Sativa Sunrise

This painting is the third of a series call "Full Disclosure" (Bad Habits and Guilt Pleasures) about the human essence we often mask in society revealing what tends to be obscure and romances social defiance. Taboos are released and made playful, honest, and sensual.

When I asked Kaitlyn, the model, what her bad habit was, she was quick to answer "I smoke too much pot". I immediately got excited since I felt this was truly honest a unique subject. I asked her ahead of time to get some leaves so I could put them in a bouquet, an idea that was inspired by an article about weddings in Colorado who have been using Marijuana in wedding bouquets. So I set about photographing Kaitlin in her very dark apartment. We huddled close to the best light in the room. She lit up and I started shooting but smoking a joint wasn't as good as I expected on camera, nor was the bouquet idea. So I placed some sticks on the backside of the leaf to keep it from lilting and placed it in her hair. Kind of like a trippy 60’s thing. Through the miracle of photoshop, there was one image that stood out of the rest and was too dark but I was able to fix the exposure. I never intended the image to look like a modern day Vermeer but this happy mistake was what I always look for in my images.