Last weekend the Tulsa, OK area got an unusual amount of snow. My family and I just moved from Denver to a 7 acre property about 30 minutes south of Tulsa. This particular piece of land happens to have a small lake (or a big pond) on the property and the sudden and ample snowfall completely transformed this thing into a picturesque scene out of a storybook or painting.
Read MoreCassie Dixon
Bear Creek /
“Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.” ―Pierce Brown
Read MoreYou'll Never Know Darling /
Since I’ve had a baby, it’s very hard for me to find time to sit down and dedicate actual time to creating art; something I didn’t realize I needed so much in my life until I couldn’t do it anymore. So I’ve been creating art, specifically digital collage, on my iPhone using photos from my recent FaceTime photoshoots. It’s just easy when I’ve got 5 or 10 minutes to spare and have my phone on me anyway. Pretty crazy to me that I’m bypassing a DSLR and desktop computer (and traditional art methods) and literally using my phone for every creative endeavor lately. I worry a lot about where technology is taking us, but in this regard I am so very grateful for it.
They See Enormous Things /
I am so small I can barely be seen. How can this great love be inside me? Look at your eyes. They are small, but they see enormous things.
Read MoreNaked in the Woods /
What if this is Heaven? What if this our reward for being good in a life of bleakness and despair, darkness, and savagery? What if we, holy, starved while all the others ate each other before turning themselves inside out and rotting to waste in the pulsing sun? What if earth is paradise?
Read MoreAnimal by Mama Cass /
Last night, I watched Animal, one of the most powerful, beautiful, provocative, and disturbing pieces of performance art I think I've ever seen. The artist happens to be my cousin, Cassie (aka Mama Cass), who's modeled for many of my photographs. She's spent years pushing the boundaries in her work but this piece is truly in a league of its own. Using a distressing recent family event as inspiration, she displays a tenacious fortitude in this that I've not seen in her previous work and can hardly recall seeing anywhere else, actually. This is pure guts, raw and dripping with overwhelming emotion. I am extremely proud of her, not only for the outstanding execution but for the sheer and utter fearlessness exuding from this short video. You rarely see such bravery.
Read MorePersevere /
I will persevere, when your skin cracks open beneath my fingers, when your bones become too brittle to hold you up, when light and dark are indecipherable, when ribbons of your blood weep to the floor threatening to drown us both, I will laugh at the audacity, I will inflate my lungs in defiance and I will hold on, I will persevere.
Read MoreHer Hands Will Embrace Your Throbbing Throat /
Her smile will level you
Quite like her big green eyes
Nestled unassumingly behind
Her fluttering lids
But her hands will embrace
Your throbbing throat and squeeze
Until your lips turn blue
And your memories of her
Dissolve into the blinding stench
f dreams unrealized.
362//365 /
"The Church says: the body is a sin. Science says: the body is a machine. Advertising says: The body is a business. The Body says: I am a fiesta." —Eduardo Galeano
Read More14,198 Acres, 485 Homes, and Two Lives /
"On the fifth day since it began on June 11, the (Black Forest) fire had consumed 14,198 acres, 485 homes and two lives. The blaze was 65 percent contained Sunday, and authorities were confident all the casualties had been recorded."
This one is dedicated to Colorado...and Colorado Springs in particular for the Hell this place has been through the last 2 years.
Read MoreOnly Grace Will Remain /
My selves, my being, my love, my pain
Trudging through madness but desperate to keep sane
Stuck between darkness and everything illuminated
I, the accomplice in these suicides perpetrated
And from the cadaver, wretched self-disdain
and from the cadaver, only grace will remain.
Modern Marie /
Rebecca Tillett + Cassie Dixon + Lazy Spring Afternoon in Las Cruces + Crazy $3 Wig + Vintage $5 dress + Makeup + Mismatched Ribbons + Abandoned Home with Amazing Light in the Middle of Pecan Trees and Nowhere = What You See here.
Read MoreHeartbreaking and Beautiful /
"Because it will be heartbreaking and beautiful and inspiring. Because we are amazing together. And because we are family. If anything right now, family is what I need the most." —Cassie Dixon
Read MoreImages thru the iPhone /
was recently invited into an art show this April by Chas Ray Krider at his Gallery - The invisible Gallery in Columbus, Ohio and in addition to us, Steve Diet Goedde, Aaron Hawks, and Collin J Rae will be exhibiting as well. All these men are powerhouses in the nude/erotic photography realm. I've looked up to them for years and am so very flattered to be participating in a show with them. The show is called Images thru the iPhone and is only to include pictures that have been either shot or edited (or both!) with an iPhone app.
Read MoreSimplicity /
This is another from my shoot with Cassie. I love it for its utter simplicity, not a typical trait in most of my photographs. (Or perhaps it is and I'm just incapable of truly seeing my photographs for what they are.)
Read MoreCassandra /
This is my cousin, Cassie. Last month she moved here to Colorado Springs from Philadelphia. Today she moved back. We had a quick shoot last night, sure to get one in before her sudden departure. Oh, and she recently chopped off many of her curly brown locks. She's the exact opposite of me in almost every way. She's a risk-taker. She's also an amazing artist.
Read MoreI Said Hearken /
"Your cousin, Becky Tillett, is also completely intriguing. I can't help but think that you two spur each other on? She has some drawings on her site that are completely there, and I'm thinking you might help her with that and she might be your best critic, or something? Whatever the mix you have, it's working magic... Becky clearly has a highly-refined eye for image and concept... her color sense is sublime, and her sense of style is also unique, honest and striking. The honesty is what captured me... there's a blunt and courageous honesty that you both share, and that's captivating. I can only think you two are the best for each other! Such an incredible family. (yes, I waded through the historic shots on her flickr account - really some extraordinary people you hearken from!). And yeah, that's right. I said hearken. But it was in parenthesis, so it's more like thought. It's not like I would say hearken in daily conversation. But in electronic pseudo-conversation, it's fine. I hope." —John Foerster
Read MoreMeet April /
I recently acquired a new tattoo, a cover-up of my very first tattoo I got at the age of 18 which was a crappy little fairy. My friend and tattoo artist Shanna inked it on me and my cousin Cassie drew this one up for me. Isn't she adorable? I think I've decided to name her April. To see more of Cassie's outstanding illustrations, visit her website: http://cassie-dixon.com/ and to see some examples of Shanna's work visit the Pens and Needles Facebook page.
Read MoreDaydreaming Magazine /
I'm in this month's issue of Daydreaming Magazine. Once you get through the splash page, just click on April. And please be sure to check out the other artists in that issue...most of the work is illustration or mixed media and I'm thoroughly impressed with it.
Read MoreThe Words (book project/no. 2) /
The words, the words trickled up from my throat
chitchaty insects careful not to misquote
declaring out loud what I’d previously wrote
The words, the words trickled up from my throat
The words, the words escaped from my mouth
dripping with moisture after the drought
like a companionless intentional crane flying south
The words, the words escaped from my mouth