Client Work For Teatro Zinzanni!

I love the circus.  When I was maybe in second grade, my family took me to one of those circuses that come to towns every summer for a weekend or so.  The acrobats were so cool I wanted to be one, swinging from ring to ring (randomly, I still remember they were blasting the song "Strawberry Letter 23" during the performance).  Shortly afterwards, I checked out a book on the Ringling Brothers from our school library and read it obsessively.  I was so obsessed with it, I stole the book and tucked it under my bed.  But, my guilt over the attempted theft overcame me and I confessed in tears to my parents about wanting to keep the book forever.  Cue to a few breathless weeks later, I had my very own copy of the book - my parents had to special order it from the bookstore at the mall. I still have the book to this day awaiting to hand it over to my kiddos! So, I was overjoyed when asked by Teatro Zinzanni if I could do some promo work for their new late-night show, Wake the Night.  The cast and crew were just as enthusiastic about their work as I felt when I was a kid -- their talents and joy with what they were doing was infectious and made this such a fun shoot to be a part of!

Yes, there are acrobatics.  Yes, there is a lot of dancing.  There's even, yes, an elephant!  But, you'll have to check it out to see what I'm talking about....

Show at Glasswing: "HOME: Artists of the El Capitan"

From their press release, hope to see you there!:

Home to a large number of artists, designers, people who’ve lived there for 30 plus years and the occasional ghost (There’s rumor of one who likes to hang out in the elevator), the El Capitan apartments is an iconic Seattle residence.  Building owner Alvin Hendricks has supported the artistic community in the city through offering and maintaining affordable housing to those residing there.  Photographer Mike Hipple has gotten to know and photograph some of the many residents of the building. His newest show, HOME: Artists of the El Capitan is a series of portraits that give a glimpse into the lives and overall tightknit community of the creative minds that inhabit the El Capitan. The list includes: Sierra Stinson & Graham Downing, Kevin Ellis, Doug Newman, Stacey Rozich, Lynda Sherman, Amber Murray, Kate Bailey, Tina Randolph & Shawn Brown, Erin Frost, Olivia McCausland, Andrew Berg, Ruthie Haskell, Beth Martini

Glasswing is excited to host Hipple’s one-week exhibition that spotlights some of our dearest friends and well respected in Seattle. HOME: Artists of the El Cap runs Thursday May 8^th – Thursday May 14^th. Join us for Capitol Hill Art Walk this Thursday 6pm – 9pm for an opening reception.

For more information contact Glasswing: 1525 Melrose Ave Seattle, WA 98122

Creatives Series - Mona Superhero

Mona Superhero is an artist whose medium is, believe it or not, duct tape. When I visited her studio in Portland, Ore. a few weeks back I was surprised to see how non-duct tape it looked – I never would have known the vibrant colors and lines were created with only duct tape. The pieces are large and can take hours and hours of intricate and back-breaking work – you can check out some of the prints for sale here.

Mona was raised in Texas and landed in Portland after her car broke down there when she was driving across the country, working in strip clubs along the way to earn money. I asked how often she got back to Texas and she replied, a bit mysteriously, “I don’t go back to Texas.” I immediately thought of Thelma and Louise – I’m not sure whether it was Thelma or Louise that said something similar about avoiding Texas but Miss Mona had a similar vibe of toughness and vulnerability of both characters. Her work has a similar outlaw quality about it as well.

I asked about how all of this affected her work – being a stripper, not going back to Texas, and she replied, “It's all just made me who I am. It's made me tough and angry and sad but it's also slowed me to see beauty in the bad and ugly things in life.”

(You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram, and like me on Facebook - if you're inclined to do those things! Or you can just check out my web site on hipphoto.com.)

Intuitive Counselor and Astrologer Melinda Peterson

I recently had the pleasure to photograph intuitive counselor and astrologer Melinda Peterson in Pocatello, Idaho.  I was fascinated by how this yogic philosopher ended up in such a conservative as well as Mormon town.  Turns out she was raised Mormon in Salt Lake City, only two hours south of Pocatello.

Her mother held very deep spiritual beliefs of her own though, beliefs she did not necessarily share with her church friends.

"My mother appeared to be very conservative. But, there were almost two sides of my mother.  She had the friends that knew her as the Mormon housewife raising children and then there were the other friends she had that were the mystics, the psychics, and the people that did yoga."

In fact, it was an Indian doctor that was staying at their home that told her mother she would have a gifted child in terms of psychic abilities.

"For me I wasn't predicting the future, I was just stating what I knew about what was happening or was about to happen in my physical reality and I was very accurate."

She realized early on that the church she was being raised in was not exactly open or receptive to her abilities.  She recounted a story to me about telling her bishop when she was 9 or 10 about the visions and the dreams she would have that would come true.  He looked at her and pronounced that she couldn't be telling the truth because only men could hold the priesthood, that what she was experiencing must clearly be coming from the devil or that she was fooling herself.

She says, "And I remember that triggering something at the very core of my being...that made me say look buddy you think you have all the answers, I don't care how old you are or what you believe, you're wrong. So there was a severing that happened in terms of the ability of the church to indoctrinate me into their belief systems."

While listening to her story, I found it really hard to believe this woman was living in the very conservative and out of the way town of Pocatello, Idaho. The short answer is that being in Pocatello allowed her the peace and quiet to raise a new son.  On a trip to nearby Lava Hot Springs, she found herself exhausted from her work and commitments and the challenges of raising a new life.  While there, she felt guided to go to Pocatello and things seemed to fall into place for her there.  Even now, though, things change and move and there might be new places the Spirit tells her to jump.

You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram, and like me on Facebook - if you're inclined to do those things! Or you can just check out my web site on hipphoto.com.

Creatives Project - David Carson

I still remember my college roommate bringing a copy of Ray Gun Magazine home one day and how we pored over its pages  - wondering both why couldn’t we read the text and in the next second, marveling at how brilliant it was.  These first issues of Ray Gun were designed by the legendary David Carson and I’ve loved his work ever since.  I’m honored I was able to photograph him.  Though I am not a designer, I like to feel his own independent spirit has inspired me along the way.

It’s fitting I also got to photograph him the weekend Apple named him as one of their 30 Most Influential Mac Users on their 30^th anniversary.

You can follow me on Twitter or Instagram, and like me on Facebook - if you're inclined to do those things! Or you can just check out my work on hipphoto.com.