Hellgate Rollergirl - first bout

The Hellgate Rollergirls had their first bout on August 6th in Missoula.

They did it.
They made it happen.
They got together, formed a league, trained, bought lots of fishnet leggings, had fundraisers, and now their first bout.

I love these girls and it was so wonderful to see them all so happy!


Hellgate Rollergirls - Angels vs Devils from Athena on Vimeo.

rockin' rollin' car show and pin up girl contest

Here are my favorite PHOTO BOOTH pictures from the event the Hellgate Rollergirls and Hot Rod Lewies put on last weekend. Sunny and hot, stressful a tad, and super fun. Thanks to my hard working assistant 'Texas',  beautiful girls, handsome cars, and reapplying some Secret deodorant (I know mom, it's bad for me) I made some photos I'm happy with.

visiting jen

Jenifer Tracy is one of my great friends. She is creative, fun and very charismatic. I admire her ability to always evolve, both internally and externally. When meeting Jen, the first things you will notice about her are... she's pretty damn cute, high energy, and everything she touches has style. She is living and breathing visual candy. Check out more of what she touches at JENCO Creative.

I got to spend a little time with her this spring to do our annual photo shoot. My camera is so lucky.

After photographing Jen, I couldn't help taking shots around her space.

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” — Coco Chanel

JENCO Creative

Art Retreat II - Las Vegas

At the moment, I am between dogs. With my released responsibly and decided to travel. Lacking the ability to turn off my camera, my travels quickly turned into elaborate art retreats. As seen in my previous post, my trip to France left me with a feeling of joi de vivre, (as well as leaving me with a slew of throw-away phrases). I’ve shared my images from visiting the City of Romance, now I’m ready to share my images from…the City of Sin, VEGAS.

Surprisingly, I wasn’t very sinful, but there will be many opportunities in the future to make up for my innocence. My absence of immorality didn’t come from a lack of trying; I was up early and to bed late. I was with five other photographer friends for two days and two nights. Our early mornings and late nights were spent together feeding off each other's inspiration to create our own work. But in the day, we would shoot separately; apparently we only like to see each other in dimmer lighting.

Self-Portraits and Plots of World Destruction

I am a terrorist, didn’t you know? Neither did I, but that is what I was told every time I attempted to take a self-portrait on my trip. I am pretty sure it was my thrift store sweater and vintage suitcase, standing in front of my non-aerodynamic equipment and laughing with my friends that tipped those high-detecting sleuths off.  Kudos to you, security guards of Las Vegas, you prevented a series of photographs to be taken that clearly had malicious intentions of annihilation. 

I managed to get one shot before they discovered my underlying plot of cruel purpose.

Two Models, a Hot Dog Bun, and avoiding the Terrorist Task Force
A photographer needs something to photograph, and models need their pictures to be taken. It’s pretty wonderful how that works out sometimes.

DAVID
To avoid clashing with the authority, I had David meet me out on an empty lot of dirt. David has a great spirit, is handsome, and really easy to photograph.   I asked him to bring jeans, a white t-shirt, Converse shoes and hot dog buns. Insert joke here about hot dog buns :)

JESS 
Jess brought charisma and youth. She was wearing super high heels, a short skirt, long thick fabulous hair, a big smile, and a fun attitude.
We roamed around downtown like vagabonds in search of a perfect spot. I thought being a faux terrorist was bad, but when running around with an attractive 20 year-old, you seem to gain even more unwanted attention. I am usually not chaotic when it comes to my shoots. When I am on the JOB I get permits, rent space, and go through all the boring proper procedures. However this time, I said in my 'art - retreat' voice, “fuck it, let’s just grab these shots and then run like hell.” This is what we did and I couldn’t have had a better model to work with. 
Sure we got chased out of every spot by security guards wearing tight starch shirts over bustling bellies. But we had fun, and as I was the first female photographer she had ever worked with, I am pretty confident I set a pretty unique standard.

Spark

a girl's take on france

France, I have never been so quiet in all my life. Sadly, I don't know French and appropriately, the French speak French, even if they know English. I spent my days silently watching others converse. I would notice their earrings dangle, the length of each eyebrow hair, the shape of their lips wrapping around the filter as they inhaled. After the frustration of not knowing what was being said around me passed, I started to feel lucky. I've never had the opportunity to be so observant.

A week before the Iceland Ash Cloud affected France, I was on a plane across the Atlantic, headed for creme de cafe, crepes and crispy apples at the market. I arrived in Aix en Provence, south France, were I gave myself two weeks to indulge in the French culture and engage in what I was calling a photography retreat. This is the closest I've ever been to an artist in residency. I had my place to stay, money for food, lots of time, and my one prop...

...my blue dress.

getting early morning bagettes

waiting until it's safe

surrounded

stepping outside for a little sun

 Thank you KALI, thank you thank you !!!!!!

and now...A Boy's Take on France!
While I was busy looking inward, my good friend, Forest, was down the coast line an hour and thirty minutes, looking outward. What he found were images that reflected emotion, consciousness, perspective, and his experiences as a whole as he traverses across France.

Check out his energetic photographs on Forest Woodward's blog.

a girl's take on france

COMING SOON....(later today)

film, old processes, 4x5 or bigger cameras, hours in the darkroom = yummy photos

Me by Joshua Meier.

@ the Missoula Art Museum                                                                     June 04 - September 19, 2010

Hellgate Rollergirls

I love my roller skating bombshells!

Click Play below to see them in action



Check out more photos of the girls from their 2010 calendar 

I feel my head swirl between my pig tails. I'm still trying to find my way in this big world of photography. So many opportunities, goals, desires, and responsibilities are in front of me. This year feels fast. I don't know what I mean by that and if it's good or bad. All I know is that this year feels fast. As I breathe and pause for a minute, I wonder, what roads I will take this summer, this year? What is coming my way? Who am I now and what will I be? ummm....spring