us, and one right after the other we banged alot of shoots out. Don’t worry, I’ll be sharing them ALL here. But I wanted to start with this video…

I told everyone to bring something red. And the models did not disappoint! I had brought My good camera with Me, but it was just such a wild, wild day there was so much going on.

It was actually um…not ideal. There was some tourists there, including an older guy who was sort of following us around trying to take photos of the models changing, and following Me around while I was fixing their outfits etc and he was pretending not to speak english when I asked him to stop. So I finally had to yell at him in front of his party of people he was with and called him a creep and he left us alone. There was also an incident where some guy came on a big huge riding lawn mower and plower through our group shoot. Kitten Dabstar narrowly missed getting hit by it! And got grass cuttings all over her skirt! The guy had his headphones on so he couldn’t hear us and apparently couldn’t see us? chasing him down and screaming for him to stop.

Another annoying thing was that I had gone to great trouble and driven hours and had long phone calls with the guy who owns the place and again, great guy…but he told Me it wouldn’t be possible to shoot there on a weekend, so we had agreed upon a tuesday. And everyone involved took the day off. Then when I checked ina. few days before he acted surprised and said it would work better on a weekend! He also apparently was out of town the day we had decided (that he chose) to schedule the shoot for. So I had a point person there who I didn’t know and she seemed very confused by what was going on. We also had paid quite a bit of money to be there! So I was annoyed at paying so much for a location and everything not being perfect but, that’s just how I am. I like things perfect.

I will take a moment to talk about the food. Because it was all inclusive, and included breakfast: which I had laid out: devilled eggs, an assorment of pastries, fruit salad, hummus and veggies, granola and yogurt. So we had a cute set up to sit and eat in between shooting. We had chef and photographer and local TV personality John Slattery there with his food truck set up. So he had an assortmment of wild foraged mushrooms, steak tacos and other assorted goodies for us as a hot lunch after shooting. I basically set it up how I would want a shoot to go! Everything organized. Everyone fed and hydrated with waters and herbal teas. Even tho there was some annoyances with the space all in all it was absolutely incredible. It was such a special place that it would have been impossible NOT to make magic happen, especially considering the magical group of folks involved with the day.

So: yah, ALOT going on. And I was in charge of it all. Like I mentioned earlier I had charged up and brought My good video camera, but after the tourist guy taking the pictures and Me yelling at him, we had a rare chance and uninteruppted moment to shoot the group scene. And in the whirlwind I got caught up and used My phone. I just knew I’d regret it if I didn’t get SOME video.

Well, Brook Rain once again edited together a really awesome short film from what I had captured. She always does.

So, please enjoy our art. It was very expensive to make this short film! I have released it for free on many platforms because I want as many people as possible to see it.

best watched in full screen!