One for the kids!

For the August issue of Better Homes & Gardens I got the opportunity through the Style/ Fashion section of the magazine to meet and work with Karen Kimmel who is a L.A based Artist and also Teacher. Karen has had a prolific career as a conceptual and installation artist, yet she is also a mother of two which may have inspired her to start a new venture — Kimmel Kids, a line of educational tools and toys aimed at getting children and their parents involved in making art. The Exchange Collection, one of her first efforts, is a set of laser-cut plastic stencils, neon pencils and a coloring book, all packaged in a stylish zippered canvas case that you can buy to make a start, see www.karenkimmel.com

Karen has been stressing the importance of creating art and helping kids make "some sick stuff" from California to New York, setting up workshops in which the kids and parents can create.

For our shoot we wanted to emphasize the marriage of art meets kids, Karen kindly shipped over some the rugs she had been working on for an exhibition, collaboration with kids that acted as colorful islands on a very white backdrop. Using her stencils I had the idea of adhering them to the wall in a graphic and simple way, we also used an all white easel, that we had painted white and white chairs, stools and a saw horse table with the materials Karen uses to create in her workshops. 

The story was shot once again by Fashion Photographer, Perry Hagopian, www.perryhagopian.com. You can see him pictured here on set. Mykl Cummins my assistant seen packing up here along with Jeanne Lurvey (not shown) did a fantastic job of helping me. You can also see my sketch created to help the team at Better Homes & Gardens’ understand my initial vision for the set, Usually I stick pretty close to the sketch allowing some wiggle room for things to change, as they always do! : )