If you've been following our Summer images and life post-Covid you've noticed SoHo still reigns Supreme. However, as a final tribute to the legendary area KARJAKA features The Love Coach Jimmy Allen, styled luxuriously by Tavia Sharp, donned in floral & fun to bring out the best you in mind, spirit & body before we head back in to the studio for the winter.
Forget forcing the issue, let's go absurd for a moment. Dare to try with us as we use other senses to explore life outside of preordained ways of being. Rather than getting wrapped up on what has to happen, or being consumed by how something should look in an image or experience, let's let go of control, just for a moment if you will and explore the unknown.
Artists are always pushing the boundaries. Crossing lines, testing the edge, diving in head first with complete and utter disregard. It takes a bold mind to step out into the unknown. For us at KARJAKA we're always looking into new market places, and our July edition features an art haven that's quintessential New York, The Hamptons.
As you might have noticed, or perhaps not, it's been a minute since our last edition. With the states finally opening up, Summer street and studio session have been in full force. Pepper in a few commercial fashion and food campaigns to boot, prepping KNY's Hamptons edition coming out next month (one you won't want to miss), we thought we'd slow it down just a bit for this edition in the studio with Kat, Russ, Karjaka and choice.
“Go to school, graduate, get a job, work your way up, and maybe one day you’ll start your own business”… these seemed like the most logical and viable steps to take through life. Up until 2020, everything was going to plan; I had good job offers lined up for once I graduated from Parsons School of Design. I felt confident I was on the right path, to one day, having gained enough experience and some courage, to potentially start my own brand.
I was a lonely kid. I remember in the early 80s turning the key to my mom's front door and wishing I’d open it to find a house full of people. But it was just me in the afternoons. I had no siblings, my parents were divorced, and my mom worked a corporate job to support us. I spent after school watching cartoons or playing video games alone.
With the amount of Vitamin D I’ve consumed in the past year, I should have gotten stock for it. Prevention, pain relief, these are the basics tenets of any product out on the market. Not getting enough Sun? Go for a walk. Can’t go out due to pandemic? 1000mg of Vitamin D, stat. Art is my vitamin/drug of choice. I’m a pusher of picturesque portrait pleasure.
I've always been fascinated by people and their unique narratives. I am dangerously curious and want to try everything. We only have so many years on this planet, so it's impossible to try everything unless you are lucky enough to experience a slice of life through candid conversations daily. I've hosted for The Travel Channel, NowThis, and Thrillist and fell in love with energetic interactions and the wealth of knowledge you can gain in just a few minutes from interviewing someone.
This is the time of year when we all attempt to clean up our acts, create new habits and lose those extra holiday pounds. As a health coach this tends to be a pretty busy time of year for me but 2021 is feeling a bit different. While there are still people looking to lose that extra holiday weight, there is also the fun new addition of pandemic weight (thank you 2020!), and for the first time there seems to be a bit more intention behind it.
I was lucky enough to apprentice with the late great Chuck Bogana. Chuck being the last of a bygone era having done the final printing and retouching of legends Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and other masterful photographic Artists, was a master printer who taught me not only the finer points and the artistry that is fine art printing, but in his quiet zen like way, opened me up to what a photograph is and can truly be.
