Collaborate This: Ninja Photo Shoot

Collaborate This: Ninja Photoshoot

You might think after spending hours at the studio working on designs, marketing plans, ad layouts and a whole host of creatively frustrating or taxing projects that we all go home and curl up into the fetal position, avoiding any type of visual stimulation or muse-like urges. You know, like accountants.

In fact, the very opposite is true - we can't stay away from it. We're drawn to clusters of pixels, the eery glow of monitors, gloops of paint, the written word, hell - the manifestation of human nature in a particularly heated thread of a forum! We're connected to all things technologically wired, creatively charged and, frankly, fricken weird. We have to create, it's just what we do. What's really cool is when some of us can get together with our various skills or obsessions and collaborate on a larger project. And did I mention NINJAS?

Here's the deal; Max is an awesome artist - you know, with airbrushing and all that old timey stuff. In his current project he is expanding upon his Door Series. Originally teaming up with his sister to paint prominent artistic creators, Max is moving on to more iconic, contemporary figures, LIKE NINJAS.

To kick off this new stage in his project, Max wanted to get some shots of Rick in full Ninja gear to base his paintings on. After setting the scene, getting the lights just right, swigging down a couple bottles of great red and taking a few tipsy spins around the studio in a handy motorized wheelchair, we were ready to go. What, that's not how you gear up for a new project?

Rick really gave us what we were looking for, stowing his usual calm demeanor for that of a demented, bloodthirsty Ninja-Freak. He may have scared us a few times. So with Max manning the airbrush for some uber-sweet Kabuki style face paint, Eileen wielding the hair spray, myself behind the camera and Rick burning his lungs out with barbaric, vicious, war-fueled shrieks, we stumbled our way through the night. And I don't know that I will ever get up on a ladder after that many chugs of wine, ever again.

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