With Mariah Huq of “Married to Medicine”

We were about halfway through a shoot with Mariah Huq last week when everyone involved sort of realized, it just wasn’t working.  Who was to blame?  Hair? Makeup? Styling? Hell, I’ll even take the blame and say it was the photographer’s fault.  But does it matter?

My father was a bricklayer.  He could absolutely guarantee that he could make a perfect wall or staircase each and every time.  I’m an artist and there’s an element of what I do that isn’t under my control.  Shouldn’t periodic failure be expected?  If art were something repeatable, Michael Jackson would have made another “Thriller” instead making “Invincible”.

Often, my team and I create something beautiful. Something amazing.  Something that is greater than what we put into it.  Other times, as was the case with Mariah last week, we put our 100% into it, and the art we create is less than our skill and our dedication to the task would suggest it should be.  And at that point, its best to do as we did -cut our losses and call it a day. 

The shoot has been rescheduled for next week were we will once again try to control that which no one can control -the creation of art.